Miguel Sanchez Robles 0:00

welcome to the first Gen 1 0 1 podcast. Today we are with Katie Leiva. Katie, thank you for being here today.

Katie Leiva 0:08

It's my pleasure.

Miguel Sanchez Robles 0:10

today's episode focuses on career growth, networking, and professional development. For seasons three of the First Gen 1 0 1 podcast, we are talking to people who've had experience in different areas, and I thought Katie would be a great person to talk about these topics. But before we dive into those, Katie, tell us about your background and your experience as a first gen.

Katie Leiva 0:36

Sure. My parents were born in Cuba. They came here in their teens. My mom was 13 when her mother came with just my mom and her brother. And they put her in high school because she was tall. They didn't ask how old she was, what grade she was in, and, I love telling her story, which is that, you know, all the classes were in English except math. And that, you know, she recognized the math and she ultimately became a math professor. And my dad came here at college age to the United States. Actually met my mother back in Cuba during a summer break. And they then transfer to her college a a year later. Anyway. Grew up in North Carolina they ended up in North Carolina because in my mom's little town of Holguin Cuba, there was a Quaker professor, missionary, whatever, I'm not sure what they call it, but he had a friend's meeting in her village and so she grew up Quaker, which is unusual in Cuba. You usually grow up Catholic. But there was a Quaker college here in North Carolina called Guilford College, and that's when mom. Became started thinking about what she was gonna do after high school. This person that had been her a, a, a leader in her community and a helper to her family, helped her to find scholarships to go to Guilford College, and that's where she ended up. And so that's how my, my family ended up in North Carolina.

Miguel Sanchez Robles 1:58

Where in North Carolina are you originally?

Katie Leiva 2:01

So I was born in Charlotte, North Carolina. My mom was at the university there for 30 years as a math professor. And I'm in Durham, North Carolina now, which is about two hours away.

Miguel Sanchez Robles 2:13

If I'm not mistaken. I think that area is also known as the research triangle.

Katie Leiva 2:17

yes, yes, it is.

Miguel Sanchez Robles 2:19

I want to hear your college experience because yes, it's true that you've had in this case your mom, who has done very well as a college professor and and career. But I want to hear about mentorships and in previous episodes we talk more about the actual college experience. Today, I really wanna zero in on the life after college because I find that, and I shared this with you earlier, there are many. College students who graduate, finish their degrees, they are having a hard time getting a job. And some might be due to the market, but in some instances might be that they didn't have a chance to develop their networking skills or just have a, a network to, to lean on. what was the process of landing your first job after college?

Katie Leiva 3:08

Well you started to ask a piece of that before about what the college experience was like and about mentors, and you've already heard me mention my mom like three times. Like she's a big part of my story and she's probably first and best mentor I've ever had. Right. And her career was in academia and we had a love of learning. Our whole family was very, had a high value of education and that that was the path for success is to be well educated. So I always knew that I wanted to go to college from very young age. So when I went to college, I went to college just with this love of learning and enjoyed that experience. And then when I was getting ready to graduate, I was like, what will I do next? I was like, well, I'm really good at school and I like school and maybe I should just keep going to school. And I ended up going to graduate school and that followed along with what mom had done. So it seemed like a good progression. So I'm in graduate school and I'm in this PhD track to get a degree in sociology, which was my passion at the time. And I thought I was going to become some kind of professor or a researcher because that's what. People that have PhDs do, in my experience, to date at that young age, and I about two years into it I started becoming a little disillusioned with academia as a. Thing that I wanted to do for the rest of my life. And I thought, what the heck am I gonna do? I don't know. And up until then, during college, one of the things I had done to help to pay for things was to be a resident advisor. And this is the person that lives in the dorm. And you help people when they get locked out and you offer guidance and you're a little bit of the counselor, but mostly you're sort of a leadership role within the dorm. And they paid for my room. And a little stipend, which was great. And so I realized I really like that job and there are deans of student life that do that, manage us. That seemed kind of cool and seemed like, huh, I have experience. There is a path forward to advance. So I started talking to the people that worked in the Student Life office and said, how did you get your job? So you asked about mentorship. These were the my first mentors in my first. Job after college. So these people said, you know, there is actually a professional organization called the Association of Student Personnel Administrators. Really? I had no idea there was such a thing. And sure enough, they were having a conference in Washington, DC a couple of months later. So I signed up to go to the conference. Many of the universities that were represented there were interviewing. For open positions. So I interviewed, I, I made sure I had a resume that was updated. I interviewed all throughout the conference and got a job. So that, my first job after college, I went to Vanderbilt University as the assistant director of, oh, was it a residential and judicial affairs? It was a mouthful of a title. I felt so important and I basically, I was living in a dorm and managing other dorm people, resident advisors. It was a job and I had room and board and I had mentors. I had new deans and new people in student life and student affairs to ask about what was your career path like, how did you end up doing this? And whether or not, you know, then you assess, is this something I wanna do, or am I just looking at them like, well, you're the leaders, you're the next step. So that's what I should be aiming for. And you have to think for yourself, like, do I really want to aim for that? I don't know.

