Podcast summary:
What does a career path really look like? At the Career Exploration Adventure Weekend at Cragun’s Resort in Brainerd, Minnesota, blind, visually impaired, and DeafBlind students got the chance to ask working professionals the questions that matter when you’re thinking about your future.
In this lively careers panel, professionals from technology, accounting, human resources, education, hospitality, and library services share how they found their careers—sometimes by following a plan and sometimes by taking an unexpected turn. They talk about mentors, education, on-the-job learning, setbacks, work-life balance, building confidence, and why making mistakes can be an important part of moving forward.
Students also ask about workplace accommodations and what employers can do to help blind and low-vision employees succeed.
For students, parents, and educators, this conversation is a reminder that there is no single road to a meaningful career—just opportunities to explore, learn, adapt, and keep moving forward.
Links of interests:
Explore, Connect and Grow: Students Discover Career Possibilities at Cragun’s Resort
To find out more about the services provided at State Services for the Blind, and what they can do for you, contact Shane DeSantis at shane.desantis@state.mn.us or call Shane at 651-385-5205.
Full Transcript:
And nearly a dozen students listened and asked questions to help them with their own career explorations.
And be sure to check out the previous episode, where we bring you a discussion on the Career exploration Adventure Weekend experience. So without further ado, here’s the careers panel event recorded live from the Career Exploration Adventure Weekend event held in Brainerd, Minnesota. We hope you enjoy.
{Music}
Kathleen: I encourage everyone I talk to is find those people that really get you and understand you and can support the best you.
Jonathan: Empathy is a huge part of my job and just really getting to know my team and what they need, how they communicate and ensuring that they’re having a good time as well at work and they have the tools they need teaching English.
Abbi: But I was also teaching before and after school Spanish. I was an avid tutor kind of at the same time. So I had to do some other kind of educational teaching experience as well to kind of get that experience in order to eventually get a full time teaching position.
Riley: What would you told yourself as a your younger self, as a piece of advice in high school?
Jeff: Now please welcome Panel Moderator, Randi lasher.
Randi: What career pathway are you thinking about right now? What are you either studying or what are you hoping to pursue?
James: Hello, my name is James. I’m going into my second year of college, and I have been thinking about going into either linguistics or political science.
Sophia: I am Sophia, I am starting my third year of college. I am studying social work at the moment.
Mackenzie: : My name is Mackenzie. I’m in 10th grade.
Paxton : My name is Paxton.
Caden: My name is Caden and I’m in 10th grade. And I was thinking about doing like a coding like slash it job or like construction was my thing.
Riley: My name is Riley. I’m a senior at Minnewaska High School. I’m thinking about going into the accounting and finance realm, but I really want to do the music path.
Student: I’m in 10th. I would like to go into astronomy.
Student: I just graduated from high school and I’m thinking about nursing.
Abbi: I just graduated from high school. My name is Abbi. I’m a senior at to compose music.
Randi: And with that, I’m gonna ask first Abbi and then Jonathan to share with us what first sparked your interest in your career path and what helped you take those early steps?
Abbi: I am the English language learning specialist with SSB. My career is in teaching English as a second language or as another language, and what sparked my interest was when I was in university, I went to Egypt as a study abroad program. I had always wanted to travel and I always wanted to learn a language. But neither. My parents both speak English very. I grew up in Duluth, Minnesota. It’s very. Um, so I didn’t have like a lot of exposure to other languages or other cultures besides my own, but I always wanted that. And so in college, I did just a short j-term study abroad in Egypt, and it was really something that I came back home and I said, I want to do this. I want to continue meeting people and learning languages and having this like cultural exchange. And someone that I worked with at the college at the time was studying ESL. And he told me, he said, why don’t I doo ESL? And that was like the moment that I was like, that’s a job? You can teach people English and you can travel and you can do all these things? And so that was it. That was I knew from that moment this is what I wanted to do.
Jonathan: This is Jonathan. I kind of just drifted into this position. No said career path. My earlier career was in event planning, so I worked a lot setting up events like this. So meeting with people, all the details. I really enjoy problem solving and nobody creates problems like people event planning. There’s lots of things come up and I have a weird brain in that I am very detail oriented. You know, I like to cross my T’s and dot my eyes. But at the same time, when surprises happen, I just kind of shrug my shoulders and go, okay, I’ll fix this. Now, a lot of people, I think, struggle. They’re either good on changing all the time or they’re very good at details, and the two don’t often meet. So that’s what I was doing for quite a long time. And then this position opened up the guest experience manager. I oversee some of the departments that are really guest facing. So the front desk where you checked into your rooms and also the fun, the recreation department that do activities, that Marina that rents the boats and security that keeps everyone from having too much fun. And I just really enjoy people. I really enjoy problem solving. A very simple rule here. I want everyone to have fun. Don’t be stupid. So run around, make noise, enjoy yourselves. Don’t climb on the roof. That’s how I ended up there.
