My Juxtaposed Journey – Paralleling “Conditioned By” (external) to “Motivated By” (internal) – Focusing on Practicality & Feasibility
- Within 12-18mo of the end of my enlistment with the U.S. Navy, shifts in ‘manpower needs’ influence my decision to separate from active service. Merging of four rates into one threatened any feasible path forward in my Naval career.
- Upon separating from the Navy, I pursued my BS degree. Throughout my program, I paid attention to the “real-world” experiences’ professors shared with us. Understanding the work/life tradeoff an engineering career would require, I found that to neither be a practical, nor feasible career for the lifestyle I wanted. I changed my major from electrical engineering to physics.
- A few weeks following completion of my BS Physics degree, I landed an opportunity as a Physics Associate with a Dept of Energy facility – Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL).
- It didn’t take long for me to grasp I was more ‘applied’ than ‘theoretically’ “bent”. I am more ‘in tune’ with the innovative mindset than the inventive mindset.
- This intuition was confirmed through the MS degree I pursued while working at BNL. I am much more motivated by finding new / better ways of solving existing problems that ‘creating problems that don’t yet exist’.
- My MS program was a collaboration between the (then) Harriman Business School and College of Engineering at SUNY Stony Brook — Business Technology Management, concentrating in Global Operations.
- This program enlightened me to how valuable the mathematical, logic, and problem-solving skills I’d established were to business and operations!
- EMP 507 (Writing Business Plans) was the course that “planted the entrepreneurial-mindset seed”. This course took the place of our masters’ thesis (white paper). We had to conceptualize a business, create a plan, and pitch it to a ‘shark tank’ (comprised of program leaders and professors). Only, in this scenario – only ONE business could win the venture capital investment. This “put it all together” experience opened my eyes to how beneficial it is to understand and maintain awareness of all aspects of operations – both internal and external to the business… beyond your immediate role.
- Upon completion of the program, I vacated my physics position to pursue operations research analytics / management opportunities.
- My career transition occurred during the ‘aftermath years’ (’10-’11) following the Great Recession (’07 – ’09)
- Navigating the slowed, unstable economy took me 11mo to ‘land’ my first professional experience in the field. It was a temporary grant (5yr) serving academia industry.
- I made the most I could of this short-term opportunity – which proved rich with experiences for me to gain!
- We created an operations / service from a white paper
- We worked with internal & external stakeholders
- I provided market research analytics – both qualitative & quantitative
- Our mission was student success – ie, customer success in their program completion
- Additionally, I got experience with audit and risks to meeting objectives
- 3mo prior to the conclusion of the opportunity with the grant, I “landed softly”! I was selected to join a new venture within USAA – creating an internal risk & compliance initiative.
- Our department worked with all seven ‘companies, staff agencies’ within the organization to establish risk metrics and oversight methodologies:
- Property & Casualty
- Wealth Asset Management
- Marketing
- Enterprise Finance
- Banking
- Credit Risk
- Fraud – anti-money laundering (AML) and tech
- Human Resources
- Taking the initiative from ideation to operations
- In late 2019, a few components of USAA were sold off to Victory Capital & Charles Schwab. By end of Q1 of 2020 Covid was shutting down many operations globally
- Our department worked with all seven ‘companies, staff agencies’ within the organization to establish risk metrics and oversight methodologies:
- In the summer of 2020, I’d learned of ‘STRIVE’ – a ‘veteran entrepreneurship exploration’ program being offered by my local community college.
- Whereas my graduate program 7wk course focused on ‘business plan’ (build it, they will come) perspective, this 8wk program focused on the ‘lean/agile business model’ (fail fast, pivot often) perspective.
- I developed Porteolas.
- Given the “breach birth” approach to this program, I pulled away. I was required to have an EIN before even having a vetted offer! As new cohorts came to pass… less & less interest in those from previous cohorts…
- 2yrs with Porteolas
- Develop myself for excellence, not systems
- Establish my growth & development for ensuring relevance & success in supporting business operations
- Re-igniting my personal / play journeys & interests
- Present day & go-forward
- Continue to ensure relevance of services/contributions
- Continue to support & guide success of self and others
- Not ‘lose sight’ of my personal motivations – health, travel, activity
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