Sheena Vige
Over my entire working career, 95 percent has been a job in which I dealt with customer service and management. Most jobs that I sought were at hotels and restaurants. I always seemed to excel at jobs which reflected top sales, top customer service, and required return business. I truly enjoyed what I did and I know that that was why I was so successful. Unfortunately, in my mid-twenties, I missed out on an opportunity that was offer to me by the hotel manager.
I had just become a single mother and realized I had two commitments to choose from. Working in the hotel business would require many hours of my time and so would becoming a dedicated new mother. I made a choice to pursue the legal industry instead where my hours could be freelanced as a court reporter. This way I would be able to control my working time. After attending the course for three years at a court-reporting institute, I was able to reach 180 speed with 99 percent accuracy but stayed at that level, after six additional months of trying to increase speed I realized that I could not get any faster it was required to reach a speed of 240 in order to complete the course and become a licensed reporter. Even though my heart was not in it, I was willing to sacrifice my dream for a career I knew would be more stable and controllable.
I finally decided to pursue something else, since it was obvious I was notable to complete the course with the standards required to graduate. I didn't let myself feel as though I had failed; I looked at it as skills I acquired and now I was going to apply these skills into my life. After marching past that point, I was now 30 and my daughter was four-years-old. I knew my time running short and I needed a job that would financially support us before she would begin school.
I decided to move closer to home where I could receive help from my family with child care and I went back to the hotel and restaurant business. I knew I would enjoy the work and I could make a decent amount of money. Overtime, I worked myself up to assistant floor manager for the servers. Since I was a hard and disciplined worker, I was able to make some progress but I still needed a degree to in order to put myself into operational management positions. The hours were long and late which kept me from my daughter. She was young and needed me so I eventually saved up enough money and went into a partnership business selling cellular service.
Things were doing very well for me; I had brought up sales 40-60 percent over the first two years. My customers loved me and knew they could depend on my knowledge. Once again, I was happy dealing with customers and working M-F and rotating Saturdays.
My partner ran into personal problems and quickly became a financial problem to the company. I was offered a way out and decided it was the best thing to do at the time, considering the future outlook of the business. The president of a company for one of my cellular accounts had offered me an office management job for a new office that was opening in my area. Several times prior to leaving the cellular business I was offered this job and I finally took them up on the offer. Currently I have been with them for 4ΒΌ years.
I appreciate my employer and respect them tremendously but I am not happy. I sit alone most of the day doing payroll taxes, insurance, inventory basically whatever is needed to keep the business going. We are a small mechanical business and all employees other than myself are men working outside in the shop. The general manager is very pleased with me because he rarely needs to come in the office any longer. I handle most of operating the business and now he has the freedom to do outside sales. In the past year I have been looking for a way to further my education so that I can make a career change before I become much older.
My daughter is 13-years-old and I have much more freedom with my time. She does not need me every minute any longer. She is very self sufficient and she and I have talked about if I were to go back to school. She is so excited for me and wants to support me anyway she can. Everyday I think about what my life would be like if I had followed my heart and taken that opportunity years ago for management in the hotel industry.
I do not like to say that I have regrets, but I still wonder. I have not reached true happiness in my career. I have no doubts of my success if only given the chance. Like many others I do not have the financial resources to college nor do I have the spare time to waste on physical travel to and from a physical building.
When I read about how this offer can allow you to acquire the education for a degree while at home, I honestly became renewed in hope. If you could find enough reason to allow me this opportunity I know personally that I will not only succeed for myself but can help many others succeed as well.
My goal is still to become a food an beverage manager and eventually a hotel manager what I lack is the educational degree that would ensure an employer that I have been educated on skills needed in the hotel/restaurant industry by managers what I have to offer is my dedication and years of experience of successfully dealing with coworkers, customers, procedures, and management.