Miguel Sanchez Robles 6:55

stood out to me is this concept of you were good at school, so you continued right in, in, in graduate school and such, but then you realized that you needed to find different career paths after you realize that. Okay. Maybe what I wanted to do is not what I want to do. And I think that's still very common We talked about this earlier. I work in law school admissions and many applicants choose law school because they wanted to pursue a different pathway. Medicine is usually one of those, then they switch and they don't know what to do. What I really want to highlight here also is that you. Asked questions, and that seems very challenging for a lot of people. It's very challenging for me too, is how do I actually approach someone and say, Hey, can you tell me about your job and how to get your job? Did you realize, okay, do I really see myself in, in, in this pathway? Or how did you sort of continue to develop the notion of what I should do next? In other words, so you didn't feel like you were stuck in this role.

Katie Leiva 8:00

That's a great question. 'cause at about that time I met the man that would become my first husband and I was deeply in love and he was in the Navy. We had met in college, he was in the Navy ROTC program. So he had gone off to training officer school and all this stuff. And he was at his first assignment in San Diego and I was in Vanderbilt in Tennessee. So when he proposed. Here I am in this first job outta college going, well, I'm, I, I, I landed a job like this is good and I'm good at it, and then it's kind of fun. But is this a career? Is this what I wanna do when I grow up? I, I don't know, but I do know I wanna marry this guy. So I married this guy. I moved to California, and so then I'm like, now what do I do? And I started applying. For jobs at universities. And at this point I'm aware that there are student affairs and academic affairs and student life. And so I'm like, okay, I got a, a little idea of what I can fish for. And I landed a job as an academic advisor. Okay. And within a few months I had an opportunity to move into the assistant directors at student activities. I mean, I was like in that life thinking, okay, I, I got a, an idea what to do here. But again, did I know that this is what I wanted to be when I grew up? Mm-hmm. No idea. I just knew that I liked being around students. I like being around a learning environment. I like helping people. So, you know, I felt like the right place. I still like that environment.

Miguel Sanchez Robles 9:30

So let me ask you something before we go on.

Katie Leiva 9:32

Yeah.

Miguel Sanchez Robles 9:32

Since, since the moment you graduated college, until this part of your story, about how many years. Is this.

Katie Leiva 9:44

So from beginning of college through the end of grad school is six years, and then one year at Vanderbilt, and now I'm in California trying to figure out what do I do next? And I didn't leave without a degree in that grad school process. I said I was on a PhD track. I did not get a PhD, but I did say to my advisor, how do I. Get a master's out of this. 'cause that was not what I had signed up for. I had signed up for this program. You just do all the things till you get a PhD. And they said, aha, well, we can work with you on this and if you do a thesis and defend your thesis, we'll we'll get you outta here with a master's. So I did that. So yeah, now we're, I'm like 25 married and living in a place that I've never been before thousands of miles from my family and. Thinking that I need to be, you know, in academia somehow, or somehow student life. And about a year and a half later, my husband tells me, well, we're gonna go to the next duty station and we're just decommissioning this ship and it's gonna be six months in Washington state. What am I gonna do for six months? So as a military spouse, I learned. Pretty quickly. You have to find your resources. You have to be creative. You kind of reinvent yourself. If you're, you know, if you need to or want to work, then that's necessary. Keeping an updated resume is your job. And then getting creative about what you wanna highlight as what your skill is. Because at that point I was like, I'm here for six months. You know what I did? I was a dance teacher for six months and I had a blast. It does not go on the resume, but I had a really good time for six months.

