Shawn Scott is an executive assistant at Chanel, Inc., and she has worked in this position for eight years. Her pursuit of a career in human resources led her to take on HR positions at three companies in the past, including Morgan Stanley, Core Staffing, and Chanel. When she was offered her current position, she took it hoping to build her understanding of how an organization functions and in turn better inform her work in HR in the future.

1. Can you provide a brief overview of your career – positions, companies, etc.? What motivated you to pursue this career path?

Honestly, I’m working on my career that I didn’t know I wanted up to a few years ago.  I have known from a young age I wanted to work in business; wasn’t sure in what capacity, but in the last decade I have discovered it’s Human Resources. My original career path was music business; I wanted to be an A&R executive (find and develop the artist). I didn’t know much about HR when I took a temp assignment with Morgan Stanley Dean Witter.  Like most people, I viewed HR as the department that handles the paperwork and difficult employee issues. While working at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, I learned that HR is A&R on a much larger scope. In HR you assist the entire company in recruiting, training and development, compensation, benefits, employee relations and succession planning to name a few functions.  But I detoured a little, and became one of the executive assistants to the Global CEO, of Chanel.  I worked in Chanel’s HR department prior to this position. I always wanted to understand why and how things worked (first-hand) in the organization from the top down, to better understanding the decision-making by the top executives for the company.  So when I got the call, I took the opportunity to get the inside view. I’ve learned a lot and have an improved perspective for Human Resources in the future.

2. Can you provide a brief overview of your education and how it did, or did not, prepare you for your career?

I am one year from completing my bachelor in Business Management at SUNY Empire State College. With years of work experience under my belt, it has helped with my course working.   From a high school point-of-view, my education did and didn’t prepare me for my career.  I attended Park West High School, in Manhattan. Park West was a vocational school that you could study a trade like automotive, and pretty much start working right out of high school. Times were a little different, back then business management and human resources weren’t high school programs.  However, my basic academics provided the necessary foundation to my success in the direction I went right out of high school, but did not focus on the many different career options out there.

3. Could you describe your experience with 4T’s and how it may have benefited you?

My experience with 4T’s has been on a small-scale.  I was one of a few people who had the honor to hear Mr. Bentley’s dream of changing the minds and showing the youth in our community their potential for a brighter future, from the beginning. Knowing someone values your experience and insight, to ask to be a part of they dream is a benefit.  All people want to be part of something, and having the chance to be part of such a wonderful cause and organization has been a privilege, even on a small-scale.

4. Why should someone consider participating in 4T’s programs or learning more about the organization?

4T’s is an organization that will provide a new platform for kids to connect with people who come from a similar background, help them stay on track with their education, future dreams and experiences through some of their toughest years. Like the proverb says: “It take a whole village to raise a child.”  The organization combines education, creativity and career services under one institution, to help kids know how important it is to have a passion, plan, and how to stick with it to achieve the success for their future.  

5. In your own words, why is receiving an education important?

Education is the first exposure we receive for so many things.  It allows us to dream, explore, question, and prepare us for the many different things and fields of employment that exist. It also give us a way to know the history of the world, what we got right, wrong, and can help us make better choices for the future. Education also allows us to know there is more out there in the world than what we see in our day-to-day. 

6. What advice would you give to yourself in high school?

Don’t let your circumstances hold you back, dream big and execute no matter what!

-Hope Swedeen

Please share your reactions to this professional’s experiences.

These days, coding and computer programming skills can lead to fairly lucrative careers. Computer science experts can be paid roughly $100,000 a year as soon as they’ve earned their degrees, and they're always in high demand. Everyone is looking for someone who can code or program content because of the simple fact that they are difficult and uncommon skills. Even if you don’t plan on attending a four-year school for computer science or a related field, your skills will still be exceptionally marketable if you’ve fostered them in ways that you can give proof of in the future. As long as you can prove that you’ve put the time and effort into your trade, you’ll find that there are many companies and organizations that value proficiency more than an academic degree.

A great way to set yourself up for coding or programming jobs in the future is to begin taking as many online courses as you can. There are lists of free websites that offer a wide variety of content and learning methods. These can include video tutorials, e-book excerpts, step-by-step instruction guides, programs to allow you to practice while you’re learning, and so much more. There are websites that offer courses with stringent curriculums, and if you enroll in these, you are expected to complete all work as if you were attending and being graded in an academic setting. At the end of many of these programs, you may be able to earn a certificate of some sort as proof of your participation and completion. There are others that are more free-formed and depend on you to shape your own experience, but there are still curriculums set up as a sort of road guide for you to follow, skip around, and do or pass on as much as you’d like. With these, course material will be available, but there will be no actual instructor, tests, or deadlines.

