Sonia Greenhagen

I attribute my success to hard work, hands down. Even when I was laid off, I would work through staffing agencies to do temporary work because I don't like just sitting around doing nothing. I also believe that being able to build relationships at all levels of staff, both personally and professionally, has been crucial to my success. That is something that comes pretty easy to me, but I have a very small core group of people that I can rely on and they can rely on me. I think those two factors, hard work and building strong relationships, have really led to where I am now. Branching out and moving from Connecticut, where I had been all my life, to New Jersey where I know nothing was scary, but I like a challenge and I like learning new things. I am currently working on a couple of AI ventures in addition to having my own company, so it has been a busy time in a good way.

I don't know if I have really received anything that resonated and stood out necessarily. I would say probably just being open, which means being open to building relationships, being open to work that is challenging, being open to the fact that you have now been plunked into a location that you have never been in before and have no idea what is around you. I think just keeping myself open and allowing, if you will, the universe to say, okay, we are going to bring whatever it is into her orbit, and then let's see how she deals with whatever the situation might be. It could be the fact that I moved and I know nobody here, so how am I going to deal with that? Being open to new experiences and challenges has been the most important guidance I have followed.

I would tell them not to give up and to stick up for yourself. I say that because I have been bullied as an HR person, and I could tell you stories that you probably would not believe. I have experienced harassment and all kinds of different things. I would say trust your gut, for one thing, and believe in yourself enough to know what is right and what is wrong. If it is wrong, do not ignore it. Basically, just stand up for yourself, because if you are not going to do that for yourself, nobody else is going to do it for you. It sounds very cliche, but it is really true, and some of the situations I have been put in, I did stand up for myself. However, sometimes that just was not even enough. You would hope it is, but it is not always. But at least I can keep my head up, my chin up, and be like, hey, I tried to do my best. If it is not going to work out, then there is a reason for it.

In my field, I am working on bringing AI into workplaces to assist and support their HR departments because I just got certified as an AI professional. I want to be clear that this is certainly not to take over or for anybody to lose their positions, because I do not believe in that and I do not believe that AI should be even considered in lieu of an actual body in person. I am working on a project partnering with a company who believes in building an actual AI chatbot for a company. There is more to it than that, but that is kind of the nutshell version. So definitely some projects I have going on, and networking is key to get the word out there about these opportunities.

I really like folks who are reliable, first and foremost. It is nice to find people who are hardworking, such as myself, who understand long days. I am a very friendly person, not overly friendly, but I am easy to talk to, so I am told, and again, that kind of goes along with building relationships. But at the same time, from a work standpoint, I am very consistent. People have called me the queen of consistency, so I do appreciate that in folks, typically more at work. And just being a dependable, reliable person overall, that is not mean to people. It is low criteria, a low bar, but not really, because when you get to know me, it becomes a little more complicated.