National IT Professionals Day Trust the Process – An Interview Liz Veuna
Brooklyn Park, September 17, 2024
To celebrate National IT Professionals Day, we bring you an interview from Be Bold Break the Mold mentee and Cybersecurity student, Liz Veuna.
I chose to get into Information Technology, specifically Cyber Security because I know people who have experienced being scammed or having their identity taken. It made me feel like I wanted to make a difference in those lives.
I've been an optician for the last eight years and loved it. I love being in the medical clinic. I love helping patients, I loved my job. But I felt like my career at that time was plateauing. So, I thought, it’s time to look into something new. I have many friends that had gone to Hennepin Tech, and I've heard great things about the program there for IT. I heard about Be Bold Break the Mold from my instructor, Joan Bernard. I had her for my Network Admin class in my first semester and then I had her again for Cyber Defense One. We had a conversation about women in IT, and she brought up Be Bold Break the Mold and encouraged me and other women in our class to go and apply. At that time, Be Bold had the greatest number of participants they’d ever had. There were so many women coming into IT at that time. I remember there being so many people and not enough stipends.
And although I was not given a stipend, I thought, I still wanted to be a part of it because I saw the benefits. Being part of Be Bold and getting the right mentors helped me grow. I was able to interview for an IT internship at North Memorial with help from Be Bold, Joan, and my mentor. I found so many opportunities to build my resume and prepare for interviews because IT is a whole different infrastructure than where I worked before.
My mentor, Devin, is a Data Engineering Manager, so not quite like cyber, but her major was computer science. And many of the things we talked about helped me prepare for my internship interview and get my resume ready. The internship is a six-month program. I started my internship at North Memorial in December and will finish in June.
The number of successful women we meet through Be Bold has been amazing and inspiring, too. There’s lots of motivation for not just me, but others in Be Bold. I feel like they are showing that they started from the bottom and are just going to keep working their way through. I've seen some of the group grow.
They confidently speak in front of people now. I feel like I can also advise other, younger members because I've come a long way. I was like them, a little reserved and a little shy, and now I know my worth.
I pushed myself out of my comfort zone to go back to school, to go into something completely different, nothing like what I'm doing now. And even though I was afraid, I trusted the process, I trusted myself and I trusted what I was doing. And here I am now, a year later. I'm so happy where I am because I would have never met the people that I have. I would have never been a part of this program. I would have never gotten this internship. It's been an amazing experience. So yeah, trust the process.
About Non-Traditional Careers at Hennepin Tech
Hennepin Tech has a dedicated professional who is available to meet with students enrolled in a non-traditional career field. Being up front about the challenges and benefits of a nontraditional career, Be Bold Break the Mold resources are used to connect students through informational interviewing, job shadowing, joining with professional associations as a student, and making connections with other non-traditional career seekers to help them find that extra support.
About Hennepin Technical College
Founded in 1972, Hennepin Tech is the largest stand-alone technical college in Minnesota. With campuses in Brooklyn Park and Eden Prairie, the college offers degree and non-degree courses in over 40 programs in the skilled trades and high-demand career fields. Achieving a high job placement rate, Hennepin Tech prepares students for high-paying employment opportunities.