Category: Career Focus Interviews

Steph Nelson, a City + Regional Planning graduate from the University of Pennsylvania, School of Design, works with the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments in Monterey, CA.  Located an hour and a half south of San Francisco, Steph talks about accepting a fabulous job in Transportation and Regional Planning while  balancing work with her other life interests.

“Career Focus” is a series of interviews with young professionals exploring different professions and their journey from academia into the working world. Previous interviews have covered Project Management at BACR, Sports Medicine, and Web Development and Technology Consulting.

(Santa Cruz image from Surfing Cal)

What do you do? What is your title and area of profession?

I am an Associate Planner with the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments, the Metropolitan Planning Organization and Council of Governments serving Santa Cruz, San Benito and Monterey Counties, just south of the SF Bay Area.

My focus is on land use and transportation planning at the regional level within the context of SB 375. I have a variety of responsibilities including modeling, GIS work and design work as well as quantitative analysis, project management and grant writing. We are a small agency, so I generally have a wide variety of tasks and projects that I’m involved in.

What is your education and background? What was your area of specialty at school, and how did that take shape over the year(s)?

I have master’s degrees in Government & Political Science as well as City & Regional Planning, the latter earned in 2009 at the University of Pennsylvania. I also have experience in political organizing and non-profit project management.

Initially I was interested in transportation planning. The more I learned about trends in the field, however, the more I became interested in the nexus between land use and transportation planning.   In grad school, I also became increasingly interested in urban design. Ultimately, I sought to weave together a land use, transportation and urban design focus in my program.

Did you do any advanced training or graduate work to prepare yourself for this field? If you went to graduate school, how did you make that decision and what was the transition between undergrad and grad. Did you take time off between schooling?

I remember the transition from undergrad to grad as being particularly satisfying. In the words of one of my political science professors, “As undergraduates, instructors assume you don’t know what you are talking about until you prove yourselves. As graduate students, instructors assume you do know what you are talking about.” I loved the transition into a peer relationship with my instructors, many of whom had been my instructors during undergrad.

After graduating from school the first time around, I worked as a political organizer for four years with a particular focus on education policy. During this time I began exploring the field of city planning. However, I was nervous about making a career change – and worried that I would be entering a new field at an entry level all over again. I wondered if my previous professional experience would be taken into consideration.

How did you decide to get into this field? Is there a pivotal moment during school (undergraduate or graduate studies), during an internship, or during a conversation with someone that led you to this area of work?

I don’t think there was a “silver bullet” kind of moment for me. Rather, there were a series of observations I made that both drew me into the field and made me apprehensive. I was apprehensive because, as a political organizer, my values pivoted around socio-economic and racial justice. The field of planning tends to pivot around a different set of values that could be described as more about efficiency of systems, design of the built environment and environmental sustainability.   While these value systems are certainly not mutually exclusive, they are distinct from one another.  However, the more I’ve learned about the field of planning and urban design, the more I realize that it is an excellent fit for my interests, skills and personality, and am thrilled with my career choice.

(Image from Kite Aerial Photography)

In this economy, how has your job search been? What are the hardest or most unexpected aspects to the job-search? Do you have any recommendations to people looking for employment?

I graduated in the Spring of 2009 – definitely an unnerving time to be searching for a job. My approach was to apply broadly with long term goals in mind. I was willing to move to a number of places depending on the job offer. Ideally, I wanted to find the perfect job in the perfect place – a land use, transportation and urban design position in SF.  The offer I took was a land use/transportation/urban design position near SF, and I hit it off with my interviewers, so I accepted the job.

Think about your long term goals but also be willing to make compromises in the short term – as long as you are moving in the direction you want to go in. Gaining experience doing what you want to do, even if it’s not in the place you want to be (the city or the firm) can be a good decision.

Describe your typical daily schedule: what type of activities are you involved in, how many people do you work with, do you travel a lot, how many hours do you put in, are you your own boss, are you reporting to others, who manages your time?

My typical activities may include creating info-graphics for the Blueprint, prepping TransCad model files for a scenario model run, doing some GIS analyses, or working on a project timeline for our Sustainable Communities Strategy.

Our planning staff consists of six people – a Principal Planner, a Senior Transportation Modeler, an Associate Planner and three Planners. We will soon be hiring a GIS Coordinator who will also be a part of our team. We have a couple of other departments as well for a total of 15 or so staff members.

(Image from a recent report by AMBAG)

What are the top 3 things you like or enjoy about your job?

That I get to do both quantitative work and design work, the people I work with, and that I can sit on the beach and eat my lunch.

What are the 3 “lows” of your job – what do you like the least about what you do?

There only two of these, really.

The location, regionally. My personal life roots me in SF, but my office is in Marina (about 2 hours South of SF). I actually live half time in SF and half time in Santa Cruz as a compromise.

Because we have such a new roster of staff (most people at our agency have only been there for several years or less), we are working out some growing pains in terms of roles and responsibilities. As such, we have a pretty fluid work environment which structurally can be challenging to function in at times. It’s a plus in other ways, though, because there are a lot of opportunities to take initiative and work on some exciting projects.

Describe the commute and the amount of time you spend traveling for work (and life):

I drive from my home in SF to my office in Marina on Monday mornings and back on Thursday after work. It’s about an hour and 45 minutes one way.  Monday through Wednesday I commute to my place in Capitola (adjacent to Santa Cruz), which is about a 30 minute drive from my office. Fortunately the drive is gorgeous on both accounts and I can generally get lost in good music along the way.