Randi: I appreciate that it sounds similar to what I told our students last night. Someone asked, can we go on our balcony? I said, yes, just no monkey business. This next question I’m going to ask Greg, Kathleen and Angie, your career is kind of getting started. Was there ever a key moment or turning point for you that shaped the direction that you took, that ultimately landed you where you are today?
Greg: It’s Greg again. Um, yeah, there actually was a little bit of an interesting story in high school. I had to take a programming class and like I said, I’ve been doing this forever. It’s on like an Apple two, which is just an ancient computer for everybody here. But I absolutely hated the class. I was like, I don’t want to do anything with computers, ever. And when I went to college, I decided I was going to teach high school math. So part of my math curriculum, I had to take computer class where we wrote basically a check booking thing. Like if you’ve heard of quicken or QuickBooks or something like that, basically doing that, I had a great teacher. Teachers are, are a phenomenal way to get you to connect with content. So if you find one of those, latch on to them because this teacher got me into computers because I realized at that time, I didn’t really have the patience to teach high school students, which I applaud those that do, because that wasn’t me. And I made a great choice getting into the field. And that teacher sent me into another couple of years of school where I got basically a minor and they called it back. Then it was microcomputer studies. But, uh, of course, pretty much everything I’ve learned then is obsolete and old. But he was a professor. Stanwick was a big influence in that.
Kathleen: All right. This is Kathleen. I think, along the way. I grew up with a mother who was a teacher. So she always told you to surround yourself with people that support your goals and find a mentor, somebody that you can watch what they do. See if you also enjoy it. So I did that throughout my life. I went into my life thinking I was going to be a musician. I played several instruments saying, and I was going to get on the road and perform with the next country star, I guess. And I went to college to be a musician, and when I got there, my music teacher actually taught math and music, and she started going, you know, you’re really good at music, but it seems like you want to have this kind of family life as well. And a life of a musician isn’t necessarily that. So she started mentoring me through my college career at Saint Ben’s, and I ended up getting an accounting degree instead, along with a music minor, so I still can do my music thing. I still do a lot of things with music, but I enjoy the numbers and the math and etc. to this day she is still a mentor of mine. If I have questions, I mean, I’ve been in my career for 30 years, she’s now 89 and I still will call her for advice and be like, you know, this is my next career move. What do you think? And she has all the advice in the world. So I think that was my pivoting point. And I encourage everyone I talk to is find those people that really get you and understand you and can support the best you.
Angie: Hi, I’m Angie, the librarian. I came to my career later in life. I’ve been a librarian just for six years, so I actually got the job during Covid. I was a stay at home mom with my two elementary school aged kids, and they were finally at an age where they could be home a little bit by themselves, and I was just going a little cuckoo in the house with all of that distance learning and all of that home time. And our local library was hiring a part time position. So I applied and it was a great fit right away. It really jived with my previous experience in social work. A lot of, you know, customer service and dealing with people from all walks of life. It was a really great fit right from the start as far as like the social aspect balanced with the detail oriented organizing, similar to other people who have said they kind of have both skills. You gotta be able to work with people and you have to be able to problem solve and be very detail oriented and have quiet parts of your day, and also have very active, vibrant parts of your day. So it’s a great fit right from the start.
Jonathan: Hi, this, this is Jonathan. And my, my typical day is very unpredictable because again, in my role as guest experience, my job is to make sure that everyone is happy here and they’re enjoying their stay. And if they’re not enjoying their stay, I need to try and fix that. So I get my cup of coffee, I turn on my computer, and then I try and catch up with emails. I work with all the other departments here. I always visit with my team, especially front desk, just to see how they all are today. Are there any concerns, anything I need, I need to do for them? I then start getting handed bits of paper with, talk to this person or this is broken. Just, you know, so it’s kind of chaotic my days because I have responded to situations all the time, which is why I love, I love that because that’s part of the problem solving and making people happy. I really enjoy that.
Kathleen: Oh, this is Kathleen and I’m the CFO here. So I wear several hats so I do not have a typical day. There are days where I am sitting at my computer, crunching numbers, getting reports out to managers so that they can make good decisions. There’s other days that because I am over at HR, that I’m dealing with employee concerns, maybe filling a team that is short staffed, you know, recruiting, going to job fairs and talking to people. And then there’s days that I’m in the IT world where we’re installing a new software or looking at new software’s that can help enhance our business. So never do I have a very typical day. It’s kind of what does the team need? I’m a support person. So if Jonathan’s front desk is struggling with something, I’m working with his team to try to figure out what do they need, what can we solve? So it’s a lot of problem solving, a lot of being flexible, a lot of much like parenting. You kind of got to let the team run your head, run what you need to do that day, whatever’s most important.
