there was a jobless young woman in a small town with few prospects. Okay, the time was 1998, the young woman was me and the small town was in MN. I was devestated after losing my job in leasing finance in the family business and realizing no local finance institution would hire me due to conflict of interest. It left me scared and clueless about what what direction to go in life.

My friend, Julie was interning at a international recruiting agency. I was always fascinatd by the crazy stories Julie told about candidates and clients. One day Julie called to tell me she accepted a job in DC and needed to find someone to backfill her role. I wasn't really sure of what Julie actually did on a daily basis. After Julie told me what she did, I said, "I can't believe you get paid to find people jobs!" Of course I was interested! I interviewed for and got the job. They started me out on contract and one day asked me if I wanted to go full time. I loved my job so I was pretty sure I wanted to go full time but I was also positive I wanted to leave MN. There were jobs in every state and I chose Seattle.

My first year in Seattle was crazy. First the weather was depressing. It rained all the time, actually 1998 came close to setting a record rainfall. Rainfall in Seattle isn't like MN rainfall-thunder storms and then it clears. The rain here is constant grey and drizzle. I'd wake up and it was grey and raining. I'd drive home and it was dark outside and raining. It was miserable. Secondly, I was the ONLY recruiter in the office. I had no idea why until the phone calls started coming in-um, the biggest client laid off ALL it's local contractors. I was in over my head and alone. They moved me to another location where I had colleagues and worked on an account that actually had jobs. Third, I was working 8 AM-8 PM, had few friends and was struggling financially. So many changes in so little time. At the time this all felt like 5 or 10 years had passed but it was only 3 months or so.

I realized a few things the hard way:

1. no one wears blazers and skirts to work (I am pretty sure I was sporting Tess McGill type should pads)
2. no one starts work at 8 AM (I actually recall tattling on a colleague for showing up between 9-10 AM and then my boss and her laughing at me)
3. live close to where you work (30 miles away means a 1.5-2 hr commute)
4. recruiters at other companies were making commission
5. Purell is essential at job fairs

The friends I did make introduced me to Technical Recruiting. I found my passion. It is the perfect mix of sales, helping people as well as learning about and building industry. I'm lucky enough to have worked at Excell Data since 1999. Even though we have a large recruiting team, it feels like a family and I can honestly say I wake up excited about going to work. I take pride in my work and worked hard to develop a good reputation in the recruiting industry.

I used to want to be successful to prove to my family that I could do well on my own. Now that I have a family of my own, I really want to be successful to provide for them. I want to build a career that my daughters and husband will be proud of.