Let’s talk about transitioning from college to professional work – strategies for success.  When thinking about the transition from Academic/College to Professional/Work life, what took the most getting used to? What strategies did you use to adjust to the differences?

By far, the lack of constant feedback was the most difficult challenge. As a student, everything you produce gets reviewed and graded. That’s what you are paying for–constant attention. As an employee, you may get a review once every 6 months or even once a year. I remember it being very challenging when I first entered the workforce because when I didn’t hear anything from my supervisor I assumed it meant something negative. It required me to become a bit more self-sufficient in evaluating my own work and learning how and when to ask for feedback.

When did you actively begin job searching (while in school or afterwards)? How long did it take to find a job? Did you have a specific direction or area of focus, or did you have a broad search with many possibilities?

I graduated in May of 2009, and began applying in late April shortly before graduation. I was offered and took my current job in June of 2009. I knew to start my job search with a broader approach this time and to not be so quick to dismiss opportunities if they didn’t meet all of my criteria. I figured that I’d rather be working full time moving toward long term goals rather than waiting for the perfect job to come along while not developing my job skills.

How do you define success in the workplace?

Defining success tends to be project specific for me. Most recently, I defined success by the quality of the Blueprint plan I was just working on over the course of the last year and a half.  In terms of modeling or GIS work, if the analytical results provide answers to key questions or help ask even more important questions, I would say that is a success.

For the grants I’ve worked on, success is marked by whether and how much we are awarded. In terms of project management, if we meet deadlines with a quality deliverable, I consider that a success. And if I can tell that my colleagues and superiors respect my work, I take that as a sign of all around success in the work place.

What does “work-life balance” mean to you, and how do you maintain a work-life balance?

I think that having a work-life balance entails a day-to-day and week-to-week balance as well as a “life decision” balance.

For me, I think this means prioritizing relationships over career moves when it makes sense to do so (but never if it will create resentment).

I also have creative pursuits that drive my life decisions. In fact, one of the reasons that city planning was a field of interest to me was that I saw it leading to a career in this region (or the Pacific northwest), which boasts a music scene that I’ve been itching to work my way into.

What kind of music do you do?

Currently I’m playing synth in a new project called Pony Pony Pony! You can find us on facebook or myspace.  Someone described us as Bauhaus with a beat, which I find to be amusing not because of an interest in the band Bauhaus necessarily but because I’ve recently taken a particular interest in the Bauhaus movement.

How does the music scene (and having outside of work interests) make you a better employee?

This is a great question! I wish more people asked this one. Creating music with other people requires me to be able to take creative risks, to put my ideas out there and be willing to hear feedback; to think on the spot and to provide both positive and critical feedback to my band-mates. Also, for a project to be successful, each person has to not only manage their own time and expectations but also communicate expectations to each other and hold each other accountable.

What advice do you have for recent college grads and new employees? Any words of encouragement or advice to offer?

Expect to be surprised by your experiences in the workplace.

Neal Mueller, climber extraordinaire and Wharton MBA graduate, is about to start a new job at VMWare in Palo Alto, CA. In this interview, we talk about the importance of tangible goals, creating an identity and vision for yourself, and key insights on being successful in the working world today.

Neal is a Senior Alliance Manager for VMware, a data center company that utilizes cloud computing and virtualization to re-envision the infrastructure behind IT and data management. Prior to working at VMware, Neal worked for Cisco and at a local San Francisco startup, CrowdFlower.

Tell me about what you do, and how you got to where you are today:

I grew up in a small town in Minnesota, called Chaska. After I went to college (at Penn), I worked for a management consulting firm, a venture capital firm, and I was a professional mountain climber.  The experiences of working in management and venture capital put me on the track towards an MBA.

While in graduate school,  I started hearing about this thing called ‘virtualization,’ the process by which you can run multiple applications on a single server by ‘virtualizing’ the hardware. It’s a very ‘green’ technology, being able to run multiple processes on one system. I joined a group at Cisco and VMware and met some of the smartest, coolest people I’d ever met.

Why do you do what you do?

I like tangible goals. I like knowing when I’m done. In tennis and golf – you don’t know when you’re done; you can always do more, play another match, golf around round. With climbing, you know when you’re finished. When you row, you can set a specific goal.  A certain distance, or a place to get to. In business, I like the work that I do because I have a very tangible, specific goals that  I like to accomplish.

When did you come up with the concept “tangible goals”?

I came up with this concept about two years ago, to describe what it is that drives me.  I wanted a better answer to the question, “Why do I climb?” and I needed to put into words what motivates me.

If you can figure out — and put into words — what motivates you as a person, then you can pick better goals, and figure out what things are in line with your goals.

When thinking about the transition from the academic world to the professional/work life, what took the most getting used to? What strategies did you use to adjust to the differences?

The hierarchy of the working world was new.  In school, you only have one professor, and that’s the person you go to when you have questions or want feedback.

In work, you have a bunch of people above you, so you have to figure out who you’re supposed to talk to when, when you should manage up, and how to figure things out across teams.  The dynamic of overlapping managers and organization systems can be much more difficult to navigate.

Also, as you progress through your career, you begin managing teams and other people. In school, you’re not managing anyone – you don’t have to learn management skill sets. That takes time to learn.

So, what are your tips on management?  How do you match the right tasks to the right people?

I like to find what makes people happy.  For me, if you give me a tangible goal and let me run after it, I’m happy.  Some people really like to be left alone; some people really like to work in teams, and other people really like direction.  Find out what people like to do, and then you can find work for them to do. Finding work for them to do in a way that makes them happy is really important.