Abbi: This is Abbi again. And when I think my day is a little bit more predictable As a teacher, my teaching at SSB is a little different because I’m not like in a traditional like school or classroom, but it does follow similar patterns. Like usually at the beginning of the day, I need to make sure I have everything prepared. I need to make sure I know what I’m teaching everybody for throughout the day, that I have all the materials created and made. And then it’s really going into that set schedule of, okay, I’m teaching so-and-so in the morning, or I’m doing this class in the afternoon. And so I’m kind of floating through those things throughout the day, but also I have a lot of the extra stuff around that set schedule. So there’s a lot of meetings and planning and trying to organize things. So maybe I’m organizing activities for the students or with other people outside of my English program. I’m doing events like this. Um, you know, there are different things that I have to do or maybe there’s other like, or if you’re in a school, maybe you’re doing like a club or some kind of after school activity. Or helping with that too. So there’s a lot of other things that you’re doing as well. Also like meeting with lots of students, meeting other teachers. There’s lots of kind of other outside things that happen too. But yeah.
Angie: Angie, the librarian here, I would say my job sounds most similar to Jonathan’s at this point. I get my coffee, I get in the library, I turn on the lights, I start doing my, you know, looking into the emails. And of course, we have to get the book drop. We have to check in all the books that were returned overnight. We have to print a list of requests for our patrons that they have placed online. We start to find the items, get them checked in and prepared. That’s about one hour. And then the doors open and then the unpredictability comes in. We’ve got people looking for books. We’ve got people asking our advice. We’ve got people really struggling and needing just to use a computer to print something very important. Like maybe they’re dealing with custody issues. So we’ve got a lot of people that are using the library for the internet or for the computers, for the meeting rooms. People will come in and have a Zoom court meeting, perhaps, or be meeting with a therapist. There’s all different walks of life coming into the library.
So when someone walks up to the counter, you really have to be prepared to help them print something, help them find something. You never know what’s going to come your way. But then when the customers are all taken care of, then you kind of get back to the more predictable busy work, which would be, you know, shelving the books, getting everything checked in, filling the holds, answering emails, contacting interlibrary loan about things that we’re working on with them, kind of the behind the scenes stuff, weeding the collection, taking care of damaged items, doing repairs. There’s so many different aspects that librarians do. And in a smaller town like this, we really are quite versatile. If you are working in a larger library system in a large city, you might have more specific job roles where you would just handle the circulation or the holes or the damaged items. But in this particular library in Brainerd Public Library, we kind of are all trying to do all aspects, at least those of us on the kind of management team.
Randi: Thank you. And this is Randi. I think that’s such a good point that you bring up that depending on the community you’re in, it can look so very different depending on the company that you’re in and can look so very different. So two people might have the same job title, but their roles and, and how it’s being played out could look very different. So I think just something for all of you, you know, students listening, thinking about career pathways, keeping that in mind is really important as well. And Greg, you want to share.
Greg: Greg here. Yeah. My day, like pretty much everybody else is not typical at all. The only thing that how it starts is I pick up my smartphone as soon as I roll out of bed. I look at emails, text messages I might get from clients with problems that arose overnight. Or, you know, Monday mornings tend to be the most chaotic because they want to do a problem. On Friday afternoon, they’re like, ah, I don’t feel like working anyway. And we’ll see if it goes away over the weekend. And of course it doesn’t. So then they call me. Yeah, we do a lot of communications through emails with customers. Like I said, text messages. My day might be set up with just appointments. Sometimes I have to go to clients where we’ll do what we call onboarding, where we have to install all our software tools for our cybersecurity. The tool that allows me to remote into their desktop or laptop to fix it, the antivirus. Other tooling that helps for security for their email system to make sure that it’s not getting hacked. You know, we also have tools that monitor the dark web for password problems. and just looking at their domain name of their company.
Typically, to see what passwords are listed on as a compromised password list. And it’s not necessarily the specific place that it was compromised, but think about how you guys all do your passwords. They’re pretty much all the same, right? Maybe a little variation of exclamation point or whatever. I do it too. You’re not supposed to do it, but it’s just the way human nature is. It’s easier to remember it. So the important thing is if your Netflix account got hacked and you’re using a similar password for your banking software or for your systems that you use at work, it’s a good idea to change that password. Yeah. Every day is really different. It’s some days I can start my schedule. Oh, it looks like I got an easy day. Hey, honey, I’m working on the lawn today while I’m at home. She comes home and she’s like, what have you been doing all day? Well, working, you know? But yeah, it’s always different. It’s a lot of fun. It’s, uh, the change and the learning from it is, I think helps keep me on my toes and gives me a younger perspective. It’s a good exercise in my mind all the time.
Randi: Thank you.
Randi: This next question I’m going to ask Abbi.
Abbi: Well, I’m working with people every day, so I’m kind of working with them where they’re at. My students are coming to me from many different cultural language, educational backgrounds, so I’m really just wherever they are and in their journey of learning English or even just school in general, I kind of have to be able to work with everybody. So I’m working a lot with just like interpersonal skills and then technical side, of course, my like the knowledge of language, the knowledge of English and understanding English grammar and conventions of like how we use our language and how we communicate and teaching that. But also I have to know a lot of history. I think it helps to know a lot about the history. And why are people coming to the United States? Why are people in my classroom? I need to know so many things. But, Um, so technically technical skills, I need to have a lot of that like kind of liberal arts background, English history kind of stuff, teaching, understanding how people learn those types of things.
