Elizabeth Bader always thought her main "career" would involve being a wife and mother. But by her early 30s, she was the divorced, single mother to a toddler and desperately in need of career advice. In this Career Talk podcast, Bader explains how she got back into the workforce, offers advice on those seeking similar careers and provides tips for others who may have been out of the workforce, by their own choosing or otherwise.
Transcript:
Welcome to Brandman Speaks: Career Talks. I’m Cindy O’Dell and recently I spoke with Elizabeth Bader, an executive briefing consultant at Experian.
Elizabeth always thought she was destined to be a wife and mother. But when she was in her early 30s, she was newly divorced and the single mother of a young child. Like so many Brandman students, she realized she needed a career. She just wasn’t sure what it would be.
I was very fortunate that I learned about the Women’s Opportunity Center, which sadly no longer exists. But it was a wonderful place where women in transition could go to get a career counseling, resume assistance, interviewing skills on a sliding scale.
And I had the great fortune of meeting a woman who became my mentor and my friend and she was able to coach me into identifying the next step in my career path, which included starting a master's degree program at Chapman University.
But before starting back to school, Elizabeth needed to know what to study.
I took some aptitude testing, which I highly recommend. I took the Johnson O'Connor Center for Human Engineering testing in Los Angeles, which is a two-day commitment with a financial, but I highly recommend aptitude testing whether its Myers-Briggs or Strength Finder or many that are available. I believe that some are available through the Brandman Career Counseling Center, either at nominal or no charge. If you haven't taken aptitude and interest testing, it's a great way to learn about yourself and to find out perhaps how you're naturally made, which always makes school and work a lot more enjoyable. So I did this aptitude testing and I discovered my strengths were in psychology and sociology. And so as I started looking for occupations or vocations within those segments, I stumbled upon graduate school programs. And initially, I thought I was going to be a career counselor and get my master's degree in career counseling.
However as I was researching graduate programs I came across the organizational leadership program at Chapman and decided to pursue that, and that, you know, fundamentally changed the trajectory of my career and myself as a person.
I had read a book by Warren Bennis in the late ‘90s that actually was on the bestseller list on becoming a leader. And I think it was probably one of the first books that ever crossed over into the mainstream. And I read it and I thought, “Really? People do this? This is the career?” And I had no idea. So when I found the organizational leadership program. I said, “Wow, this is awesome!” so I decided to pursue the organizational leadership program. It just made so much sense and my career counselor just said, you know, I lit up -- my whole .. my eyes, my person, and my demeanor changed when we were doing talking about that curriculum.
Being in school also introduced her to a new network of connections.
I was very fortunate. A classmate of mine was that Ingram Micro at the time and she was in the training development department, and I desperately needed to get back to work and start honing my skills and I was willing to work for free.
And at the time, there was a gentleman there who was a like-minded soul who was the head of the department and gave me a chance, which is what everyone usually needs someone to open the door and invite you in to participate.