This also goes back to the previous point about individual motivation: finding out what you, as a person makes you happy is very important and one of the most important things you can do as an employee. If you don’t know what you like to do, or what motivates you, how can your manager best work with you and for you?

What are the most important things for building good teams? And being a great leader?

Get good people. There is no substitute for really great people.

Lead by example. If you want your employees to come in early,  come in early; if you want them to work hard, work hard, and so on. The best thing you can do for people, if you want them to produce high quality work, then produce high quality work yourself.  And show it to them.

Also, have the highest hopes but no expectations. Be hopeful and encouraging, and don’t be disappointed in people when they dont’ fulfill your every desire. As an employee, it’s much better to work for someone who is always encouraging and hopeful about your potential, rather than someone who is constantly disappointed in what you do.

What skills and tools that you learned in school have been the most helpful in your current career trajectory? What do you wish you had learned in school but didn’t?

In high school,  I learned there’s a lot out there that I don’t know.  In college, I learned how to read quickly and write well. In business school, I gained a depth of understanding across all functions of business. Previously, I didn’t know about all of the different areas of business, such as accounting and finance, and the fact that I know about them now means that I can be a well-rounded manager.

Also, I met with people from entirely different backgrounds than me, but who wanted to go in the same direction as me – to build companies and be leaders. Ex Navy Seals, a guy who fired 100 people in his final year at DHL, and me – a mountain climber, we all wanted to go to the same place. I realized that there are multiple ways of getting to your goal – and that it’s okay, there isn’t one path to get you there.

Any tips on finding a job in this job market?

This economy is kicking ass – it’s becoming a great time to look for a job. Lots of things are starting up.

What have been the most important assets in your job search?

Building a great reputation at the places I worked previously. Working with great people, and building good relationships.  If you put pennies in the bank, you’ll always have a job.

Literally or metaphorically speaking?

Both, I suppose. Metaphorically, if you build a great reputation and do good work, you’ll always have work. Also, for the year that I was between jobs and working with start-ups, having savings to live off of takes the financial pressure off of needing to work, and lets you search for great places to work.

If you had to do anything differently, what would it be?

If I had to do it all over again, I’d do it the same, except that I’m too far away from my family and I love my family. My sister’s in Denver, my other sister is in Louisiana, and my mom is in Minnesota.

What are some words of advice you would give to new people and young employees?

Be consistent – if people know what they can expect from you, you’ll be much easier to work with.

It’s okay to set parameters or have requirements (but not too many requirements). For example, if you don’t work on the weekends, don’t work on the weekends, and make sure to tell everyone this.  Same goes for if you don’t like working late in the evening, or if you like to be left alone in the morning. Be clear about what works for you and doesn’t work for you, and make sure to tell your co-workers about your preferences.

Also, nothing replaces long hours. Sometimes you just have to work and get the work done; sometimes you have to pull all nighters. No one is as well prepared as the person who didn’t sleep the night before. Sometimes I produced the best stuff from 2 to 4 in the morning.

And lastly, be a fun person to work with. If I had to choose between the smart person who’s miserable to work with, or the somewhat-smart person who’s very fun to work with, I’d pick the fun person five days a week.  People who are easy and fun to work with, excel.

Do you have any great mottos that you live by?

“It’s not an adventure until something goes wrong.”

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“Career Focus” is a series of interviews with young professionals exploring different professions and their journey from academia into the working world. Previous interviews have covered Project Management at BACR, Sports Medicine, and Web Development and Technology Consulting.

This interview delves into the world of Chiropractic Medicine with Johanna Lelke, DC, of Innersport Chiropractic in Berkeley, CA. Johanna earned her Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. While contemplating an advanced medical degree, she learned about chiropractic medicine and “took the plunge” in starting and creating her own practice with Innersport. In this interview, we talked about the risks associated with starting your own practice – and how perseverance, determination, and a passion for your career choice are key components for cultivating a successful career.

What did you study in school and how did that lead to your current profession?

I earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology from University of Massachusetts, Amherst. I spent two years post-grad working in a prestigious neurogenetics lab in Boston, enjoying the twenty-something lifestyle that the city offered. I was exposed to chiropractic in my final year of undergrad, and then took the time to investigate the profession while I worked in Boston.

Tell me more about Chiropractic: how did you decide to get into this field?

Chiropractic is so specialized, unlike traditional Western medicine, that I had to commit to it before the program began. That’s what felt hard at first, thinking that I had limited myself in some way. In hindsight, I am hardly limited as a chiropractor. I get to run my own business, continually develop my clinical skills, and work at the art of the doctor-patient relationship.

Did you have any doubts about having to select your career path before you gained experience?

My doubts did not not outweigh my convictions in choosing this particular career path. Very well-intentioned friends suggested I consider physical therapy or genetic counseling, but these careers lacked opportunities for autonomy and directing my own business. Although I had no experience working inside a chiropractic office, my science laboratory work experience had shown me which path I did not want to pursue. My enthusiasm made up for what I didn’t know about working inside the chiropractic world.

What does your typical daily schedule look like?

I treat patients three half days and two full days a week according to my self-directed schedule. At most, there are 5 other practitioners in my office at once. Each of us has our separate business entity under the same roof, also called independent contractors. When you run your own business, “office hours” are really 24-7. You’re always networking and building relationships with potential sources of referrals. There is an incredible overlap between personal and professional life. For example, as an avid climber I train at the gym a few times a week. I’m always meeting fellow climbers and athletic folks who have nagging injuries, even though I’m not directly marketing to them. The same goes for my running club.

