Her Story
About Valera
I started in this industry 15 years ago as a customer service agent, and for whatever reason, that company gave me an opportunity to kind of grow in the field. I then became a sales manager at the next company I worked for, and the ownership pair really gave me a lot of room on the leash, so to speak, to really grow my leadership skills and my development skills for the business in general. I have no formal education - my parents had a lot of drug problems when I was growing up, so I've lived on my own since I was pretty young and kind of figured it out. I didn't finish high school, but I got my GED when I was of age to do that. My husband and I have been together since we were teenagers, and we had our first two children very young. It wasn't until they started school that I started really thinking, what could I do for me to grow myself and develop something and develop a career? It really is just dumb luck that I ended up getting that job in customer service in the traffic field, and it just all came from there. I just fell in love with the industry, fell in love with the people, and there's no other job I would ever want to do. I love doing it so, so, so much.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Valera
01What do you attribute your success to?
I think just a really strong desire and drive to succeed. Growing up in the environment that I did, as much as I love my parents and I have a great relationship with them, their issues with addiction really affected how I viewed the world. I was a child who had a lot of neglect in my life, and I had to kind of be self-sufficient. And even though there's downsides to that, obviously, there's upsides too, which is, I learned that if you can count on yourself and work really hard, you can achieve anything if you put your mind to it.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I ever received was follow your gut, follow your instincts, and don't let outside noise or influence change your path too much.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say, understand that there is a really valuable spot for women in this industry. I want to say the latest statistic I saw was it's like 17% of the road construction industry is women. There's great money, great job security in doing this, so women should not rule out this field as a male field, because there's absolutely a place for women here.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I would say the real answer is that a lot of companies are being purchased by private equity, and there is just a lot of money behind private equity, obviously. It can make it a little hard for a smaller business to compete with them, but the service model for private equity is terrible. Honestly, people like me who've done sales, they don't want to work for those companies, because you can't provide the level of service you want to to your customers. So, it's kind of just a weird spot to be in. It's like David going against Goliath a little bit, but you've got the doing the right thing on your side, but man, they're a giant.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I think that I really value trust in building relationships. I think that the industry that I'm in, and I'm sure probably most industries, that's the most crucial thing. You have to do what you say you're going to do, and you have to do that 100% of the time. It's important to me for the people that I work with to know that they're gonna come through for me, and I know that my customers feel the same way.
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