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A portion of Karen's winning essay:
Originally, my career was propelled by a roadmap that I traced out when I was very young. It was during the second grade of elementary school that I decided that I wanted to become an attorney. Mind you, this decision was not made on a whim. My mom was involved in a car accident the year earlier that left her with permanent scars, both emotionally and physically. The attorney, who represented her case, became a mentor to me. He encouraged me to keep up my studies, congratulated me when I did well in classes, and was the rock I needed during this dark time in my family’s life. For me an attorney symbolized someone who was caring, supportive, intelligent, and whose purpose was to seek order and justice. These characteristics were goals that I wanted to achieve in my career. My educational path was then formed with the intent of one day obtaining my juris doctorate. Officially my career began after graduating high school. At that time, I found a job at a cosmetic counter in a major department store. My goal at the time was to find a job which would be flexible with my college courses and which would allow me to afford my tuition and my living expenses. I was resolved not to take out any student loans during college in order to graduate from college without accumulating a mass amount of debt. I remained at that job throughout college. Working throughout college was not easy. It was quite hard and at times. Often I did not have enough money to pay for the following semester of school. During these times, I would have to take time off from my education to work fulltime in order to save the money for the following semester’s tuition. I did learn a lot during my years in retail. I found that I actually had a good personality and I enjoyed working with people. Some may laugh, but it is a useful business tool. A retail job has requirements such as average unit price quotas, daily sales quotas, units per transactions quotas, and customer log quotas. For me, I noticed there seemed to be a correlation between personal drive and determination in making those quotas. Wanting to be a good salesperson was not simply enough. You had to make yourself a good salesperson by using the education the company gave you and by doing outside homework regarding latest industry trends and competitors promotions. When I finally graduated from college, I decided to stay with retail for a few more years. That decision was based on two factors. The first was because I was physically and mentally burnt out. Working and attending school for the previous six years had gotten the best of me. Additionally I needed time for my own personal growth. The other reason that I stayed in retail was due to a management opportunity that was offered to me. I was recruited by a former supervisor for a co-management position with a new cosmetic division, Victoria Secret Beauty (VSB). The salary compensation was lucrative to someone with or without a college degree. Although the job was not one that I thought I would seek out while attending college the job really taught me a lot. Being a manager in a store is similar to running your own company. There are hiring requirement, budget constraints, sales goals, various reports that must be completed and continuous communication regarding the sores state of affairs within the team and with your supervisors. While working at VSB another opportunity opened up. The company introduced a third party cosmetic brand in store. Based on my qualifications and successful track record with the company my executives promoted me to be the district manager for this line. My job was to get out the name brand of this new line, train the districts on the line, conduct follow up training for all associates, set up store merchandising, attend new store openings, and be innovative on how to sell the brand.
