Don’t Be Afraid to Follow Your Passion: Aileen

By fresh from HR | 2023-08-01

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In this episode of True Stories at Work, we introduce you to Aileen, who has spent the majority of her career in Talent Acquisition at a professional services firm and is now a career coach. Join us as we share true stories about following your passion, networking into the best jobs, and the importance of taking career risks.

Aileen graduated college with aspirations to become a Russian-speaking foreign policy expert (and maybe even high potential Karaoke-queen) but accidentally entered HR after hating her first job as a technology data analyst.

She started her HR career in executive search, which she describes as “an amazing training ground. You’re basically thrown to the wolves.”

Aileen shares how she successfully networked her way into HR at a professional service firm (twice) and her favorite stories about:

the importance of taking risks in your career journey, personal + client, and the value of networking
how searching for a job is like dating
how important it is to be aware of and overcome unconscious bias to hire the BEST talent.

Aileen has taken big career risks, even fulfilling her calling to become a Chicago Public School teacher, for one year… wait until you hear what she saw when she saw happening behind her back in her classroom when she reviewed her Student Teaching video! “I could review my own video. So that night I brought it home and reviewed it and saw it and I was like, oh my gosh, I think I’m gonna get an F on this video.”

Aileen encourages you to follow your passion and energy to find the job you LOVE. “Don’t be afraid to follow your passions. Don’t think that it’s just a nice to have, or it’s, it’s a dream job. It’ll never come true. It is possible. You just have to be thoughtful.”

At the end, you will hear my workplace confession, the biggest thing that I did wrong at work… which I still believe was right in the end. It is a story of insubordination in my quest to update our dusty and dated values, and how I took a big risk to ask for forgiveness, not permission. And how no one even noticed?!

Resources Suggested Aileen

Curious about how Aileen preps her clients and some of her favorite job search tools? Check out these links to get started:

Create an elevator speech + have 3-4 behavioral interview stories, check out this resource to set you up for interview storytelling success.
Optimize your resume with jobscan.co .
Best job boards for seekers: LinkedIn and BuiltIn.
Want to reflect on what career path makes sense, check out 16personalities.com – which is a free Myers Briggs resource.
Or contact Aileen directly at joblinkllc.com.