Her Story
About Jessica
I started my career journey step by step, beginning with a vision of working in the financial district in New York. Coming from a low-income family where education wasn't really part of the conversation, I was around 18 years old when I printed out resumes and went up and down Broadway handing them out until I came home with a job as a receptionist making $10 an hour. I had only had two jobs before that - one in a donut store and one in a retail store. From there, I worked my way up through different roles: executive assistant, office manager, payroll specialist, and beyond. I really learned each part of HR as I kept going up. Initially, I was going to be a teacher and had almost finished my student teaching, but because I was in the corporate environment, I decided to get my business degree instead. I got my BA in business, my MA in Human Resource Management, and now I am a doctoral student. I've had the privilege of working with two startups and building the HR infrastructure from the ground up. After my first startup closed due to COVID's residual issues with supply chain problems in wireless telecom, I found myself without a job. Coming from corporate world and then a startup, it's hard to get another job - you're either overqualified, underqualified, or you don't have the credentials they're looking for. So I decided I could do this on my own, and I founded my consulting company in the summer of 2023. I'm the oldest of my siblings, and for a family who never had a college graduate, I am the first to finish college. No one in my family has owned their own business, so I've broken those barriers.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Jessica
01What do you attribute your success to?
I would say grit, resiliency, and perseverance. I'm the oldest of my siblings, and for a family who never had a college graduate, I am the first to finish college. I'm not the last - my sisters are in college, my daughter's in college - so I really broke those barriers. No one in my family has owned their own business, so that's another barrier I broke. I continue to reach because there's no limitation to where I can go. I have a vision, and I know I want to set a great example for my family, for myself, and to represent my culture.
02What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
In terms of being a woman business owner, when you're in a room, people tend to listen to the male counterpart or the male professional over a woman - that's something I've experienced. Also, the market for HR is quite saturated, especially in a post-COVID world where everybody's becoming a consultant. I've seen people from companies like Coca-Cola becoming consultants now. As the climate of the workforce changes, a lot of people are building boundaries and they're not going to accept mediocre leadership or companies that don't align with their values, so they're becoming consultants. In a saturated world where everyone is going out on their own, it's kind of hard to get through the noise and do those sales because people get different emails every day. You really have to differentiate yourself. I like to do it old school - I like to call people and build relationships and go to networking events. In terms of sales, you have to do a whole bunch of different tactics because not one tactic is going to work for every individual. Everybody is so different.
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