Then there are options that have virtually no structure that you can use to learn anything you’d like. If there’s a specific skill that you’d like to expand on it, these websites will allow you to search all content to find specific video tutorials, reading content, step-by-step instructions, and more individualized content. These are often more helpful for coders and programmers with more experience, as you’ll need at least a basic understanding of concepts before you can begin to implement, or even search, for the skills being taught on these websites. It is also very difficult to prove that you have learned from these sources, so it might be best to use them as additives to another learning platform. That way, if you’re ever in a position to talk about your skills, you can say something like, “I’ve spent two years taking coding courses on this curriculum-based learning platform, and I’ve been able to build on those skills by learning how to accomplish more specific tasks on this free-form learning platform.”

The fact that you’ve invested time into your own education and have made the effort to go beyond learning the basics will make you even more marketable because you will have the ability to form a list of skills that others may not have been able or willing to teach themselves. Below are a list of online resources that can be useful at varying levels of your coding and programming education, and they are all structured differently. With so many options available, you can get a coding or programming education in virtually any way you’d like without paying a cent. You’ll be able to build your own list of skills and determine how much you learn in any time frame, but you can also follow curriculums laid out for you. To figure out which resource will work best for you, think about your learning style: are you someone who finds video tutorials useful? Do you comprehend better when you read about a concept? Or are you more hands-on? Whatever your preference, there are options for you, and you should explore them all to find a good fit.

 1.  Code Academy
 2.  Code Avengers
 3.  Code School
 4.  Coursera
 5.  Free Code Camp
 6.  GitHub
 7.  HTML5Rocks
 8.  Khan Academy
 9.  LearnCode.academy - YouTube channel
10. LevelUpTuts - YouTube channel
11. MIT courses
12. Skill Crush
13. Slide Nerd - YouTube channel
14. The Code Player
15. The New Boston - YouTube channel
16. The Odin Project
17. Treehouse - YouTube channel
18. Udacity
19. Udemy.com
20. WebDevMentors - YouTube channel

-Hope Swedeen

How are you working to better your coding skills? How can you make them more marketable?

If you’re interested in teaching dance and have chosen this as your career path, then you’ll need to be prepared for the obstacles that lie ahead. As I said in my previous post, “Gaining Experience: The First Step to Landing Your Dream Job,” working in a creative career field can be exceptionally difficult when you’re starting right out of high school. You’ll find that you need experience before you can even think about applying for many positions that interest you. It won’t matter to employers that you’re the best at what you do – what matters is that you’ve spent time working for someone else to prove that you can use the skills you say you have.

When you first leave high school, you’ll probably have very little, if any, experience in the world of professional dance. Whether you’re self-taught and trained or have attended dance lessons to foster you skills, you still probably haven’t had any experience working in the field of dance. If you’re looking to put your skills to use as a dance instructor, you’ll need to “pay your dues” before you’ll be hired for a paying position.

There are countless opportunities for volunteer instructors that might be open to dancers without instruction experience, and these range in types and levels of dance. The higher the level being taught, the more experience you will probably need. Teaching dance to children, for example, is probably the easiest way for you to break into the dance instructor business, as teaching children requires knowing only the basic skills that you will be teaching and the ability to demonstrate these basic skills effectively. However, “effectively” might mean different things to different employers.

Often times, being able to teach children “effectively” means that you’ve had experience with children in some capacity and know how to communicate on their wavelength. So if you’re thinking that teaching children might be a good way for you to get into teaching dance, do yourself a favor and start getting some experience working with children on any level now. You can do this in any number of ways, but the most common might be to become a camp counselor at a day camp, teach an arts and crafts program, become an assistant coach for a sport or dance team, tutor or oversee a youth study group, help out with an after-school program, or any other volunteer opportunity that involves working with children. I’ve listed some options below that you might consider trying out to get ahead on building that “experience” section on your résumé.

