{"id":14,"date":"2022-09-16T04:52:12","date_gmt":"2022-09-16T04:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/horizons\/?p=14"},"modified":"2022-09-27T00:04:00","modified_gmt":"2022-09-27T00:04:00","slug":"14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/horizons\/2022\/09\/16\/14\/","title":{"rendered":"She knew she had more to offer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Oregon State helped her find it.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
When Marty Marrs started thinking about changing careers, she knew one thing: this time, she wanted to do something that mattered to her.<\/strong><\/h5>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Marty graduated from Oregon State in June 2022 with a B.S. in natural resources. Prior to that, she spent 18 years raising a family, which she loved, and also working in administrative jobs, which she wasn\u2019t as passionate about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI just knew I had so much more to offer, and so much more to give.”<\/p>– Marty Marrs, ’22, Natural Resources<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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That’s where Oregon State came in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A web search led Marty, who was living in Georgia, to the\u00a0B.S. in Natural Resources program<\/a>, delivered online through OSU Ecampus in partnership with the College of Forestry (CoF). But she wasn\u2019t sure how to turn an interest in the natural world into an actual career. A combination of online and in-person resources helped her connect the dots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She attended a virtual job fair via OSU\u2019s job platform, Handshake<\/a>, and listened to a presentation from a company that did environmental consulting work. Although she wasn\u2019t yet ready to apply to jobs, her interest was sparked. She used another of OSU\u2019s online tools, Vmock<\/a>, to review her r\u00e9sum\u00e9. Based on the feedback she received, she realized she needed additional help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was not your typical student,\u201d Marty said. \u201cI was making a complete career change, and I was also coming off of 18 years of staying at home with my kids. There is a lot of value and wisdom that comes with that, but I didn\u2019t know how to show that value.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So Marty made an appointment with Britt Hoskins, the career advisor<\/a> for students in CoF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBritt helped me completely redesign my r\u00e9sum\u00e9 ,\u201d Marty said. \u201cShe took the time to talk to me, to find out where I did have experience, and she taught me how to put that in a r\u00e9sum\u00e9 form. She showed me how to incorporate my OSU classes, and the projects I did in my classes, to build up my r\u00e9sum\u00e9.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking initiative<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

That wasn\u2019t the only piece of career advice Marty took action on. After listening to a session from Britt on informational interviews<\/a>, Marty took the initiative to request an informational interview with a company whose work seemed to align with her interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had never even heard of an informational interview before, but I reached out to this company, and said, \u2018Hey, can I just talk to someone and get more information about what you do?\u2019 Through that process, I learned that consulting was something I really am interested in,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, she continued to take a full load of classes through OSU Ecampus and also moved cross-country from Georgia to Oregon, to be closer to her daughter and closer to more companies in the environmental consulting field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zeroing in<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

As graduation approached in 2022, Marty began to pay even more attention to jobs and companies she was interested in. When she saw a position open up with Environmental Resources Management, a sustainability consultancy in Portland, she was interested but apprehensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had that typical concern, where I thought, \u2018Oh, I can\u2019t check all the boxes for all the qualifications, so I don\u2019t know if this is going to work.\u2019 But I applied anyway,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again acting on her OSU career advisor\u2019s advice, Marty took two additional proactive steps: she tailored her cover letter<\/a> to the position and she networked in advance of her interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the things I learned working with Britt is that the cover letter is your chance to explain everything to the employer,\u201d she said. \u201cI really just laid it all out there \u2013 this is why I\u2019m here, this is what I\u2019ve been doing, and this is what I can bring to the table.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also scoured LinkedIn for potential connections at ERM, and found one \u2013 an acquaintance she\u2019d made through mountain biking who was happy to chat with her about working at the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The big news<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Marty went through two rounds of interviews with the company. Even with all the networking, research, and preparation she\u2019d done, graduation was looming and Marty still wasn\u2019t sure whether she would land the job \u2013 until she got the news she\u2019d been dreaming of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh my gosh!\u201d Marty said. \u201cI followed Britt\u2019s steps, I did everything she said to do, and I got a job offer four weeks before graduating!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marty now works in what she describes as her \u201cdream job\u201d \u2013 a position that makes a difference. She\u2019s an Impact Assessment Scientist with ERM, studying the ways that natural resources and human dimensions intersect in the environment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She encourages other students not to be shy about taking advantage of the career tools, resources, and services<\/a> that OSU offers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo any other non-traditional student, don\u2019t think that those job fairs or career services are not for you,\u201d Marty said. \u201cUse them. They absolutely are there for you.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oregon State helped her find it. When Marty Marrs started thinking about changing careers, she knew one thing: this time, she wanted to do something that mattered to her. Marty graduated from Oregon State in June 2022 with a B.S. in natural resources. Prior to that, she spent 18 years raising a family, which she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11177,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"templates\/template-full-width.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[6,9,4,5,8,3],"class_list":["post-14","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-success-stories","tag-career-change","tag-college-of-forestry","tag-ecampus","tag-natural-resources","tag-non-traditional-student","tag-success-stories"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/horizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/horizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/horizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/horizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11177"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/horizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/horizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/horizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14\/revisions\/56"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/horizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/horizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/horizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}