I can say that I know exactly which one was the first day of my professional life...

March 2000, a rainy and cold day in France.

I was sitting in the clubhouse of my rugby club when I got a phone call from a recruiting agency. I was just wondering what to do to make my life more interesting since I was bored working as an accountant in an audit firm.

The guy on the phone asked me if I was interested to work abroad. Without giving any thoughts, I answered yes. After 3 interviews and less than 2 weeks after this phone call, I landed in Manila.

I did not know at that time that this phone call would change my life. 13 years later, I'm still living in the Philippines, got married, have kids and a job and a position that I would have never had in France (or at least not before reaching 50yo).

My second "first day of my professional life" is exactly March 3, 2013, the day when I convinced a developer to work with me on a project I had in mind. This is the day when rKruiter became more that just a dream but an actual goal to work on.

Cheers,

Eric

I got kicked out of the University of Illinois (UIUC) because I failed two courses in a semester. Now, I happened to get mononucleosis that semester, which set me back for about a good month, because the medical center gave me penicillin, which actually makes mono worse. In addition, I was taking calculus and a java programming class at the same time, which was brutal. The result I couldn't recover and failed both classes. Now, prior to that semester I was borderline on academic probation because I partied way too much and missed too many classes. That's why the two F's triggered an automatic expulsion. So when I received my letter that I was expelled, I went to the Dean's office, waited for 4 hours, and decided to write him a 4 page letter as to why I deserved a second chance. I never met with him, but I received a call from his staff the following day letting me know I was re-enrolled. Long story short, I made the point about the medical mishap, but I wouldn't have been in that situation had I taken my previous semesters more serious. I acknowledged that in the letter and detailed a specific plan on how I was going to improve. I got back in because I'm fighter, the re-enrollment literally changed my life, and I never forgot how close I came to blowing the best opportunity I've ever received.

After that moment, it was all A's and B's throughout undergrad, which got me accepted into one of the top HR and Labor Relations programs in the country, and the rest is history.

I am now 52 years old. When I was 24 years old, I had just gotten out of the U.S. Air Force, and moved to New England for the first time. (My husband was from there and had family in the area).

I had also just given birth to my 2nd child. Throughout the pregnancy, I had been working doing temporary work assignments, because back in those days--not many people would consider hiring a woman for a regular job that was obviously 'preggers'.

By chance, I landed a temp job in an HR department for a large defense company. I really enjoyed my assignment there and worked right up until the baby was born.

About five weeks after giving birth, I got a call from the manager that I had worked for, and he asked me to come back in for a visit that week. I got a babysitter and went into my former office, wearing a sweater, jeans, and boots, with a album of baby pictures under my arm. (I was only expecting to do lunch and look at pictures). After looking at the pictures for a few minutes in the office, with my former co-workers, the manager excused himself and left the room. He walked back in with a man wearing a suit and said, "I would like to introduce you to Mr. Lewis, and he would like to talk to you about a job opening that he has in Compensation". (At that time, I was so naïve and didn't know what he meant by "Compensation", or what they did). I was really caught off guard and embarrassed. I certainly was not expecting that I would be 'interviewing' for a job that day. Our discussion went well and then he said, "I heard really good things about you". I admitted that I enjoyed my work--mostly helping out recruiters and some general administrative work. I told him that I didn't know what the job would be in Compensation of if I would be qualified. I had two years of college before joining the Air Force, but no degree yet. He said--"You have the right attitude, and I can teach you".

It was a pivotal moment for the rest of my career, and for my life. One that I had not expected. To this day when people ask me how I started my career in HR, I tell them that "the career found me". I've been working in HR now for 28 years.

I had a wonderful teacher in Mr. Lewis--he taught me so much about compensation, (job analysis, surveys, regression analysis, etc.). When the time came for me to move on, I had the confidence to branch out into other areas of HR, knowing that I had already mastered one of the more technical parts of the profession. The passion that I had for my HR career propelled me on to complete my undergraduate degree, (while working full-time and mothering two young children), and later on, my MBA. I have identified much of my adult life through the experiences and opportunities that I have been given as a result of my HR career. I cannot imagine me doing anything else, (even though I could have), because I love it so much. I've had the opportunity to meet so many people and learn so much about many organizations. I truly love being an HR Business Partner now and 'giving back' by coaching managers and employees. I get much satisfaction by helping others to develop their capabilities and talents so that the next generation can be amazing.

One other interesting tidbit---many years later when my oldest was in high school and getting ready to complete his SAT's and career interest inventories, I told him that I thought I still had a copy of mine in my old high school yearbook. We found it and while looking through it, noticed that on the back of one of the pages was a 'career inventory assessment'. I had never 'scored' the results to compare it to what job I was best suited for back then, so for kicks, we did it then. Guess which career that I was 'best suited' for----you guessed it. (Although it was called 'Personnel Management' back then). So I guess it was meant to be.

I was with my company doing administrative type work for 3 years when we had a consultant come in and review the company. We had grown from 10 employees to 60 in 4 years and his top recommendation was that we needed someone to do HR (previously our CEO called himself the HR Department...). They asked me if I was interested and I've gotten to build the department from nothing! Now, three years later, we have 120 employees and I enjoy, appreciate, and respect the profession.

Good job! Well done with the post.