Stephanie Montalvo

I don't quit. I'm very persistent, like annoyingly persistent, and I don't know if that's a good quality or a bad quality, but that's how I make friends too. Whenever I meet somebody that I want to be friends with and I don't feel like they want to be mine, I still bother them until they become my friend. If there's a kind of job I want, I'll apply to every single job that is like that, and I will get denied 100 times knowing that at some point, somebody's gonna give me an opportunity, and then I can prove that I can do it. I just refuse to give up, no matter how many times I get knocked down.

Don't sell myself short. I'm definitely one of those people that's very hard on myself, and when reading job descriptions online, they put a lot of words in there that make you think you don't know what you're doing. In the beginning of my career, I would look at a posting and think, no, I don't have experience, I only have one thing that I know how to do on that list. But people have always told me, you can do it, you've got to stop cutting yourself out. Let them cut you out. Don't do it for them. That advice has been transformative for me because I've learned that I need to give myself a chance instead of eliminating myself before I even try.

I say you're gonna get knocked down a lot, and you can't take it personally. You have to have tough skin, and you have to sell yourself the best you can. Whether you've never had any experience at all, I think as a mother or even as a woman, we all have HR experience. We know how to deal with people, we know how to run schedules, we know how to pay bills, and even though we're doing it at a personal level or for little people, you just have to transfer that and make it marketable into the job interview. That's what I did for a long time. I didn't have experience in certain areas, but with me and my kids, I scheduled all of them, so I can do this for a company too. You just have to sell yourself the best you can with whatever knowledge you already have and not let rejection define you.

Working in corrections is difficult because although I'm a state worker, which is a very good opportunity, a lot of people have a negative view towards corrections. We understand that there are family members and complicated situations, but we are also doing a job, and we're doing our best to make sure that everybody is getting what they need. We're just not the popular pick, and that's a hard reality to face. It's a hard field to be in, and people have their own views with what's going on in the world today. On the opportunity side, where I'm at in central office, I do have access to meeting so many different people who are in important positions, and I've gotten to see the other side of what's going on and all the work that we do to keep things running and going, and it's really inspirational. I've gained perspective that I'm so grateful for, even though it's not where I see myself in the future.

My core values are pretty simple. It's family, and God, and just making sure that every day I spend trying to help people. If I'm not doing something good that's gonna help my community, or my job, or my family, I just don't see a point in doing it. I probably am one of those people that gets stepped on on the ladder because I just refuse to do negative things to other people. I won't compromise my values to get ahead, even if it means I move up more slowly than others. Helping people and staying true to who I am is more important than any title or position.