Miguel Sanchez Robles 11:29

I think those experiences, they're so important to highlight because, you know, we go to college and we do grad school or we don't do grad school. You know, whatever education we, we do. And I think sometimes we think that once you've completed that process, there's no more learning to do. And what I like about your experience is that being in this constant state of change mm-hmm. If you will, you quickly learn to learn. You mentioned this earlier, this, this love for learning.

Katie Leiva 12:00

Yes.

Miguel Sanchez Robles 12:01

And that's a key thing. 100% to learn. How would you say the in, in this process of, of chain and, and learning to love, did you realize this is going to be. Do I want to continue maybe working in the military, in the Navy, because I know you have some work background there. Did you, how did you land in that type of work?

Katie Leiva 12:25

So I landed in that. Mainly by proximity and familiarity. After years of being a military spouse, I had some familiarity. One of the best resources that I learned was that every base has a family resource center and they don't call them that anymore, but that's essentially what it is. And I remember walking into my first one and they taught classes on how to write a resume. They taught classes on interviewing skills and I took them, 'cause I don't, they don't teach you that in college. And. Along the way, I thought that not only do I love learning and I enjoy it, I thought, well, I should keep getting at least some new credentials or some new degree so that I stay current or something. And I wasn't really sure what that was gonna look like. I started a master's program in counseling at one point, and then realized if I pursue this, I'm gonna deal with depressed people all day. I don't wanna do that. So I just said, Nope. Took a couple courses, enjoyed it, and then moved on, said, that's not what I wanna do with my life. I did the same when I considered getting a certified financial planner certificate, and I thought about what's the end goal with that? And as much as I like learning, I realized that that credential doesn't really advance what I enjoy doing about working with people and their money. Because right now I am a, an accredited financial counselor and I train financial coaches. And to get from the kid who went to Vanderbilt University and lived in a dorm, that was the first job to I trained financial coaches. You, I still couldn't have told you at 21 or 25 that when I grow up, I wanna train financial coaches. No, but what I learned along the way is that I like teaching. I like learning. I like being around other people who enjoy learning and I like helping people and somehow I managed to marry all those skills into, I train people who work with people that help them with their money and help them improve their financial lives. It's pretty great, but it's not at all what I dreamed I'd be doing when I was back in college.

Miguel Sanchez Robles 14:38

You know, that resonates a little bit with my background. So originally I wanted to be a lawyer. I went to college for pre-law. I took the L-S-A-T-I applied to law school. I was admitted to law school. Then things change, and then I started working at the law school in a different capacity. Now working in admissions, but similar to your situation, I knew I, I liked. A higher ed. I knew I wanted to learn. I knew I wanted to be in the law. So now I get to be in a space where I'm not a lawyer, but I get to work with law students in the legal field. Another thing that I want to highlight, 'cause I thought this is really important, is in your different experiences at Vanderbilt, California and then Washington. Something that stood out to me was. That within those areas you discover something about the industry that you didn't know it existed. Like I think you mentioned when you were at Vanderbilt and when you worked at as an academic advisor, you realized, oh my God, there's also, there's like this how would you say this universe of opportunities?

Katie Leiva 15:43

Yes,

Miguel Sanchez Robles 15:44

and I think that's something that people don't always look for is, okay, if I'm in a space. What I really didn't see myself or kind of fell into it. You gotta discover that universe. What would be some tips you can share about how to start thinking about, if I'm in this space and I'm not sure if I should be here, how can I discover what's out there? That

Katie Leiva 16:10

is a wonderful question and I have asked it of other people's and I think I'm still learning. One key thing that was the very first one was find professional organizations of people that do things that interest you. So if you're interested in, I don't know, woodworking, there are probably guilds of wood woodworkers or people that build houses or build sets for theater or what, you know, like there are groups of people of professionals. Get together and share best practices and decide what standards they should live you know, adhere to and all of that, whether it's law or medicine or woodworking or finance, you know, all of it. So I think professional organizations can be a really great place to start. And a, and a easy way to dip your toe in. Like, I attended that conference at 21. I was not a member of the organization. I had not, other than being a resident advisor in college. It was not in the industry, but I could attend sessions and learn about what those people find important to them, what what's, you know, current in their field. And I had the opportunity to interview for jobs. So it was really a win-win for me.