What was the transition like between undergrad and graduate school?

I made the work force to grad school transition when I was 25. I admit, around age 24 I read Quarter Life Crisis! The transition was hard, but not impossible. The program eased us into 1st Quarter coursework like children into the Gingerbread House. There were multiple layers to adjusting to my grad program: transplanting to a West Coast city when all I had known was Massachusetts for 25 years; developing new friendships and romances; and the increasingly demanding work load of a full-time job plus evenings and weekends of studying.

When did you actively begin job searching (while in school or afterwards)? How long did it take to find a job?

I started in my 11th quarter to investigate job opportunities. I learned through colleagues that you rarely get paid well as an employee chiropractor. I knew that starting my own practice as an independent contractor was potentially the lowest-cost and highest-reward scenario. I had a new niece in Oakland, so I moved close by. Luckily, because of a family-friend connection, I was offered an associateship by a chiropractor in Concord, CA. Then, a friend who was searching for chiropractic jobs also in the Bay Area found Innersport for me. And it just fit.

When thinking about the transition from College to Professional life, what took the most getting used to?

This transition is very fresh. The uncertainty of success was daunting at first. But when I started to build a good patient base, my confidence increased. Then the momentum started to pick up, and I got the guts to keep trying new strategies to reach out to your potential clients. You win some, you lose some.

Do you have any specific tips for people with regards to gaining career confidence?

I had questions like: “Can I afford rent every month? Would patients return? Would colleagues in other healthcare fields respect me?” You have to keep in mind that any well thought-out career plan takes these risks into consideration. I looked at the risks and benefits of beginning my practice in this particular set of circumstances and envisioned the best possible outcome. I took action without allowing the doubts to paralyze me, and that’s my experience of how success happens.

What does “work-life balance” mean to you, and how do you maintain a work-life balance?

The balance means maintaining low stress, keeping ample energy for myself, and giving enough to my patients. Fitness and good health are priorities in my life. I combine many fitness and social activities through climbing and running with friends and my sister. I do not hold office hours on the weekends. This creates freedom in my life for taking a climbing trip, going to a new yoga class, marketing at sports events, taking seminars, or just relaxing.

You’re very lucky to be able to create your own schedule and, in many ways, be accountable for your own business. What advice do you have for other people carving out their own career paths?

Make friends fast. I’ve learned the hard way that colleagues matter a great deal when you are in charge of your own business and patients. I came to my East Bay community as a stranger amongst other chiropractors and everyone else. I had my first sick day last week, and I was reminded that I lose potential income very fast when I am not present. There are no “sick days” allowed. This is one instance when I need chiropractor friends close by and ready to help out. Luckily, and I really mean that, my Innersport colleague had a few openings in her schedule and that allowed some of my patients to be seen without cancelling on them. You always need a few willing friends in the corner ready to back you up when you need it!

Think back to the moments in the very beginning of your career, before you had the benefit of hindsight. How did you stay positive? What were your strategies for learning and growing?

I continually reminded myself that career situations are temporary. Like most relationships, the one you have with your business is adaptable. I knew that I would give my best effort to build a practice in Berkeley, but I had the freedom to navigate elsewhere if it didn’t steadily grow or if I was unhappy. I never let myself feel like I am trapped in a career situation. I also had many small clinical successes in school and received powerful complements from school faculty, friends and colleagues. Their encouragement had given me a long-lasting confidence boost.

What advice do you have for recent college grads and new employees?

With confidence in your vision, you can accomplish anything. Really.

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To learn more about Innersport, visit the company website. Johanna can be reached at this address for further questions.

“Career Focus” is a series of interviews with young professionals in San Francisco exploring different job fields and professions and the journey from academia into the working world. Previous interviews have covered Project Management at BACR, Sports Medicine, and Web Development and Technology Consulting.

Carlos Almendárez, a 2003 graduate of UC Berkeley, is the Project Director for Bay Area Community Resources (BACR). He oversees 12 after-school programs for San Francisco Unified School District. His passion for sports, education, community involvement, and work-life balance led him to a job that he loves – working with students, people, and sports. In this interview, he talks about finding the career you love, why he chose not to pursue graduate school, and the value experience plays in finding the right career.

What is your education and background?

I’d like to think my story is pretty different. I was born in Los Angeles, California. English was my second language (Spanish being first). My parents were Salvadorian immigrants who came to this country with very little education. I was raised by a single mother and never really met my father.

In college, I studied history with a focus on modern US and Latin American political movements. I took a course from Leon Litwack, a Pulitzer Prize winning professor, who inspired me to pursue History as a major.

Tell me more about the company that you work for and your field of expertise.

Bay Area Community Resources (BACR), founded in 1976, promotes the healthy development of individuals, families and communities through direct services, volunteerism and partnerships in the San Francisco Bay Area. My area of expertise is in management of after-school programs. I am involved in hiring of staff, staff development, grant writing, program development and technical support for after school programs.

How did you decide to get into this field?

In high school I was driven by my desire to be a lawyer. I did all the things I thought a lawyer should do – I was on the speech and debate team in college and had an internship at the District Attorney’s office in Los Angeles.

My sophomore year, I needed a few units and saw a sign for a mentoring program at a nearby middle school in Berkeley that needed volunteers. This was my solution. I was a part of the Youth Support Program (YSP) until I graduated in 2003. After my time at YSP it was clear to me that I LOVED working with students and derived great satisfaction from helping others, especially low-income and academically at-risk students.

