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After working as a flight attendant for four years, Keana was ready for a more stable and better paying job. She found out about the Therefore Community in December 2021 through a Slack group and became one of our earliest members. More than that, Keana was the first member to get hired following a conversation she had on Therefore.
How did you first find out about Therefore, and what interested you about it?
When I first saw Therefore, I saw it as an opportunity for networking, just to be able to talk to other people who may be in the position that I want to be in— connect me to a job opportunity or give me advice on how to develop the skills I need to make a successful transition.
How had you been looking for opportunities before joining Therefore?
LinkedIn was pretty much the only place I was looking. I wasn’t doing any networking, because I just didn't really know how to… just add random people and be like, “Hey, I want a job in this field, can you help me?” I thought that would have been weird. So I just didn't know how to start.
I had doubts about going from being a flight attendant to a job in tech. A lot of times when you tell people that you're a flight attendant, they think that you don't have any valuable skills. When you hear those comments a lot, it kind of just gets ingrained in your brain. So I was kind of paranoid about that when I applied for jobs.
How did your Therefore meetings compare to your job search before?
It was really hard to get my skills across on paper, which is the first thing people are looking at when you're applying for a job is the piece of paper, your resume. The resume is just an antiquated way of doing things. And I think Therefore is very valuable because you get to see past what's on that piece of paper.
It's a different approach: an opportunity for the company to look at that person as a human being and actually get into a conversation with them. And I think it's very valuable to just talk to people. Even if you don't think they're qualified for something on paper, you could talk to them and see, oh, maybe they're just not good at translating what their goals and what they have done in the past. But talking to them you might be able to figure out that that person actually has great ideas to bring to your company and how valuable they can be.
What have you gotten so far from making connections on Therefore?
I had two meetings: in the first one, I got tips and guidance on how to continue on into my job search. And then the second interview I had, I met with someone, we just had a wonderful conversation. I told them about my past experiences, what I want to do, what are my goals, what I like to do in my spare time. After our conversation, she asked me to interview for a job— and I got it! A job that, honestly, if I saw the listing on a website, I would not apply for because I didn't think I was qualified.
Plus, Therefore has given me a different viewpoint on how things can be done. It's given me the courage to actually reach out to other people and network.
We checked in with Keana 6 months after starting her new job as an Implementation Specialist at Onaroll. Read Part II of her story here!
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