Kathleen: Uh, this is Kathleen, obviously, because I wear three different hats, I have to have a lot of computer skills and open and always researching and wanting additional knowledge in the IT world and what software’s are out there that can help with AI. It’s a whole new world for us. Um, and looking at what tools through that can help us. On the HR side, I have have a lot of business law knowledge, what we can and cannot do, uh, with employees and also what they can and cannot do and how to handle, you know, certain situations. And then of course, on the accounting side, a lot of mathematical skills. In fact, thank God I grew up with brothers who always wanted to do math offs to decide what movie to watch. So I was really good at doing math that came from my mother was a teacher. But yes, that’s the kind of the technical side. On the other side, you know, really being able to work with people, your interpersonal skills, a lot of empathy, being able to understand where people are coming from and understanding. There’s always two sides of the story. A lot of patience because I’m one who wants to get it done. Let’s solve it and let’s move on. Sometimes the individuals you’re working with need more time than you want to give them. So a lot of patience, being able to understand that and read that and really a lot of flexibility being able to adjust, um, as to who you’re working with, what you’re working on and what the needs are there. Thank you.
Randi: This is Randi. This next question, I’ll ask Greg you first and then Angie and Jonathan as well to respond. What is one task or responsibility in your role that you didn’t expect before starting?
Greg: Oh, wow. That’s a good one. I think the that dealing with, sometimes customers can get a little uptight, perhaps angry even, and having to manage that situation and what they might be angry at or uptight about is maybe their servers down and that none of their employees can work. So I understand that. But so they’ll hover over top of you and it just, it’s really nerve wracking. You have to learn how to manage that without being like, take it out of my space. It’s kind of a feeling to them and, and that sort of thing. It gets a little tricky at times.
Angie: What was surprising to me, I guess, was the, the fact that there are people in Brainerd that use the library every single day, all day. Some people need a safe place to hang out, especially in the winter. We have a lot of unhoused people, and I don’t think people think of Brainerd as a town that has homelessness, but that was definitely really surprising to me. There’s etiquette in certain rules and ways to interact with the patrons. And there are certain things that we don’t allow at the library, like laying on the floor. Some libraries will wake people up if they’re sleeping. We tend to let people doze. We want to be able to see their face so you can’t have a blanket over your head. But we need to see that they are safe and breathing. But other than that, you know, people are free to use the building. So that was really surprising to me. And we have had to, you know, ask people to get up off the floor. We have had to, you know, go into the restrooms and tell people that they cannot use the sink and counter to wash dishes. That sort of thing. I wasn’t expecting that. I think customer service would be a big part of the rule, but I was not prepared for that. And it as someone who’s very sensitive and empathetic, it’s it adds a definite layer to your role as a librarian, you know, just being there as a safe place, A warm place sometimes. Maybe you’re the only person that they talk to that day.
Jonathan: This is Jonathan. I think what surprised me the most really was as my role has evolved, I’ve had more people working in my teams is just how much time goes into looking after the team. That is something that’s been quite a. It was quite a steep, steep learning curve. I really, if you’re managing people, you’re almost like a parent. And we have very, you know, very broad spectrum. We have people working here. We have high school kids. I have people who are retired, you know, they’re just looking to make some extra money now or get out of the house. So just, just really developing my skills. And you mentioned empathy counseling and empathy is a huge part of my job. And just really getting to know my team and what they need, how they communicate and ensuring that they’re having a good time as well. And they have the tools they need. that everyone is getting on. I always say we don’t expect people to be best friends, but we expect everyone in our team to treat each other with respect and work together. So big part of that is knowing the team and communicating to other team members. If there’s conflict, kind of resolving that, explaining this is how this person learns or this person thinks, and just you have to change your approach with that person.
Randi: This is Randi, making sure I’m on the right question here. All right. Uh, for Kathleen and then Abbi, What has been one of the challenge or setback you’ve faced in your work journey and how did you navigate it?
Kathleen: This is Kathleen. I would say when I graduated from college, I had, I would say big grand ambitions. And I started my career down in Minneapolis and then came with a friend to a party in Brainerd and met my husband. Uh, and not that he’s a challenge, but so I was in Minneapolis, my career was going great. I worked for one of the top accounting firms as an auditor. And I mean, my life was looking just like I thought it would. And then I fell in love with him. And he was not a city boy. He was a country boy, wanted to be in the Brainerd Lakes area. And even though we said, okay, I’ll look in Brainerd for a job, you look in the cities for the job. He never applied anywhere. And I found a job here in Brainerd, which not that that was a setback, but Brainerd is a different community and a different pay scale and a different there’s different opportunities. It’s not the metropolitan where you have all kinds of opportunities. You’re a little bit more limited. So kind of navigating through that, where in Minneapolis, I had people knocking on my door needing people, as many people as they could get. But when I moved to Brainerd, I had to knock on everyone’s door to find that perfect job again. So I would say not really a step back, but it was a different way of looking at my career and going, okay, and it turned out great. This was a wonderful place to raise our family and, and live. And my career kept going, even though I was like, oh my gosh, what am I going to do?