One thing that always helped me stay out of trouble as a kid was sports. I played soccer, basketball and football as and stayed out of enough serious trouble to do well in school. My goal was to provide an outlet for inner city youth through the one thing I loved: sports.

What was your first job out of college? How did you end up at BACR?

My first job out of college was a reflection of who I was. I decided to combine the two things I loved the most: working with youth and sports. I signed up to work with a non-profit organization called Sports4kids (now called Playworks). Playworks is a “national nonprofit organization that supports learning by providing safe, healthy and inclusive play and physical activity to schools at recess and throughout the entire school day.”

How did the job search in college compare to your peers?

As a college grad you have so many options and so many questions to ask yourself: Do you want money? Do you want a title? Do you want to be fulfilled? Figuring out what job led to what was difficult. I went into the nonprofit world knowing I wouldn’t get paid much. but convinced I would love every day of it. I did and I have never looked back.

A rigorous college education taught me to work well under pressure, to multitask, and also gave me the ability to look beyond what is obvious. While the nonprofit world is motivated by passion and caring, a solid college education will help you advance in your career.

Did you do any advanced training or graduate work to prepare yourself for this field?

While I’m an educator, I chose to not pursue graduate school. For one, I felt the cost was prohibitive given the profession I am in. Had I gone into law I could have justified the expense given the income, but in the nonprofit sector I couldn’t see spending $50,000 for a year of school when my income wouldn’t support such an expense. I also realized that experience is much more valuable than a degree in my particular setting. My goal was to learn from very able mentors and rise through the ranks. I tend to believe that our generation is overeducated and under-experienced.

What does your job look like on a daily basis? What do you “do”?

The beauty of my current position is that the “box” does not exist. I am constantly looking for ways to improve program, help staff or troubleshoot problems. Since I work with 12 schools and many partner organizations I could be in a meeting at SF State or Berkeley or on opposite sides of town on any given day.

I directly supervise 12 full time staff and indirectly oversee 70 part time staff. I work about 50 hours a week, but have the flexibility to have some of those hours be on the weekend and in the evenings when need be.

I’m a multi-tasker so I enjoy the idea of being at many places and not having one day look like the other. For the most part I manage my own time. Personality-wise, I have never been the type of person that enjoys being told what to do. The best work environment for me is having a knowledgeable and supportive supervisor who believes in my judgment and ability and lets me produce without micro-managing.

What is unique about your job that you didn’t otherwise anticipate while in school?

My career is different than my educational experience in that UC Berkeley was a very competitive place and the nonprofit sector is not. I actually think this is a downside to the nonprofit sector – a lack of competition and corporate-style execution. I have encountered many nonprofits that are far too nonchalant in their operations and I feel could benefit a bit from an increased sense of urgency.

Is there anything you wish you had learned about your field while you were in school?

I recently read an article that discussed how schools help to think about money and prestige upon graduation. That was certainly the case at my school. Senior year people sat around discussing the firms they were going to work for, signing bonuses and things of that nature. I don’t think the school or the culture really forces to students to think about quality of life and impact we have on our community. I was confident that my work would make me happy and at the same time help others around me.

What are your favorite things about your job?

For starters, I love waking up and knowing that my work will help improve the community. I love knowing that I work for an organization that is supportive of me and allows me a work/life balance which allows me to pursue my hobbies and spend time with my friends and family. Lastly, I enjoy knowing that our work will help to inspire a future generation of leaders. In all the years I’ve worked in education I’ve seen many students go to college and start to make an impact in their communities. I’m always proud to know that in some very small way I helped them reach their potential.

What does “work-life balance” mean to you, and how do you maintain a work-life balance?

I love this question. Work-life balance means knowing that your work does not get in the way of your happiness. The balance is in knowing you can raise a family, pursue hobbies or be able to execute your job without it having an adverse affect on the things that make you feel complete as a person.

Personally, my job allows me the flexibility to be away on the weekends so I can visit family in Los Angeles, compete in races, travel across the US, and see my family. It’s something I am extremely grateful for and would never give up in exchange for a higher salary.

What advice do you have for recent college grads and new employees? Any words of encouragement or advice to offer?

In my years counseling high school students I would always ask: what do you love to do?

Based on this answer – go in that direction. Don’t sell yourself by pursuing that you are not passionate about. If you love to play sports, work in that field. I loved sports all my life and it brings a lot of happiness to my life and I chose to coach children at the elementary level. I loved inspiring young people to pursue education and every day I find myself creating opportunities for youth to connect with their schools and communities.

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To learn more about Bay Area Community Resources, or learn more about Carlos’ experiences, contact Sarah or visit the BACR website.

“Professional Focus” is a series of interviews with young professionals in San Francisco exploring different job fields and the journey from academia into the working world. Previous interviews have covered Pharmaceutical Consulting, Sports Medicine, and Web Development and Technology Consulting.

This interview, with Brendan Nee and Jed Horne of Blink Tag Inc, focuses on web development, technology consulting, and starting your own company right out of school. Blink Tag is a startup company that specializes in web development, transportation and city planning websites, graphic design, and web consulting.

Brendan and Jed did their graduate programs at UC Berkeley. Following their 2008 graduation, they launched and founded their own company, BlinkTag Inc, departing from the typical career trajectory of Master’s Candidates in City Planning. Prior to their graduate work, Brendan studied Civil Engineering at University of Minnesota and Jed studied in Civil Engineering and Public Policy at MIT.

Let’s start with America’s favorite question: what do you do?

J: Brendan and I are co-owners and founders of BlinkTag, Inc., a small startup that provides technology and web application consulting for public agencies and companies in the fields of city planning, transportation, and real estate.

