Research? Sales? Purchasing?
My daughter asks me all the time, “I am good at a lot of things. What should I do with my life?” I look at her knowing the teenage eye roll is about to be on full display, as I say, “I can relate!”
​
My career path has been anything but linear and planned.
​
During my first year as an undergraduate at The University of Rochester, my chemistry professor asked me to stay after class. I thought I had failed my exam, but I had actually scored the highest of any student. He offered me a lab tech position! After that my love for science kept growing. I continued to do research throughout my undergraduate studies and post graduation. I earned every bit of that Biochemistry degree on my own, working to supplement my scholarships, financial aid, and LOANS. (There’s a story behind all of that I’ll share with you someday if we have the pleasure of connecting.)
Thus I ventured into a professional career as a product specialist for a local lab supply vendor. I continued to advance in this role and took on the added responsibility of inside sales for consumables, equipment, and reagents. I was soon promoted and relocated to North Carolina to manage all sales within the state. Sales? Yes. This was an unexpected path which led me to my next unexpected path … my career in Purchasing.
During a customer meeting, the Purchasing Manager of one of my biotech accounts suggested I come work for her as a technical buyer. I then had a dedicated career advancing within R&D Purchasing for over six years until my second child became repeatedly ill with upper respiratory infections. I decided then to focus on my daughter’s health and the overall well being of my family.
I will spare you the skills I’ve learned at being a stay at home mom. That would take several more paragraphs! If you desire someone who can multitask, coordinate schedules, make financial plans, or basically run an enterprise, then hire a stay at home parent! I discovered different passions during this time, including volunteering within the Wake County community (WCPSS, Big Sweep, Girl Scouts, WFAFA) and connecting with people in the health and wellness industry. I stayed informed on best purchasing practices by reading articles available through ISM and engaging with sales professionals within the R&D industry. I also decided to work part-time as a Membership Account Manager at a swim and athletic club to help others with their health goals. Then the pandemic hit … enough of that path!
I now have the opportunity to combine all of those skills into finding the ideal full-time position. I know my profile reads like the “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost, but taking the less traveled path has enabled me to build skills beyond a boardroom and beyond the limitations I had unknowingly set for myself when I was that teenager asking myself what I should do with my life!
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
​
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
​
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
8
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
~ Robert Frost