Episode 17: Every Job is an Opportunity - Career Advice with Karen Long

Episode 17: Every Job is an Opportunity; Advice from Karen Long  To all the aspiring entrepreneurs out there, what's going through your minds as you get close to graduation? Or have you already graduated and you're waiting for that right opportunity to present itself? Hey there, listeners! Welcome back to another episode of Leaving the Nest. I'm your host, Kathleen Pellegrino from ROCS Grad Staffing. Our mission is to help you find a job out of college and thrive in the real world. Today I have with me one of my clients, Karen Long.  She is the President and Founder of Streamline Government Contracts and she's here today to share her story.  Throughout her career, Karen has worked as a Director of Operations, Contracts Manager, and Financial Analyst, and she founded her own company back in 2012. In today's episode, we'll hear more about Karen's journey and I hope her advice and tips will help you in yours.  I'm so excited for you to meet her, she's super sweet and very easy to talk to, so let's go ahead and welcome her to Leaving the Nest! And don't forget to leave us a review wherever you're listening and share this podcast with the recent college grads you know.   Enjoy! In This Episode: [01:26] - We're introduced to our guest for today's episode, Karen Long. [04:09] - Karen shares what her experience was like leaving the nest. [06:10] - Karen took on second jobs to help supplement her income early in her career. [07:35] - Teaching in a private school wasn't a good fit for Karen; so after years of attempting to get into the public school system, Karen decided to make the change to the business world instead. [10:06] - We learn about Karen's next step in working for Vantage and what she thought about her experience there. [13:01] - Karen was encouraged to continue with her collegiate career and earn her MBA. [14:23] - The value of making connections and working temp jobs, according to Karen. [15:42] - Karen admits that she resigned with a year still to go on her MBA.  This is how that experience changed the course of her life and led to the idea that became Streamline. [17:17] - We hear what Karen was feeling as she was venturing out to start her new company.  [18:00] - What is government contracting and how does Streamline help those in the DC area? [21:12] - How have things been going at Streamline since 2012? [22:44] - Streamline has always been a remote workforce and was ahead of the times before the COVID-19 lockdowns put the rest of the world into remote work.  [23:48] - What advice would Karen give to aspiring entrepreneurs?  [24:51] - Karen has a message for recent college grads about what lies ahead after leaving the nest. [26:45] - Here's how to contact Karen. ‍ Connect with Karen: LinkedIn ‍Connect with the ROCS Grad Staffing Team: Visit our Website: ROCS Grad Staffing Current Job Openings Give us a call at: 703-579-6677 Send us an email: [email protected] Check us out on social: ROCS Facebook Page ROCS on Instagram ROCS Grad Staffing LinkedIn Company Page