B: We manage a web development and technology consulting firm that specializes in working with transportation and city planning websites.

Where do you work? Do you have your own office?

B: We built an office on the second floor of a converted Auto Trim shop. It’s a live/work space with a lot of flexibility.

How did you get into this field?

J: I was always pretty good at math and science, and started out college wanting to be a physicist. It didn’t take me very long to figure out that that was way too weird a thing to do, and that I wanted to concentrate on slightly more grounded questions in the field of urban policy. If I had to do it over again or to recommend a course of study to someone with similar interests, I probably would have majored in economics.

B: I have an undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering and a Master’s in Transportation Engineering. I got interested in transportation after working for an airline and traveling all over the world in my spare time.

Did you do any advanced training or graduate work to prepare yourself for this field?

J: I went to graduate school right after undergrad, which was probably a mistake in retrospect, since I dropped out after only a single semester. I think my motivation at that time was the wrong kind: I didn’t know what to do with myself after college aside from continuing on with what I had been doing for the past four years.

I returned to the program two years later, after working in the research department of a commercial real estate firm. What brought me back to school was seeing my hometown of New Orleans destroyed by Hurricane Katrina – I was able to talk my way back into UC Berkeley on the condition that I spend a semester back home researching the rebuilding process, and that research became my graduate thesis.

B: I went straight from undergrad to graduate school: I wasn’t done being a student. Moving to the Bay Area for graduate school was a big change. San Francisco has a lot to offer, great climate, food and lots of interesting neighborhoods. It’s easier to meet people who have technical skills, which has really helped us find great employees and collaborators.

Was there a pivotal moment during school, during an internship, or during a conversation with someone that led you to this area of work?

J: Since age five, I’ve always lived in interesting cities, and I remember doing a segment in my high school geography class on city planning and thinking it was pretty cool. I wish I could say that I am motivated by purely altruistic reasons, but I also find myself motivated by my desire to travel and explore interesting areas to live. A lot of my motivation comes from exploring new cities and new modes of public transportation.

B: I had been doing web development consulting throughout high school, undergraduate and graduate school, so by the time I graduated I knew that working for myself was something I wanted to continue. There seemed to be a demand for websites related to transportation, city planning & real estate so we started a company that focuses on this niche.

Describe “a day in the life” of Blink Tag.

J: There isn’t really a typical work day. I set my own hours and manage my own time. I try to be at my desk by about 10 or 11 AM. (Our office is a live/work loft that we built.) Sometimes will work until 3 AM, but we have lots of breaks in between. At any given time we have probably six or seven active projects, and on most days, I’ll field emails or phone calls from clients.

In our office, aside from Brendan and me, we have two employees who are also there most days. We have a network of roughly fifteen contractors that we work with on a project-by-project basis. Our contractors don’t typically work in our office, although they do come in on occasion. We do occasionally travel for projects (or for fun), and it’s easy to work remotely since most of our work is done online.

B: I’m not a morning person, so I get most of my work done in the late evenings. I get up, check my email, and respond to issues that came in. We email or IM with our consultants and staff on the status of their projects. In our office we have 3-6 people working every day and we’ve got 10 additional consultants that work off site. We typically have 1-2 meetings per week with clients in the Bay Area that we travel to.

I’m my own boss, but I only generate revenue when I’m billing hours so I have to stay focused on the tasks I’m working on and what comes next. I put in 50-70 hour work weeks, but my time is flexible and I like to work in long chunks so I can take a day off as needed.

What are the top 3 things you like or enjoy about your job?

J: First, I like the flexibility. I like most of the projects that we’ve taken on. And I like my co-workers.

B: I like the flexible hours, and that I get to choose which projects to take on and which to reject. Lastly, the opportunity to learn new tasks on the fly: from accounting to marketing to programming – I get to pick up new skills every day.

Describe the types of skills you learned over the past year and things you learned about business that you didn’t already know. Did you have any unexpected moments where you realized how much you needed to learn?

B: I’ve learned negotiation skills, interviewing & HR skills, proposal writing, accounting and project management on top of the actual skills I use to do my job. For technical skills, I’ve worked on iphone app development, google maps API, ruby on rails web applications, flash development, and learned a great deal about PHP, javascript, HTML/CSS and the wordpress framework.

I was able to learn this all gradually as our business grew and different types of projects and challenges appeared, so it I was never really overwhelmed. It’s important to always be learning new skills.

J: I’ll second Brendan – my approach has always been that I can pick up the technical stuff as I go along, and the business side is something I don’t think I could have learned in any other job. I don’t know if there was a single “aha” moment, but you wind up learning a lot of little things every day.

What are the 3 “lows” of your job – what do you like the least about what you do?

J: I don’t like the fact that I’m “on the job” more or less twenty four hours a day. Sometimes I wish I had a manager – I’m not that good at organizing my time. And third, sometimes I don’t leave the house for a day at a time.

B: First, hiring – it’s pretty time intensive to find new staff & consultants, we try to hire through our social network when possible. Second, the work overload: since I’m in charge if we get really busy I’ve got to put in the hours to sort through all of the issues and assign them to staff. Third, the uncertainty – It’s up to me to keep projects coming down the pipeline to keep myself and my staff employed.

When thinking about the transition from Academic/College to Professional/Work life, what took the most getting used to? What strategies did you use to adjust to the differences?

B: It was a pretty smooth transition for me. It was important to keep up ties with my colleagues from school to stay up to date with potential contracts, employees & happenings in our field.