Miguel Sanchez Robles 17:33

I, now that you mentioned conferences, and interestingly, I've been thinking about doing an episode fully on how to make the best of conferences. And since you mentioned a few, and I imagine I'm gonna assume that you've attended maybe some other conferences since just assuming so based on your experience attending conferences. And it just depends right on the conference you attend. Some tend to be very large, like the A FCP symposium, the last time I went there were, I wanna say thousands of people. So it's hard to connect. and then there's smaller ones, like for my for my industry, it's usually no more than a thousand. So it's a little bit easier to connect for someone who's attending a conference for their first time. What are some tips on how to network, how to meet people? How, how would you advise them to, to handle themselves?

Katie Leiva 18:27

Tip number one is sit with people you don't know. Mm. You know, meet new people. Don't miss a meal. Like that's where you meet the people. Mm. Like you can't talk during a a session. That's for learning. Unless there's a guided, a facilitated discussion. And you might be really fascinating, like go introduce yourself to the speaker or the person that made the comment that was really interesting to you. But the meal times are usually. The best networking times or the times right before the general session. When everybody piles in, they're waiting to hear the main speaker of the day. That's the time the chatter happens. And the same thing right after that, before you have to get to your next session. So find those oppor. Don't miss the happy hour. Even if you don't drink. Just show up. There's free food. Be there for that and talk to people. And I'm an introvert. I. I used to say I hate networking. I don't hate networking. It just exhausts me to try to be on and meet new people for extended periods of time. But I have been attending A-F-C-P-E conferences since 2009, and I went for the first time when I had just gotten my a FC accredited financial counselor. For those that don't know the conference, as you say, was really big and there were a lot of people, it wasn't as big as it is now, but. I knew one person going to that conference because she and I had gotten the same scholarship to get this credential. And we were both from the DC area at that time, and we actually did skip one session, but I'll tell you this, here's what happened. She knew lots of people at that conference, and it was in St. Louis. I'm pretty sure this was my first one. It was in St. Louis, and I had never been to the big arch in St. Louis. And there's this. They call it the poster session when you walk around and look at other people's research and they have these posters and they put teeny tiny writing with all their research on these posters, and my friend said, let's go to the arch. We'll be back in in an hour. Like it was really close and she brought some of those other friends that she knew. And so now I have a network of other people with this credential working in different spaces, living in different parts of the country, that we have this shared experience now of skipping a session and going to that art. So I'm not recommending you skip a session, but I am saying meet the friends of friends. Don't just, you know, meet one and be like, ah, I made a buddy. Okay, great. That's your buddy. That you go meet other friends now, like, and then you bring them together at your next meal or your next social event that they have on the schedule. I know I'm getting like in the weeds, but

Miguel Sanchez Robles 21:08

No, I, I like that advice. One of the things that I've learned the first time at the A-F-C-P-E is. I remember I also got a scholarship. It's probably the similar scholarship that they award and they're very generous in that, I have to say. So I got a scholarship, not this year, but last year, so 2024, which The conference.

Katie Leiva 21:30

New Orleans.

Miguel Sanchez Robles 21:30

Yes. New Orleans. Yep. So I was in New Orleans and I met someone who invited me to the conference or, or recommended the symposium that she called. Symposium. Mm-hmm. Yeah. When I arrived, I emailed her and I said, Hey I'm here Jacquie Carroll. And she's also been in the, in the in the, in the podcast. So Jackie tells me, Hey, if you wanna have coffee, we can talk about how to get the A, f, C, et cetera. And she actually helped me get it and gave me some advice. But what really. What really surprised me in a good way was her willingness, and not just her willingness, but the willingness of other people to, to, to wanna help. And I think when people who haven't been on a conference or, or been to one or two and don't feel like they've gotten anything out of it, I think it really. If you put yourself out there in the sense of, of intentionally meeting people, I think that can really go a long way. So thank you for sharing that. I'm glad this came up because this is something that I've been, it's been on my mind lately on, on how to use conferences in a way to really build your knowledge and your network. Mm-hmm. Group of people in your experience working, how, what are some things that you see in students or, or in people that they should be developing or working more, more on? In other words, what is one or two things that you see and you're like, Hmm, they really should be thinking more about this or that and, and I hope that that makes sense.