1.     Sign up to be a volunteer with Educational Alliance

This organization is always looking for volunteers to work events that it hosts all year round. If you’re looking for volunteer opportunities that are easy to plan for in advance and that you can decide to join in on at the last minute, this could be a great starting point. There is a list of upcoming events, and dates and times are displayed to make it easy for you to see what you’ll be available to help with. You can also sign up to be a volunteer, and you will be emailed with opportunities. Most of the events require working with children, so this could help you on your road to experience.

2.     Find listings for volunteer positions at VolunteerMatch

You can search for positions that relate to whatever type of volunteer work you’d like to be doing and in what location. You can search for “dance” to find dance positions, or “children” to find huge lists of positions related to your search terms. Again, some of the dance positions may require you to have previous experience, so you might want to consider looking for volunteer opportunities relating to children if you’re not having any luck with the dance listings.

3.     Volunteer through NYC Service

Much like VolunteerMatch, this website allows you to search for volunteer positions using keywords, but you can also add your skills, interests, and the age range of people you’re volunteering to help. If you’re looking for dance opportunities, your best bet is to type “dance” into the keyword box.

4.     Volunteer to work events and programs at All for Good

Search for positions in any location using keywords. Events with specific dates and times will appear, and you can sign up to help for any of them that are a good fit for you. There are also ongoing programs related to dance that are constantly in need of volunteers. The site allows organizations to post volunteer advertisements, so the list of opportunities is updated and replenished frequently.

5.     Work with children through Change for Kids

This organization works explicitly with children, so if you’re trying to gain experience with children first before breaking into dance, this could be a great medium for you to find opportunities. You’ll find a list of events with dates, times, and the role that you can expect to play at the events.

6.     Find local volunteer opportunities at idealist.org

The website operates much like the other sites listed, as it allows you to search using keywords and specific locations. You’ll need to narrow down your location by selecting “local results only” in the “location” box on the left-hand side of the page.

7.     Sign up to volunteer with New York Cares

To volunteer with this organization, you will be required to sign up for an online account and attend an orientation event before you can begin volunteering. However, in the meantime, the website lists several opportunities that are not connected with New York Cares that involve working with young students in Harlem, including helping with after-school activities, tutoring or helping students with homework after school and in class, and helping younger students transition into high school.

-Hope Swedeen

What are some other ways that you can gain experience in teaching dance?

If you’re worried about not being able to make money doing something that you love, you’re not alone. There are students who love to write web coding, paint, dance, play music or utilize countless other creative abilities, but it might not be clear how you can best begin your work within one of these professional fields. Creative industries can be especially difficult to break into, and it can be discouraging at first to look at the potentially limited job opportunities available to you right after graduating from high school. However, if you commit to creating more opportunities for yourself, you can put yourself in the position to one day be paid for doing what you love.

Obtaining any position comes down to the need for experience. If you’re not attending college, it’s still entirely possible, if not more so, to get this experience. When you finish high school, you’ll be debt-free and will probably have very few or no bills to pay, and you’ll therefore be in a much better position than a college graduate with student loans to take on lower-paying or even volunteer positions. If your dream job does require experience, then the best way to reach your goal is to spend time working and building your skills. If you wait to pursue your ideal career because you aren’t qualified right out of high school and get a paying job instead, you run the risk of never being able to spend enough time building a solid experience base to showcase when applying for positions in whatever creative field interests you.

Even if you do need an immediate source of income, you should try your hardest to devote time to both a paying job and positions that offer experience in the field that interests you. There are countless organizations that are looking for individuals willing to “donate” their services and talents, and although you won’t be paid, there will be a much larger payoff in the future once you’re qualified for the positions that you really want. Non-profit organizations or organizations that ask for volunteers are great places to begin building experience and bolstering you résumé for the paying positions you’ll be able to apply for in the near future.

If you’re discouraged by the prospect of not making money doing something that you are passionate about, don’t let yourself feel down. Explore your options. You can look for paying positions related to what you want to ultimately do, but it may be more fruitful to look for volunteer positions instead. The short-term payoff might be less than you’re hoping for, but the long-term gains will exceed your expectations. If you can value gaining experience over earning money, you can better prepare yourself to pursue your dream job much sooner than if you get right into a paying job that offers you no relevant experience. By investing your time into gaining experience, you’ll be investing in yourself and your future rather than short-term financial gains.

Check out our blog posts soon to follow that will offer advice for working toward specific creative careers!

-Hope Swedeen

What’s your dream job? How are you planning to work toward achieving it?