J: I found academic work to be really frustrating in a lot of ways, in part because there wasn’t a clear link between the work I was doing and a “product” to be delivered to a client. The biggest difference for me, which I think ultimately resulted in a positive change in my work habits, was the switch to a mindset where I was doing things for a particular reason and that I needed to organize my work in a way that would quickly and efficiently solve a specific problem.

I also think it’s hard for some people to understand that their time is valuable, particularly if they’re coming from an academic setting where they are encouraged to think more and do less. Aside from diving right into a client/consultant relationship, I don’t know a good way to make that adjustment – some people are better suited for academia, and some for the workplace.

When did you start thinking about your post-education career? How long did it take to find a job?

B: I started thinking about it halfway through grad school. I pursued my interest and considered jobs later.

J: Honestly, I didn’t do much thinking about it. I’ve never been much of a strategic planner, and the fact that my buddy from grad school wanted to work together on building our company was a really easy transition, and the whole thing more or less just happened.

How do you define success in the workplace?

B: I’m able to set goals, number of hours billed and number and type of projects completed. We’re now able to be pickier about the types of projects we take on.

J: That’s one of the issues I have with working alone – it’s hard to set clear goals for yourself, particularly as a new company that will more or less take any kind of work to stay in business. Over our first year in business, however, we were able to develop a client base that was increasingly interesting to us and to build a network of contractors, and I’m more proud of developing our business than I am of any particular project we worked on.

What does “work-life balance” mean to you, and how do you maintain a work-life balance?

J: I’m not really sure how to answer this question, because I think I’m at a transition point in my life – I’m just now starting my career, and I don’t have a family to take care of. I don’t yet have a clear sense of where I should draw the line between “work” (what I do to make a living) and “life” (other things I have going on), or necessarily how to balance them correctly. I guess I haven’t really yet figured out how I should set my priorities.

B: I work from home so work and non-work blur together. However, I get to be flexible with my schedule, so I try to do interesting, fun stuff when I’m not working, and get work done when I’m not doing anything particularly rewarding entertaining. Since I can work from anywhere, it’s pretty easy to get an hour in here and there. I try to work outside the home office at least one day a week, there are a bunch of good coffee shops to work in nearby.

What advice do you have for recent college grads and new employees? Any words of encouragement or advice to offer?

J: Don’t go to grad school right out of college. Also, don’t do something you don’t like just because you think you have to.

B: Consider working for yourself, start taking on projects while still a student to build your portfolio, experience and confidence. It’s not really that hard to start your own business. Maintain ties to your academic colleagues.

Would you recommend the same path to other people? When do you think is a good time to begin job searching or career planning?

B: I’d recommend considering working for yourself if you are self motivated and don’t mind learning the business administration skills required. The payoff in flexibility greatly outweighs any negatives.

J: My mother always told me I have until I’m 35 to find a career, and I think she’s probably right – I don’t see any really good reasons to start out with a big company or on a clear career track until you’re ready to do so. I think a lot of people forget that, assuming they come from a supportive family, they really can afford to take more risks when they’re young than they might think. Starting a business was certainly a risk, but the types of things I’ve been doing would have been out of the question if I had grabbed the first job that came to me as a twenty-one year old.

Most people have a very narrow definition of “career planning” – I don’t see it as a formal process, but one of experimentation and self-evaluation that takes less “planning” than I imagined coming out of high school. I would suggest doing as many different types of things as possible when you’re young, and a great way to do this is to start your own company where you get to set your own rules.

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“Career Focus” is a series of interviews with young professionals in San Francisco exploring different job fields and professions.

This interview delves into the world of Primary Care Sports Medicine with San Francisco’s own Rowan Paul, M.D. Rowan is a graduate of Brown University and Albany Medical College, and did his residency at Stanford University and a fellowship at the University of Utah. Today, he works as a Primary Care Sports Medicine Physician at California Pacific Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine (CPOSM) in San Francisco. In this interview, Rowan describes his experiences searching through medical specialties through volunteer work, fellowships, and graduate studies. His words of wisdom – to search long and hard for the job and specialty that are right for you – are true for all professionals and will resonate with today’s recent graduates and employees.
What prompted your first interests in Sports Medicine?

I have always been interested in science and the natural world. I did three years of research at Brown in an amazing bat flight lab studying neuroscience –specifically, the vestibular systems of bats. After many lonely nights alone with the bats, I realized I craved human-to-human interaction, so I started thinking about medicine.

When did you decide to pursue your medical degree? Has it always been a dream of yours, or did it take shape throughout your college years?

I did some clinical research in HIV with intravenous drug injectors between undergraduate and medical school at Brown University’s Miriam hospital – while still deciding if I wanted to be a physician. I did a lot of travelling and medically-related community service at both Mother Theresa’s home for the destitute and dying in Calcutta, India,as well as a school that taught tolerance for children of all castes including the “untouchable caste” in Kathmandu, Nepal. These powerful experiences convinced me I wanted to be a physician.

When you entered medical school, did you know what type of doctor you would become? Or did your ideas change and evolve with your advanced education?

I had an image of a doctor that did a little bit of everything for everyone. I wanted to be able to go anywhere in the world and be able to help people of all ages with all conditions. I also was interested in a field that was rooted in prevention rather than reactive treatment. This led me to Family Medicine and then Primary Care Sports Medicine.

Is there a pivotal moment during school (undergraduate or graduate studies), during an internship, or during a conversation with someone that led you to this area of work?