Katie Leiva 23:00

It does. I think one of the. Things to make sure you're doing if you are new in any position, is a meeting as many people as you can so that not only you know, how the organiz, how they fit in the organization and where you fit into that, but also how you might intersect in your roles. How is my role relevant to this other role? And so as you ask it as a way, like what's the skill I should develop? I think it's trying to see the big picture because sometimes when you start a new role, you're focused in very much on what are the tasks I need to accomplish? What are the skills I need to learn to do this job? Who are the people I need to depend on to make sure I, I'm doing this job correctly? But when you see a bigger picture of the organization and where you fit in it and who the other players are and what they're doing that also support the same mission. You might find opportunities to advance or at least learn something new or collaborate on something that someone else thinks of and says, you know what? Those financial coaches might be able to help us with that. Let's reach out to Katie. And Katie might say, you know what? Those people that try to prevent foreclosure, might you need a financial coach. Let me talk to them.

Miguel Sanchez Robles 24:19

That's helpful. like you said, you're sort of keeping your head down and, and there's this belief and you can tell me your perspective on this, that if I just do my job and do it well, all things are gonna be fine. Which for the most part, right, right. You're there to do a job and you wanna do the best you can. But as you're thinking about advancing and maybe promotions, you also have to keep an eye on the big picture because as you see how these interconnections are happening, you can see opportunities, I guess, right? You see opportunities, yeah. Where you can fill them. What. What does long-term career success look like for you? Now, you've, we've talked a lot about your experience from the time you finish college and grad school and then moving around, but right now in your career, what does long-term career success look like for you?

Katie Leiva 25:11

I think if you had asked me this at 25, I would've said it was, you know, getting promoted to be the. Best of the best and the top of the top and whatever, even though I don't think I would've told you I wanna be a CEO of anything someday, and I still don't. Now to ask me that question, I think the answer is, success to me looks like am I proud of what I'm doing? Am I happy with what I'm doing? Does it fulfill me in some way? And am I still learning? Because if I'm not learning, I'm not growing. If I'm not growing, I'm dying. So that's note to me what success looks like.

Miguel Sanchez Robles 25:51

So on a similar note, as we are coming towards the end of the episode, I'd like to ask these reflection questions, and I think you gave us some hints already. Knowing what you know now, what advice would you give yourself when you started your first job?

Katie Leiva 26:08

Oh man. You know, I'm not honestly sure there's anything I could say to that 25-year-old that would have made a big difference because I have kept learning and it is still something I very much seek out. But I think the advice is keep learning.

Miguel Sanchez Robles 26:37

I like your response because it demonstrates your humility in that you, despite having this great career that you have, not, that you still have to learn, that you have, you're not at a position where like, oh, I've seen everything. I know everything. This is what I would tell myself. That you still in that position, in that posture of, of learning. So I, I really find that, find that really amazing. And then the last question, Katie, what has been your biggest achievement?

Katie Leiva 27:05

Oh man. You mean in my career? In my life? Career life, I mean, in my career. I think maybe making it this far, like I said, I would never dream this would be what I'm doing. But I am proud of what I'm doing and I do like my work and I like my organization, and I like the people I work with. I think all of those things are so hugely important. I think maybe my biggest accomplishment was getting out of a job where I had a really bad boss. They, there's a lot of people out there that say, you don't quit a job. You quit a, a leader, like if they're not a good leader. Find the good leaders. Maybe that's another piece of advice I'd give that 25-year-old self, but I think I was already drawn to a good leader to begin with, like something that is exciting to me.

Miguel Sanchez Robles 27:57

No, and that's very helpful. There are many people who are in jobs that they don't love, and like you said, sometimes it's not the job, it's the, the leadership for whatever reason. Sometimes it does take courage to decide, okay, it's time to move on and to pursue something else. Katie, I thank you for your wisdom and, and your words. Thank you, Katie. Thank you for being here today.

Katie Leiva 28:19

Absolutely. Thank you, Miguel.