I changed jobs 10 times in 10 years to get the career I wanted
Brittany Harris-Nelson describes her career journey so far as being like "a frog moving across lily pads". "Each step brought me closer to where I
Brittany Harris-Nelson describes her career journey so far as being like "a frog moving across lily pads". "Each step brought me closer to where I ultimately wanted to be, even if the path wasn't always linear," says the 32-year-old. Today, Harris-Nelson works in a mid-level administrative position at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, a role she had long coveted.
She says that to get there, she leapt from one college job to another for close to a decade, using each new role to gain specialised skills that would help with her career advancement. Overall, she has had 10 different jobs at six different universities over the past decade, starting with several positions when she was still a student, and then three full-time roles.
Harris-Nelson has been an office manager, an admissions counsellor and a student advisor, before reaching her current position as assistant director of student engagement. While she does not wish to reveal how much she now earns, she says that as she changed jobs her salary didn't increase much. But she got more benefits, such as extra paid leave and bigger pension contributions from her employer.
"Each role helped me build skills and perspectives that I didn't yet have, and together those experiences prepared me for the work I do today," she says. And she's not alone.
The BriefWire