In medical school I did a rotation in Seattle with primary care sports medicine physician Greg Nakamoto. I realized then that I could combine my interests in preventative health, exercise, family medicine and orthopaedics by becoming this particular type of sports medicine physician.

It’s now been several years since you’ve left academia. What does your daily schedule look like now?

My day involves both clinical work in the office as well as off-site sports medicine. In the clinic I see patients of all ages who are active or trying to be active. They often have orthopaedic, surgical or non-surgical, or sports medicine issues that are hindering their athletic goals. I see everyone from the Olympic-level cyclist who is trying to break through a training plateau or a geriatric patient that is trying to stay active as a cyclist but suffers from severe arthritis.

How many people do you work with? What is your office like?

I work directly with eleven very talented Orthopaedic surgeons at CPOSM and with a family physician, massage therapist and pilates instructor at the San Francisco ballet, along with many assistants. All the doctors are “partners” although our practice is structured as a medical corporation (CPOSM) so I guess technically we are all employees of that corporation. Thankfully, we all have a lot of control of our schedules and vacation time.

What is unique about your job that you didn’t otherwise anticipate while in school? In what ways is your career or job the same or different than your academic experience?

I am not a surgeon, but I am a sports medicine specialist. My patients really enjoy seeing me because I offer a bridge between their primary care physicians and the surgeons. I can offer an unbiased opinion of whether they need surgery or not and if not right away, I can work with them to heal them non-operatively. Most people are hesitant to take a surgical route so I feel I can alleviate their fears and they can be confident that they have exhausted all non-operative routes first before going the route of surgery if appropriate.

What are the best things about your job?

The patients– they are all motivated to get better which makes my job much easier and more rewarding.
The other physicians. We have a great synergistic relationship and they are all fun loving and easy going while being very skilled, prestigious partners. And lastly,the field of primary care sports medicine. It melds my personal and professional interests so work doesn’t feel like “work!”

What do you wish you had learned about your career field while you were in school?

Medical School is a whirlwind with limited time for exposure to all the different types of medicine. As a result, I never had a sports medicine rotation until I found out about it in third year and had to schedule my own elective in it. Also, M.D. school is heavily focused on therapeutic health but I think more of the curriculum should be focused on preventive health. Other countries have more successfully leveraged preventative health focused care in a climate with limited resources.

What are three skills that you learned on the job that you didn’t learn in school?

First, how to navigate through the insurance quagmire that is unfortunately our fractured health care system. Secondly, how to build relationships with referring physicians around the area, and third, how to keep current in my field without being actively taught by attending physicians.

What are the most difficult aspects of your job?

The most difficult thing is battling insurance companies to approve necessary treatments for my patients. It’s frustrating to have a someone with no clinical experience tell me that my patient doesn’t need a potentially life-saving treatment. Also equally frustrating – making sure the medical record of all my patients are complete and accurate. And lastly, the business of medicine. I wish medicine was not for profit and thus strive to give my patients cost-effective care.

When thinking about the transition from academia to work life, what took the most getting used to? What strategies did you use to adjust to the differences?

Taking on the medical risk where previously the universities and teaching attending physicians did. Since the buck stops with me now, I spend more conscious time thinking about risk reduction. I usually try and practice medicine justly and try to give full disclosure to my patients so there are few surprises.

How do you define success in the workplace? Are you able to set your own goals?

In medicine, I think that if you can be happy practicing in the field that you want to be in, with your ideal patient population, and with people that you love to work with, while also thriving in your personal life, then you are being successful in the workplace.

That’s quite an accomplishment! Do you feel like you’ve met these criteria?

I feel lucky that I have found all of these things in my first year in practice. My proudest work-related accomplishment is being able to help my toughest patients who have struggled for years to accomplish their active lifestyle goals but have been held back by injury or pain. I get to witness the chain reaction of improved health, mood, and productivity that comes from working in Sports Medicine.

What does “work-life balance” mean to you, and how do you maintain a work-life balance?

Medicine can be a vacuum of a career where the hours and energy that it demands can tear apart your personal life and really change you as a person. I vowed never to let this happen to me. I purposefully picked primary care sports medicine because I can integrate my personal interests with my career interests with far fewer hours per week than many other specialties. I find that I come home invigorated by my job helps me maintain a healthy lifestyle. In addition, I am able to bring my personal interests in an active, balanced lifestyle for preventative health into all my encounters with my patients. I believe it makes me a stronger physician and helps me lead by example with my patients.

What advice do you have for recent college grads and new employees? Any words of encouragement or advice?

Don’t feel pressured into medicine. Search deeply within yourself by doing activities such as volunteering in many different medical settings that can help you decide if medicine is right for you. Only start medical school when you are energized and really ready. You will get much more out of the experience and enjoy it much more. If medicine is the right fit for you it can be one of the most rewarding careers.

If you do go the medical route, search long and hard through all the different specialties and sub-specialties. Medical school will only expose you to a precious few yet you are expected to know which one is right for you. Do elective rotations to expose you to any you are interested in, even if they are only a few days long. It is an important decision that can make or break whether you have a happy rewarding career or a miserable one.

Lastly, don’t feel pressured by those around you to go into a certain field medical or otherwise. In the end, it is you who have to go to work every day. Your field and specialty has to be a great fit for you. Picture yourself 30 years later. Can you see yourself LOVING your job still? If not, it may not be the right choice for you.

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“Career Focus” is a series of interviews with young professionals in San Francisco exploring different job fields and professions and the journey from academia into the working world. Previous interviews have coveredPharmaceutical Consulting and Web Development and Technology Consulting.