Abbi: And this is Abbi, I don’t know if it’s a setback, but I think when I graduated, so I got my master’s in teaching English as a second language. And when I went to start looking for a job, I couldn’t find a full time position when I was starting out when without, I just had a little bit of experience. And so I had to kind of piece together some positions at first. So I was, I was working, teaching English, but I was also teaching before and after school Spanish. And I was doing, uh, if any of you were part of the Avid programs in your schools, I was an Avid tutor kind of at the same time. So I had to do some other kind of educational teaching experience as well to kind of get that experience in order to eventually be able to have the experience and could get a full time teaching position. But at first, I did have to kind of piece together some things. I had to be a little bit flexible. I think for a little bit I was able to get more hours where at this school I was teaching, but then I was teaching in the morning. I like I had like a split shift. It was a very strange schedule, but after I got over that kind of initial hurdle, I was able to get full time. And I haven’t had any problems with that since. But I think when you’re first starting out, it can be a little hard as a as a teacher, especially when you’re trying to get that experience and kind of get their foot in the door.
Randi: Thank you. Yeah. This is Randi. We hear that all the time. You have to have experience to be qualified, but then how do you get experience when you’re starting off? It’s a vicious cycle. And I’m glad you glad you were able to share that experience with students. Greg. I’m going to ask who or what has supported you the most as you’ve grown in your career?
Greg: That’s a really easy answer for me. It’s my wife. I was working full time at a consulting company where we do basically what I do now, and we help businesses out, and usually they’re smaller businesses and don’t have it. They were trying to structure so that they were trying to get larger firms so that I could go to this one on Monday, this one on Tuesday, this one on Wednesday. But I worked with a lot of really small places where they were like 10 to 20 people in them and they were just going to like get rid of those customers. And so I thought I could probably just do this out of my house. So I quit my job, jumped into that, just like that. That took an incredible, a lot of support from my wife to be able to take that step. So I ran my own company for ten years before I got too busy and sold to a partner. And it’s been a really good thing. So she’s been very supportive through all of it.
Randi: And this is really cool. They made a comment earlier about finding a mentor, I think. Yeah, whether that’s, you know, someone you live with, someone you know, that you encounter in the workplace, really super important to have, Have support and encouragement that way. I’ll ask Jonathan and then Angie what types of training, education or hands on experiences helped you get where you are today?
Jonathan: Gosh, this job I have had done some kind of marketing certificates and stuff which helped give me more of an understanding of business, I guess. But really, it’s really just been experience. It’s been building relationships with people I work with, learning from observing, working hard. I mean, that really does come down to that and turn up when you expect to turn up and do your best.
Angie: Yeah, that’s what I found. As far as trainings go, most of the library training for the library duties are kind of on the job shadowing current employees. So I did that a lot when I started at the library. Since then, we’ve had a lot of Zoom trainings from, I believe his name is Ryan Doud. I will look up later for sure. He does a lot of interpersonal training, so dealing with agitated customers, dealing with unhoused people, dealing with mentally ill people, dealing with somebody that appears to be on drugs dealing. You know, de-escalation is a big part of our training, how to approach people and bring it down rather than raise it up. That’s something we’ve had a lot of training for on the job also. I facilitate our library book club. I’ve learned a lot through doing that. As far as readers advisory and talking about books that I think on the job training is probably the most beneficial to me. Just getting out there and doing it and learning from the experiences.
Randi: Thank you. This is Randi. This next question I will ask Abbi and then Kathleen. In your experience, what makes a workplace more inclusive or supportive for employees who are blind or have low vision. And if. You’ve not worked with colleagues that are blind or low vision, can you please speak to just broader inclusive practices? You know, things maybe that you’ve experienced or things that you think might help to cultivate that inclusive environment?
Abbi: So this is Abbi again and working at SSB, there’s we, you know, of course, are very inclusive and try to be inclusive of how, you know, within, even within the state with DEED, we all have to go through some trainings on how to make documents and things like our, like our word documents, PowerPoints, all that have, have to be accessible. A lot of our trainings and things. There’s always a little like enable this for if you’re using a screen reader. So there’s, I think like within the state, there’s a lot of, I think those like materials and those documents that everybody needs. I think there’s a lot of support there. Yeah. I think just being not limiting anybody still saying, you know, people have potential to do all the same things and giving people the tools to do that. So I think that’s what makes it inclusive.
Kathleen: Well, this is Kathleen. So I’ve been in HR for, gosh, 30 years now. I’m aging myself. But you know, that is what an HR professional does is try to figure out how can we get a great employee body and what tools do we have to give those individuals to do the job from, whether it’s language or low vision, or maybe it’s a physical handicap or they can’t walk or, you know, that kind of thing, that’s fine. They got a beautiful brain. They have a beautiful smile. They have great customer service. They’re great at math. What are the tools that they need in order to get the job done? Is, is really how we approach all of our hiring. And the way I’ve done it for 30 years, where there’s a will, there’s a way. And like you said, there’s so many tools out there and so many resources out there that if you just do a little creative thinking and a little looking, you can usually find a way to accommodate everybody and be inclusive that way.
