Her Story
About Isabelle
Isabelle Thomas serves as an immigration specialist at ADP in Frederick, Maryland, where she has worked since August 2023. With three years of experience in the immigration field, she has handled family immigration matters and now focuses on employment immigration as a subject matter expert. In this role, Thomas studies emerging policies, regulations, and proclamations to maintain workforce compliance, ensuring associates hold valid work authorizations and visas. She also supports clients in filing green cards after demonstrating strong performance and initiates the PERM process for permanent residency. Thomas earned her bachelor's degree in political science from Lycoming College in May 2023, graduating cum laude, and maintains active membership in Phi Sigma Alpha, the National Political Science Honor Society, as well as various groups and organizations at ADP. She attributes her professional success to the unwavering support of her family, particularly her parents, who have encouraged her ambitions since childhood.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Isabelle
01What do you attribute your success to?
I honestly feel like I attribute my success to my family, mainly my mom and dad. They have always been very supportive of me since I was a child. My dreams, like, sky's the limit. Whatever I want to do, I can do it. Don't let anyone ever tell you that you can't. They always just push me with going to college. Okay, after college, what's the next thing you want to do?
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
I would say the best career advice I've received from someone was someone telling me to always be adaptable. Always be open to change, to be able to pivot. You may think that you're supposed to go down one path, but then a different opportunity comes, or something happens. Just being always able to adapt, and kind of roll with the punches, and just kind of looking forward to the next thing.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
My advice to young women entering my industry is to talk to everyone, network, make connections with everyone, because you never know where knowing somebody can lead to. If they see an opportunity, go for it 100%. Don't be afraid to take on challenges. Don't be afraid to go for a career that may seem daunting. Nine times out of ten, you probably do have most of the qualifications, so just go for it. Shoot for the stars, land on a cloud.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
There's a lot of opportunity even with the way that the immigration is getting away in new policies coming out, and a lot of jobs have people that need work sponsorship or have work visas or families that need work visas, so it's always an ever-evolving field, it's always changing. With the introduction of AI, there's space to work even more efficiently as well.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The most important value both for work and personal life would be interpersonal skills, just being able to connect, empathize and relate to people, being able to hear their concerns and make it actionable. Even in real life, being able to relate to people, listen to their stories, comprehend it fully, and being able to communicate with people like that is one of the biggest skills I think you can have.
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