April 2022 Q2 Alumni Advice: Embracing Hurdles and Detours
By Sabrina Kang, Principal Researcher at Salesforce, HCDE certification 2013
Believe it or not, rejection can be good.
The best thing that ever happened to me was starting off my professional career with 50+ job rejections. Yep! I know for those of you who send out virtual resumes that doesn’t seem like a lot. Mine though, were very personal rejections. This was in the 90’s when you didn’t apply online. The rejections were to my face. I heard things considered illegal now, “you are too ugly, I need a man in the role, nope, you look too foreign for our viewers.”
After my undergraduate degree at the University of Washington, I got a Master’s at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Medill’s advisor back in the day, Lou Prato, suggested handing off a resumé reel and setting up meetings with small market news directors. And that’s what I did. I drove cross country from Seattle, my hometown, to Maine with stops in small towns like Yakima, East Lansing and Huntington.
As soon as I got into a new town, I would visit a mall or “city center.” I would ask people, which local station they watched and why (what a foreshadowing to my career as a researcher). I would then cold call television stations to try and meet with a news director. Looking back, most news directors actually took the time to meet me.
I racked up thousands in credit card debt on this two-month job search road trip, but it set me up for future rejections and made me resilient.
My first break in television came from Don Cornwell.
After getting rejected from a job in Duluth, a news director there said if I was headed East, consider making a stop in New York City to meet Don because he likes to help young people get started in the business. Don co-founded Granite Broadcasting back in 1988, the largest African American station group in the US at the time.
Don helped me get my first job as a junior television reporter in Peoria, Illinois. I stayed at WEEK-TV for more than four years and by the time I left, I was a weeknight anchor and investigative reporter.
I tell this story because from my very first break to every career transition, my successes came from someone willing to take a chance on me.
Thanks Don, Karen, Katie, Mike, Jess and Bill for taking that leap of faith in me.
I also tell this story because representation matters. To this day, I feel an obligation to support underrepresented minorities because that’s the example Don set for me.
I have a challenge for all you recruiters, hiring managers or people of influence, take a chance on someone you have a good feeling about or who wouldn’t otherwise be noticed.
I know this sounds obvious, but hiring and taking a risk goes both ways and I’ve been on both sides.
If your current role isn’t quite right, do your research on what will make it right.
This is what I did recently.
I left an amazing job at an awesome company because things weren’t quite right. I was managing a big and growing team. I missed doing research. The world was in disarray and I was looking for a company or organization that was bold about inclusion and diversity.
Fast forward to today and I can’t imagine doing and being anywhere else. And even though I’ve established myself as a research leader, it took time and a few rejections along the way.
I am a Principal Researcher at Salesforce. I focus on research to support Salesforce’s 400 writers, content strategists and content designers. As a former journalist and content producer, the research opportunities couldn’t be more perfect.
Rian Freedman, a recruiter at Salesforce reached out to me in February 2021.
Soon after, I met Kat Holmes, from Salesforce. Cliff Kuang and a few other Asian design leaders included me in an effort on how we could as a group make a difference. The shootings that killed six Asian women in Atlanta started that conversation and connection. I remember being in awe of Kat and in awe of Salesforce’s stance on the Stop Asian Hate movement.
It’s come full circle. I now get to work with Kat.
I also work with some of the most thoughtful, intelligent content folks in technology.
And my research colleagues are shaping strategy at Salesforce and producing inspiring work.
It’s no surprise that during this historic time dubbed the Great Resignation, that several folks have come out of the woodwork asking for help as they try to break into technology or research jobs.
It’s been rewarding to counsel these courageous job seekers who are at very different points in their career journey.
My role on the University of Washington’s Alumni Leadership Board (ALB) for the Human Centered Design and Engineering School has connected me to many students and new grads. I also have a diverse and awesome network of brave, smart folks wanting to try something new.
I’ve made a few major career transitions of my own and I know first hand how difficult that can be. I also had a tough time breaking into my first profession, as a television reporter.
I share my story in hopes that those of you on the hunt realize that rejections you will likely face at different times in your career journey, will hopefully get you to a good place down the road.
But it can be easier to get to that good place if those of us who are already there, take a chance on someone like Don did for me.
