I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! I am still stuffed from eating my father-in-law’s empanadas and tostones (yum!) and the huge batch of pierogis I made from my mom’s family recipe (my mom on Christmas when she found out I made pierogis: “Oh my god! You made pierogis? Send them to me!!!” Only problem, my mom is on another continent thousands of miles away… sorry mom!). In any case, I wanted to get back into the blog today by profiling 2007 Communication Studies graduate Laura Rohlfing (although many of you probably know her by her maiden name, Laura Manier). Laura is working as a Software Trainer and Technical Writer for Global Internet Management, a company based outside of Philadelphia, where she lived for the past two years (although she recently moved back here to the great state of California). Global Internet Management markets a software called InfoServe that allows anyone and everyone to create the content on their websites in a user-friendly way. No HTML is required (sounds like something I would like!).
As part of her job, Laura developed a training curriculum where she teaches clients how to use the program. She even travels to do onsite trainings. For example, she went to Illinois College for a week last year to teach the college staff how to use the program. She is also responsible for all documentation, manuals, and handouts. She is currently in charge of planning and presenting at their User Conference in April.
I chose to profile Laura because she is working in a high-tech field even though she didn’t concentrate on this as an undergrad. I asked Laura how she ended up in this position. “When we moved [not the “royal we,” she is referring to her and her husband, Geoffrey!] to Philadelphia I was looking for a job in many different fields. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do and I had just come out of a stiff business banking position and had a bad experience trying my hand at recruiting. I saw a post on Craigslist for Software Trainer and after reading the post it sounded like an interesting job. I submitted a cover letter and my resume. In my resume, I tried to emphasize my work with computers and show that I have worked in a lot of environments. Since I had no training experience, I think it was my communication experience that helped me and showed that I knew how to interact with people. My writing skills also caught the eye of my boss.” Did you hear that? Communication experience! As in, Communication Studies major!
As Laura mentioned, she had a few job experiences after graduating that were not a good fit, but she has landed at a great place now, which I think is a good lesson to everyone. According to Laura, she really likes the casual environment of the company that she works for and “the freedom I was given to make my training what I want it to be. I do not have to follow strict policies and end up having a voice in many aspects of the company.” Congratulations to Laura on her position!
'07 Grad Laura Rohlfing
Congrats Laura! And welcome back to CA!