What kind of jobs did you have in college, and what lessons stick with you?

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  Connie Dawes

  10 years at UT

  Director, GEAR UP

  I worked for my university's art museum (now the Fralin Museum of Art) during my fourth year at the University of Virginia. Getting to know the staff and building relationships with art history faculty members in a deeper way was invaluable. In fact, it led me to an internship in New York City after college.

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  Ayden Castellanos

  2 years at UT

  Digital Content Coordinator

  I worked in retail. It taught me a lot about customer service and working with various personalities. I think everyone should work retail or food service. I also designed flyers for local events and performers. Creative work has always been something I loved to do.

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  Ting-Ting Chen

  3 years at UT

  Program Coordinator, Center for Creative Economies

  I volunteered at the Austin History Center, working with the Asian American Community Archives, and worked part-time at Asahi Imports. Neither had openings posted publicly, so I guess the biggest lesson is that you never know what opportunities are available to you unless you ask! Also related: Don't be afraid to ask for help if you need it. Imposter syndrome is real, but nobody knows everything, and nobody expects you to know everything. You're never on your own in anything. People generally want to help, so don't be afraid to ask questions.

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  Kaelin Nguyen Rubenzer

  8 years at UT

  Executive Director, Lifelong Learning with Friends

  Most of the jobs I had in college were as research assistants in neuroscience labs. There, I learned much about both the glamour and monotony of research, how to better organize my work (and life), and how to fail so many times you just have to laugh at it. However, my favorite job was working at Whole Foods as a humble cook. I would ride my bike there at 5 a.m., 5 days a week, and would roll 200 breakfast tacos before the sun would rise. I met a lot of interesting people there, many of them immigrants who were my grandparents age, some of whom had been working there for decades. These were people I would've likely never met if I had narrowly pursued jobs in STEM, and I'm grateful I ventured out.

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  Mike Gutierrez

  15 years at UT

  Program Manager

  I had a variety of on-campus jobs including mentoring, peer advising, food hall, teaching assistant, research assistant, and recruiting positions. The biggest lessons that stuck with me were learning how to work with people from different backgrounds and skillsets to know what is expected in the workplace after college and how to prioritize professional development in the workplace as well.

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  Lisa Lennon

  10 years at UT

  University Landscape Architect

  As a UT student, I worked for RecSports checking student IDs; as a student in grad school at Tarleton State, I was a farm worker/ horticulture and entomology research assistant; and at University of Arizona, a student intern with the Arizona Department of Water Resources. The variety and diverse jobs I had taught me to budget time and money, the value and ethics of hard work, and each layered as the foundation and provided confidence of working with the public that contributed to the person I am today.