Randi: Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. And this is Randi. I know we had some discussion about that last night too. If any students want to chime in…
Riley: What would you have told your younger self? Like now that now that you’re well into your careers, like what, what would you have told your younger self if you were that person in high school and you’re like, hey, you’re, you’re, you were that attentive or whatever the case might be, what would you told yourself, you know, as your younger self, as a piece of advice in high school?
Kathleen: This is Kathleen. I think I would have told myself that it’s okay to make mistakes or what. I thought I had to be perfect and I also am super competitive. I thought I had to be number one always, and some of my struggles, I think through my career path is I wasn’t always that number one person. I wasn’t always at the top of the chain, which was great. I was still learning. So I would have told my younger self that I take whatever is in front of you. Learn from it. Grow from it to. Then tomorrow you can. You can make yourself who you want to be because every experience is worth having, whether it’s not right where you want to be or right where you think you should be. They’re all a learning opportunity.
Abbi: This is Abbi. So what is the what do you call the person who graduates the bottom of their class in medical school? I also have these, like, perfectionist tendencies. I want to be really good at everything. But my husband frequently reminds me of this little anecdote, because I think it’s important to remember that even though you’re not number one or you’re not, you don’t have like straight A’s or whatnot. If you continue on, right, you have that grit, you don’t stop. You just continue and keep going. And you eventually graduate from medical school. You’re still called doctor, right? So I think it’s all about picking yourself back up. It’s believing in yourself. Even when things get hard or you make a mistake, or you have some setbacks. If this is really what you want to do, I think then you know, keep working towards it. Don’t worry too much about being perfect.
Hanna: Oh, this is Hanna. I heard, uh, one of you doesn’t like computers. What don’t you like?
Greg: Well, this is Greg. I said that. That was when I was in high school, and a lot’s changed since then. It was basically a programming class that I had, and I’m just. Coding is not what I do. I’m more of a hardware guy. I like installing the computers and troubleshooting problems and that sort of stuff. So that’s why I said I didn’t like it because I didn’t want to be a programmer.
This is Greg I wanted to add to that younger self And the two ladies down there, they, uh, they added that not every day is, is easy. I have a kind of a saying like, just imagine if every day was perfect and went really well, that would actually be really boring, you know, because part of what makes a great day is when you have a bad day before it, and then you have a good day. You really appreciate that good day a lot more. It means more subtle, okay to have bad days because bad days, the good days would be better. It’s okay.
Student: I have a question for all of you. How long do you guys, like go to school outside of like grades? Like how long did you guys kind of like in college or whatever?
Angie: I can go first for that. I actually don’t have a college degree. I, a person that went to three colleges over the course of five years and just kept kind of bouncing around. I started at the University of Minnesota to do my generals, and then I transferred up north to Bemidji State for personal reasons. And then I ended up doing social work up there. Then another personal change. We moved and I decided, okay, I’m probably going to finish up my degree at Hamlin. And I got accepted there and did one semester and then stopped right before my degree after my social work Internship. When I decided I did in fact, not want to pursue that in that exact realm. So I can attest it’s okay to change your mind. It’s okay to do different things. Here I am age 50 and still eight credits short of a degree, and I’m okay with that. I ended up finding a job that I love, and the position I currently hold does not require a four year degree. To be a director of a library system, you have to have a master’s in library science. But to do the particular role I do. Some college and experience is enough for my job requirement.
Randi: Thank you.
Greg: Oh, this is Greg. I went for like five and a half years. It took me to get my four year degree. I raised a family. I owned a home, got married young. I got married while I was in college. So, you know, four year degree doesn’t mean it’s a four year degree. It’s whatever it takes. That’s the key thing to remember. You do you just you take your time, you do well at it, and things will take care of itself.
Kathleen: This is Kathleen. I actually prior to nowadays kids go to college in high school, but I started my college career in my junior year of high school. And then when I graduated, I ended up doing another three and a half years at the university I chose to go to. So and graduated with a double major doing it that way.
Abbi: This is Abbi. I also did some college in the high school classes, so I, like I mentioned before, when my undergraduate degree was in theater. So I did my theater degree in three years and then knew pretty close to the end that I was going to go into. I wanted to study English as a second language, but first I went to Hamlin and I got a graduate certificate at Hamlin for teaching English as a foreign language so that I could teach abroad, and I thought I would kind of dip my toes in that way. And then I did, um, go on right after that and continued on with the master’s degree program after that. And it took me about three years to do because I had to write a. Capstone paper as well. So it took me about a year to write that.
