My Personal Story and Struggles As a Working Mom and Career Woman

Looking back to when I was first at my job in “Corporate America”, it’s hard to believe what I went through then to get to where I am now. There were many underlying personal struggles that I couldn’t talk about then (including living in poverty), and as I journey through the last six years in my head, I still find it hard to believe I am a working mom and career woman loving what I do.

Six years ago I had gone through a quarter-life crisis in trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life. The niche I had spent almost a decade building (real estate) quickly crumbled beneath my feet once we moved to Las Vegas and found ourselves smack dab in the middle of a modern-day recession. No one was hiring in Las Vegas and so many people were foreclosing on their homes. We had just moved to Las Vegas from Dallas and started quickly regretting the move. But we stuck it through and endured, and now I am so glad we did. Reflecting back to the days when I felt so lost makes me grateful for where I am now – such a humbling experience!

My days in the real estate industry were very fruitful, and I had made more money than I knew what to do with it. But then I took a bite out of some humble pie and knew that in order for me to start over in a new career, I’d need to work my way from the bottom and prove to them that I could do the job and that I was capable. I knew in my heart that I was destined for success! After connecting with a church friend who was an executive recruiter in Las Vegas, he quickly knew that I would make an excellent recruiter. After googling and researching, I discovered an intriguing and new found obsession with recruiting.

When I started looking for jobs and getting callbacks for interviews, I knew I needed to come to those interviews with a smile on my face and a professional suit on. But we were living with a very tiny budget and I couldn’t afford a nice suit for interviews. I got creative and shopped at stores like Goodwill for suits and at that time didn’t know about charities like Dress For Success, an international not-for-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a network of support and career development tools to help them thrive in work and in life.

Here’s the Dress For Success video:

My first job offer was as a contractor/temp through a staffing agency to work at a global gaming technology company as their Contract Recruiting Coordinator. I showed up to that job interview and found myself in a conference room with a panel of interviewers both on the phone and in-person, talk about intimidating! My job was to schedule the logistics of interviews and candidate travel to provide for a pleasant interview experience, and I loved it. I always believed in dressing the part and I discovered very quickly that I definitely wanted to be a Corporate Recruiter. There’s nothing more fulfilling than serving others and watching their lives change once they land that dream job. Each day that I came to work I dressed in a suit! I built relationships with the hiring managers that I had to help schedule interviews with, and anytime there was a local interview, I’d proactively offer to bring the candidate to the interview team and leave a professional impression in some way. Six months later, I became an entry level recruiter and after over five years with the same company I am now a Sr. Corporate Recruiter (I was even offered a full-time position complete with a very generous benefits package).

The moral of the story: dress the part and dress up for the job of your dreams.

Shortly after I became a Recruiter, I learned about Dress For Success and the charitable efforts they put forth to help women become independent and get suited up and ready for that big interview! I became a volunteer for Dress For Success and attended their local charity events in Las Vegas and met with amazing women to assist with mock interviews, critiquing resumes and styling them in suits (“suiting”) for their upcoming interviews. I loved working with Dress For Success, because I understood the women who have gone through the economic journey towards financial independence — after all, I was that woman!

We hope for that one chance given, and have faith that we will receive the opportunity to change our lives for the better. It has been a walk through memory lane and is incredibly humbling to see these women endure, persist, and persevere.

Vanity Fair Lingerie shares the same values as I, and are proud to host Buy One, Get One, Give One (BOGOGO) events this fall to help support women at Dress for Success®. Vanity Fair believes a bra can change a life, so during BOGOGO events, when you buy one Vanity Fair bra in-store, you get one for free and Vanity Fair will donate a new bra to Dress for Success on your behalf to help a woman on her journey to economic independence.

Here’s the Vanity Fair Lingerie video:

Here’s how the Vanity Fair Lingerie BOGOGO works:
· Buy One, Get One, Give One events will take place during designated weeks in September and October at major U.S. retailers across the country, including Kohl’s, JCPenney and Macy’s.

· Through this initiative, Vanity Fair has committed to donate 50,000 brand-new bras to Dress for Success, in hopes to provide one bra to every woman who walks through Dress for Success doors in the U.S. this year.

Vanity Fair will host Buy One, Get One, Give One events at the following national and regional retailers this fall:
·Kohl’s: Sept. 24 – Oct. 3, 2015
·JCPenney: Oct. 7 – Oct. 12, 2015
·Sears: Oct. 11 – Oct. 17, 2015
·Macy’s: Oct. 14 – Oct. 18, 2015
·Bealls: Oct. 18 – Oct. 24, 2015
·Boscov’s: Oct. 25 – Oct. 31, 2015
·Belk: Nov. 1 – Nov. 8, 2015

Be sure to check out more detailed information about Vanity Fair’s BOGOGO Promotion and its partnership with Dress for Success!

Oh, and follow along my ambassadorship partnership with Vanity Fair Lingerie online using hashtag #WomenWhoDo and #BrasChangeLives! You can also find Vanity Fair Lingerie on Facebook, Twitter (@ShopVanityFair), and Instagram (@ShopVanityFair).