Episode 68: How I Broke Into Project Management with a Liberal Arts Degree, with Ariana Rodriguez
Are you a liberal arts major / grad who has a hard time articulating WHAT you bring to the table in your interviews? Tune into today’s episode for the special sauce.
It’s true: liberal arts grads have to work harder and get really good at talking about their strengths, skills, and value proposition.
Look, I get the “liberal arts struggle” when it comes to job searching, particularly when you’re early in your career. I went to a liberal arts college and graduated with a degree in Political Science and Italian Studies. When I was a college junior and senior, I wasn’t exactly sure how my major / studies would transfer into the workplace. What skills did I have? Were they even marketable?
At first blush, it seems like you’re at a serious disadvantage when you graduate with a degree in History, versus someone else who might be graduating with a degree in Accounting and Marketing.
But here’s the thing. That advantage? It doesn’t last for long. Because of this thing called “real life world experiences.”
Eventually, you WILL be given opportunities, jobs, internships, whatever. And you will have the opportunity to learn new skills and use them. What you THEN need to be able to do, is communicate WHAT those new skills and experiences ARE, their value, and how they apply to your target role.
Building up your career portfolio and communicating powerfully about your so-called “Soft Skills” and how they drive results, is really important. And that’s what we discuss on today’s episode.
On today’s episode, we have a special guest – Ariana Rodriguez – who graduated from NYU in 2010 with a liberal arts degree. At first she thought she wanted to make a difference in the world in education and nonprofit. Within a few years, and with student loans still unpaid, she realized she would need to pivot into a new career that would pay her better. But, how do you market yourself and make yourself competitive for jobs when you have a liberal arts degree and have only worked in the education sector?
Ariana tells us how she made this pivot, drawing upon her own skills, strengths and personal experiences. She knew that she needed to DEMONSTRATE to the interviewers how her skills of problem solving, attention to detail, and collaboration would be beneficial to the administrative assistant job that was posted.
After she got the admin assistant job (which by the way, she was definitely overqualified for!), she rocked that job all the way through several promotions into the project manager career, which she enjoyed for many years.
On this episode, we discuss:
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Why she decided to pivot out of the education/nonprofit and social work space, and move into a project manager career in healthcare
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How a personal health problem turned into a soap business that she talked about in her interviews
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How her philosophy college courses actually helped her fine-tune a skillset that she still uses today
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Why she left her job to go full-time on her business in 2021
Follow Ariana Rodriguez on LinkedIn. Ariana owns a business where she helps emerging agencies get to the next level of success by streamlining backend operations and systems.
Listen To The Full Episode:
68. How I Broke Into Project Management with a Liberal Arts Degree, with Ariana Rodriguez
Are you a liberal arts college grad who struggles to articulate your value proposition to employers? Did you graduate during a recession? Are you thinking about pivoiting into the project manager career path? Then you need to tune into today’s episode, with special guest, NYU grad, and Dominican-American Ariana Rodriguez.
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