Jonathan: I was just gonna say, this, this is Jonathan. Um, you know, my career prior to, to coming to Cragun’s here, as I said, was it that that’s, uh, certainly that’s just something that really kind of learned on the job. We did have technical training. I started out with, with on the equipment side, so setting up projectors, setting up sound systems, running all of these equipment and then move more into the, the managing of the roles. And then working with companies, organizations with all the details of planning. And so it really wasn’t any kind of education for that when I started because I know when to run, but I will say now our university programs out there to get into event planning, things like that. And it’s something that organizations do look for certain added larger corporations that you know, they’re looking for people to work internally running events and planning events, and they are looking for people now or that have gone through these courses, these education programs. So I think, you know, time and time change a lot of us.
Randi: Thank you so much. This is Randi. I saw hand. And have you had a question or comment?
Student: Yeah. This was for Angie. How much is considered? Some college?
Angie: When I did my first two years at U. And I completed only about one and a half years of credit. So when I transferred to Bemidji, I had about one and a half years done, and then I did two years there working toward my social work degree. So I had about three and a half years of credits done when I moved to the metro area from Bemidji, and that’s when I went to Hamlin for one semester. So very close to four full years of college, but bouncing around, it took me a little while to decide on social work, and then, of course, decided not to pursue that. Um, it was another kind of detour.
Greg: I like to just add to that this is Greg. I think some college would be like at a minimum, probably for jobs that were that would ask for that as a requirement is probably close to keeping, uh, completing your, your undergraduate degree or two year associate’s degree. If you do a year and a half for that probably might consider and some might be you got to get into some sort of major. And I think that’s going to differ between whatever the job is that you’re looking at doing.
Paxton: This is Paxton, what college did you go to?
Greg: This is Greg. I went to Saint Cloud State.
Abbi: This is Abbi, I went to the University of Wisconsin-river Falls for my undergrad, and then I went to Hamlin for graduate school.
Kathleen: This is Kathleen I started at Saint Cloud State where my. When I was in high school and I went to the College of Saint Benedict.
Voice: Yeah, Johnnies.
Jonathan: This is Jonathan. I actually did classes at University College.
Randi: this is Randi. I did some college in the high school as well at Central Lakes College here in Brainerd. And then actually I got fortunate enough to get my degree before I graduated high school. And then I went and did my undergraduate in Bemidji and then I got my graduate degree at Saint Cloud State.
Student: How many of you guys know each other?
Randi: Yeah. And this is very good. I can speak to that. Maybe I a part of your curiosity might be like, how did we get this group of folks? I reached out to people based on those of you that registered for this event, those of you that are here in this room, I either looked at your employment plan to see what your job role was listed, had a conversation with your counselor or a conversation with you to see like kind of what are you thinking about? What are your goals? What are you interested in? And then I took that information for this morning’s panel, as well as for this afternoon to try and create an environment and, and, uh, you know, business professionals as best as I can that would align with the majority of your expressed interest areas. Unfortunately, we, you know, we weren’t able to get u a representative for every single industry, but as best as possible, try to kind of have a representation that matched with what your career goals were. So some of these folks you’ll see again this afternoon when we do our job shadowing, and then we have some other individuals coming in as well to meet with a few of you. So just as a heads up that way that you might see some of these fine folks again at 2:00. So last call, any final question? Pressure’s on.
Shane: This is Shane. How do you practice a work life balance. And how important is that to you in your line of work?
Greg: Uh, this is Greg. I’ll take that question. That’s that work life balance typically comes from the company or your boss that you work for. Some of them are really great at it, and some of them are absolutely terrible about it. I think I spoke to a little bit of the work life balance. Uh, you know, everybody got a good chuckle about the nap. That’s part of the way I manage that. You know, it took a while for my wife to get the handle of that. When we go on vacation, that I need to run up to the hotel room and get on my laptop and do something instead of being by the pool or whatever activity that we’re doing, that sort of thing. But work life balance is a great struggle for a lot of people. It mostly comes from your boss, like the guy that I sold my company to. I work for him now and he’s, he’s excellent with it. He, he lets me, I got a side job. I do radio announcing, uh, for Brainerd Warrior Sports, which is just a lot of fun. And it goes back to what I said earlier about when I was in high school. That’s what I wanted to do. So it’s really cool that I get to do that. But he allows me in the springtime to just take time off. I don’t have to take vacation. I don’t have that because he knows I’m going to stay on top of my projects and that, and that’s what’s really it is, having a boss that’ll allow you to do that, and knowing that you might work late on a weekend or whatever to get that caught up, to make up for it. If it’s not hour for hours, that’s fine, as long as it gets done.
Kathleen: This is Kathleen. I have been in my career for 30 years and I still struggle with that. So I agree somewhat that it’s the boss, but it’s also the individual needs to set boundaries of what you’re willing to do and, and what you’re being paid to do. And when that crosses that boundary, you have to be able to vocalize that for yourself. And, you know, I as I love to work, so my theory is work hard and then play hard. I have two beautiful children that I make sure that I’m there for them when they need me there. But then I also love to put time into my career. So you really got to set your boundaries, figure out what is that work life balance for you? Because mine is way different than probably somebody else’s. And that’s okay. You have to kind of decide what that what your life should look like, and then make sure you set those boundaries. I would say it is very important to, to be able to disconnect. It is it is harder nowadays because with the technology, it’s so intrusive, you know, as you say, Greg, the, constant messages, etc.. Yeah. As you say, you need to set your expectations.
