Hello! Welcome to the Careers4Kids podcast where kids learn careers. This is
Maxwell Valencia and Henry's unfortunately not here but it's okay though and today
we have Taryn Evans, a career coach. Hello Miss Evans! Thank you so much for
spending your time to be on Career for Kids. We have a good interview now. Let's get
started! Let's get started. The first question is tell us what your family do right now.
I am a career coach for the Westport Library. That is my title. That's really
interesting. So what does a career coach do? So we're career coach assist people
or the population, whoever they're serving, and career support. So that can
be finding a job, it can be transitioning into another job from a job to another
job, it can be helping them to build a resume which is something that displays
all of their work experience, helping them to find jobs that are available so
connecting them with jobs that are open and available in the
community and helping them prepare for interviews and helping them to work
successfully. So it's a little bit of everything. Yeah, that kind of sounds like us.
We're interviewing people and we're talking about careers. Yeah, yeah. So we do some of that too.
So you should probably come in and help us one day. How'd you get to the position as a
career coach? Well, I've worked in the field for a while now. I started off as a
job coach years ago and it was a job that I had when I was in school and I
absolutely loved it. And so what I would do as a job coach, I will work in the
community with a population and I would make sure that they have all of the job
supports that they needed and supports that they needed in place for them to be
able to work successfully. And I said, you know what? Oh my god, I love this. I
want to continue to do it. And so I just took off from there. So I transitioned
but I stayed in that in the career services field for short.
Oh, that's really interesting. I got to that position because I like it.
Yes. And what part of being a career coach do you enjoy the most and dislike the most?
I would say I love, I love helping people and so in any way that I can assist or be
a resource to someone, that's my favorite part. So whether it's assisting with a
resume, connecting them with a job lead or to a job, as long as I'm helping
someone, I love that aspect of it. I like how you help people, it's really nice.
Yeah. And what would you say not enjoy the most? It's a little bit upsetting.
I would say for me right now, it's not actually my position here, it's actually
the job market. I don't like the job market right now. And so for me if I could
change that I would and I don't like it that much. So it's hard, you know, it's
hard to do what I do and connect people with resources and jobs. It makes it, it's
definitely a barrier when the job market is not where we need it to be and there
are a lot of opportunities. Yeah. You've talked about this before but was this the
dream job you imagined yourself when you were a kid? I will say I am in the field
of what I have always dreamed of doing. So I've always dreamed of helping people.
So I would say yes. I always wanted a position of where I can help someone and
you know, those with my game fulfillment in my position and I do that here for
sure. That's nice. I love how you like to help lots of people. It's really nice.
Yeah, it's good. We need people to help other people. That's how we make the
world go round. Yeah. Your job is just not about you making some income. Usually
not about that but there's another type of job where you're supposed to help
people. Mm-hmm. That's it. When you were young, who were like your main items?
When I was young, I definitely itemized Oprah Munfrey because I have always
loved how confident she was and she had her own talk show which is actually that
is that has been my dream job is to have a talk show. But she's been able to
accomplish that and so much more very confidently and she's been able to help
so many people. So she's definitely been my idol. I've heard about like how you
want to help people but specifically why did you pick this job and like what made
you do this? I would say because I am always looking for opportunities to grow
and to learn new things. And I think that this job, it puts me in a position where
I have to grow and I have to learn new things because things are changing every
single day. And the job market, things just job trends and you know just staying
current on things that resources that are available that I need to know in
order for me to help others. So this position definitely puts me in a position
that puts me in a place where I have to continue to learn and I have to continue
to grow. And that's why I applied because I was up for the challenge.
Yeah it's good always to grow, always to learn new things like it's always nice to
do that especially if you're at a young age. Yes absolutely. And meeting new
people you can never go wrong with meeting new people, growing your network
and yeah. And out of your entire career what was like the biggest highlight?
Out of my entire career what was my biggest highlight?
I would say my biggest highlight in my entire entire career would be
in my previous position I worked as an employment specialist and I was
recognized in my last position because I had the highest percentage of clients
on my caseload that were employed. So everyone was on my, everyone was
employed on my caseload I think except for like two people. So it was a very
high number and I remember at that point in my career I worked very hard. I spent
a lot of time in the community and I spent a lot of time on preparing my clients
for positions and creating opportunities for them and so I was I was very happy
when I was recognized for that at work.
And what are the biggest challenges that you think can be solved by our generation
that you would want us to solve for you?
I would repeat the question please.
What are the biggest challenges that you think can be solved by our generation that
you would want us to solve for you?
What are the biggest challenges that you think can be solved by our generation that
you would want us to solve for you?
I think that your generation, I think that your generation can benefit us if you guys
dream big and when I say dream big whatever it is that you guys set your mind to do, do it
and don't wait until you're younger, I mean don't wait until you're older. If there's
something that you want to do and you have an idea or whatever it is you stay focused
on that and that will help us because you guys will be creating more opportunities
but then you guys will also be inspiring you know others to dream big you know.
So there's no, people say the sky's the sky's the limit you go above the sky just keep going
just keep going. I know that's like a challenge like it's kind of a challenge it's a nice way
to say it so I'd say someone wants to be a career coach or like help people what would
you tell him or her? I would tell them to um explore the career space now
stay updated and educate yourself on career trends um look for opportunities where you can mentor or
volunteer just to see if you like it um see if it's a space that you wanna you wanna be in um
and just to get out there there are a lot of um information on the on the internet but here at
your local library there's free workshops and so I think that anyone who wants to get into this
space as a career coach start now. Yeah always get a good start so it's good.
At the same time enjoy being a child. Yes.
And what is your main life advice for kids listening to this podcast?
Um I would in addition to dreaming big and staying focused on um accomplishing your goals is to
I think I will also add to that and I would say you are and this is from a presentation last week
at our networking group um is to remind yourselves that you are capable that whatever it is that you
want to do if you can think it you can do it and to not be so hard on yourself and be good to
yourself because in order for you to be great at something you have to be good to yourself and you
have to be you have to feel great in order for you to produce something great right and so I think
I think we think that we you know we have to work so hard and work so hard but we forget to take care
of ourselves so if anything it will say if I would say um take care of yourself work hard to take
care of yourself and um give yourself the best so that way you can do your best work.
Thank you so much Tarine for allowing us to interview you. I'm sure more kids will be inspired
by this interview. No problem thank you so much for having me. No problem and to whomever is
listening thanks for listening to the careers for kids podcast. We hope you enjoyed the episode
and we'll see you in the next episode. Bye! Bye bye!