This job was struggling and I put more hours into the position than required. However, I loved this job. Being trusted by my executives to lead this new brand was thrilling to me. There is no hiding when sales figures are involved. Either the company makes the goals or they do not. The more time and effort I placed with building up the brand the better my results. Driving the growth of the business was rewarding and although I was not using the subject matter that I studied in college, I was using other skills especially writing, communication and team building skills to drive my sales results. After staying with VSB for two years I decided to return to school. Retail had many rewards, but I was determined to go back to school to earn my J.D. degree. I took time off so I could study for the LSAT’s and upon their completion I returned to the workforce. This time back to work I sought out a position that would give me law firm experience. I knew that law schools would not look favorable on a candidate whose job experience was retail dominated. Furthermore, I wanted to find out what it was really like working in a law firm. At Greenan, Peffer, Sallander, and Lally LLP, a corporate and litigation law firm in San Ramon, California, I found my opportunity. The firm took a chance and hired me as their corporate legal assistant. I was excited to work at the law firm. Originally my duties included file work, and pleadings, but then graduated to paralegal work. Did I love my job? No. Why? Part of that answer falls into the basic duties required of a legal assistant. As a legal assistant my job was to support the attorneys and not to practice law. Through common day language, I did learn many laws and policies, but something was missing. For me, I discovered that most attorneys spend very little of their time dealing with people. Some of their time is spent meeting clients, but the majority of their time is spent conducting research and preparing documents. Working in the office, I found that I missed the human interaction of dealing with a team towards a common goal. When I was accepted into Santa Clara Law School I was elated. For me I was moving back on the right track to achieve my ultimate career goal of becoming an attorney. Who knew graduate school could be so fun? I can honestly say that I loved law school. The classes were hard, the teaching approach was unique, the standards were extreme, and there was constant pressure to study. Choosing not to work while attending law school was critical for me. Having the ability to concentrate on my school studies without the distraction of work schedules was awesome. More importantly the manner in which the graduate program was set up regarding class sizes, personalities, and content helped anchor me in my determination to do well in classes. Here I was with others of my age, some with law backgrounds, some without, but all wanted to be successful professionals in the legal field. Going to law school also helped with my writing skills especially with the Legal Writing course every First year is required to attend. If you did not like to write, then you had better learn. Everyday there would be a paper that would need to be completed, edited or worked upon, while our Professor tried to strengthen our writing skills. Although I loved the format of law school, something was missing. I did not enjoy the content and thus left after eight (8) months. To this day, I can name off many types of law that I did not want to practice, but cannot name one type of law that I want to practice. It was time for me to throw in the towel and abandon my goal of becoming an attorney. The surprising thing was that making the realization to myself was the hardest decision. Once I made it I was have not looked back once with any regrets. My new career goal also became apparent to me to obtain my MBA and start my own company. When something fits right you just know it. Shortly after departing law school, I once again rejoined the work force. Initially I found employment in the Human Resource department at Monster Cable, Inc. in Brisbane, California.
When I informed my supervisors of my plan to obtain my MBA they decided that an internal job opportunity was perfect for my business growth. The president and founder of the company, Noel Lee, needed a new executive assistant. However, Noel just did not need an assistant for clerical work. He needed an assistant to attend meeting, take meeting notes, travel, and meet and interact with high profile industry leaders. Noel needed a person to be his eyes and ears, to hold an opinion, and someone who was genuinely interested in the growth of the business. Suffice to say I took the job and I loved it. I was involved in every major business meeting from hiring practices to product development to human resources and company finances. Working with the great entrepreneur mind of Noel Lee offered an education that will last a lifetime. Every business decision that I was involved, I could see parallelism with my initial career growth at VSB. At VSB I implemented the decisions of the company that were handed down to me and the goals that were handed down to me. At Monster Cable, I was able to see the fruition of how every business decision are determined and then watch as those goals pass down the chain of command. Noel and I had a great working relationship and he was always one of my best cheerleaders for promoting me to return to school in order to pursue my new career path of opening my own company. Although my career growth has veered off path at times, I would not be the person I am today had it not been for those detours. I am more mature, more confident, more comfortable interacting with people, and more comfortable working in an office setting solo or with a team, as well as comfortable building talent, and recruiting for talent. I do believe that I have been exposed to many situations that someone who has had longevity in one career path may not be as fortunate to see. In terms of alignment with my short-term career goals, I seek upon completing my MBA, to obtain an executive position in a marketing department at a major cosmetic firm. This short-term goal is for my development growth for which I may piggyback the information learned when I branch out on my own. In the end, my long-term goal is to open my own company. This business will focus on the industry that I truly enjoy, the beauty industry. It is my goal to open up my own line of cosmetics and begin with stores located in Central Coast. Based on the company’s success, I will branch out and open boutique stores in major western metropolitan cities starting with San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle. The company is to be chic, hip, and offer medium priced cosmetic products for the demographic age group of men and women ages 24-58. Ultimately, to have this brand in major department’s stores would be the coup d’etat. It will take drive, determination, and hard work. However, when you love something the work is fulfilling in itself.
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