Jonathan: Catharines quite right. But it’s also the people you work with that you have, you build these relationships that you know, that you can tell them, I’m going to be gone now and that. Can you handle this? Have you got have you got for me, it’s for my teams. Have they got the skills and the knowledge to be able to take care of that and also know the resources they can go to. So for instance, I’m not here next week, but my team know if they need help. If they’re out of their depth, they can reach out to Kathleen or other leaders here for support. So it was very important to talk to them. I turn off my email notifications on my phone. We are a 24 over seven operation here as well. We are. So we do not have the luxury of 5:00 on Friday, locking the door and going home.
Kathleen: I have a question about that, Jonathan. In your role, is there another person that does the identical role? Because you can’t obviously work seven days a week, all day dealing with your customers. Like what happens on your days off?
Jonathan: I go back to my team. You know, I have my team are trained and, and they, they’re apparent as well. So they can make decisions. You know, if something if something not many things can wait. You know, if we have an upside guest, as long as they’re communicating, they’re just as I, I, I hope they do, you know, with my leadership that they are, they have the empathy that that person, I guess, knows, feels that they’ve been listened to. They understand that Jonathan is back in two days time and he is going to fix this for you. And he’s going he’s going to be in touch with me. So so that that’s really. Yeah. So I can’t be 24 over seven. I, I’ve, I’ve tried that not on purpose. It doesn’t work.
Kathleen : And this is Kathleen. So I run the IT department here. So that is also 365247. So it’s setting SOPs or you know, standard operating procedures. And what is the life and death situation versus it can wait till morning because I have gotten the 3 a.m. call that my Netflix isn’t working because the Wi-Fi is down and you want to say, go to bed, get up in the morning, you know, so that’s not life or death. Okay? We’ll be there in the morning. Sorry you can’t watch a movie right now, versus the entire system is down and nobody can get into their rooms because the lock system is down. Then I’m driving in to assist with that. And then having those team members, like Jonathan said, that can. If I’m gone on a weekend to a wedding. My IT manager is on. If he’s gone, I’m on. We make sure everybody knows who’s on and off at what times. communication is key.
Riley: like someone say someone like with a visual impairment comes to apply for your resort here. Now, what kind of accommodations? You know, I mean, obviously I would talk with them beforehand, but what would kind of be your first reaction as to how they can successfully do this job?
Jonathan: Oh, thank you John here. So when I’m interviewing somebody for a job, I, I’m, I’m looking at that person. You mentioned a beautiful brain, not just their personality, their knowledge. For me, one of my favorite questions is, why do you want to work at Cragun’s? Because I’m always looking for something that’s excited as some passion that they’re excited to work at Cragun’s Resort, or they think it would be really fun here because that that’s important to me as well. If I met an individual that has some needs, I think this person would be a great fit for my team. I’m actually going to go to Kathleen, and I was the HR person and kind of say, so what can we do? You know, I’m also obviously going to ask that person as well if you know what, what they would need. But ultimately I’m going to go to HR. They’re going to tell me what we can and can’t do.
Kathleen: And this is Kathleen. So yeah, our managers would do the interview. They find what I call the beautiful brain. And a great personality checks all the boxes, but they need the accommodation. That’s an open conversation because I don’t know what the needs are or what type of accommodations you know, you can have or use. So we would seek that information out. And we also have lots of resources, whether it’s Sherm or different state programs to explore. What are some of the tools that we could put in place. And then we start exploring how do we put those in place? Like, you know, what are the costs? Does it work for the individual? Is this going to are we going to succeed? Are we setting. Most importantly, I think for Jonathan and I is that we’re setting the individual up for success. And we’re also setting the company up for success. If we can get those two to marry. We will make that decision as a yes every time.
Jeff: And that wraps up the careers panel event. And this was held at Cragun’s Resort in Brainerd, Minnesota, as part of state services for the blinds first annual Career Exploration Adventure Weekend event. And if you want to check out the previous episode where two students, Randi Lasher, all gave feedback and input on the event itself. And believe me, it’s really good. You just can’t beat the perspective of two high school and college students. It’s titled explore, connect and Grow: Students discover career possibilities at Cragun’s Resort. We’ll put the link in the show notes.
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To find out more about all the programs at State Services for the Blind, contact Shane.DeSantis@State.Mn.us
That’s Shane dot d-e-s-a-n-t-i-s at state.mn .us.
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Be sure to contact your State Services for the Blind, your Voc Rehab and find out what they can do for you.
Live. work. Read. Succeed.
[Music] [Transition noise] –
When we share-
What we see
-Through each other’s eyes…
[Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence]
…We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities.