In this series, we spotlight General Assembly graduates who epitomize the heart, soul, and grit it takes to transform your career dreams into reality—and find out what makes them tick.
Name: Barbara
Course: UX Design Bootcamp
Year Graduated: 2019
Location: New York City
Barbara’s Story:
Rarely is the path to meaningful work a straight shot.
Just ask Barbara, a 2019 General Assembly alumni who moved to New York City and worked six part-time jobs to make ends meet. “I was working as a nanny, in catering, at an ice rink…I did not drive the Zamboni, though.”
Eventually, Barbara found steadier work as a marketer—but the role left a professional itch unscratched. “I was going through the motions at my job, not getting that fulfillment I wanted to have every day.”
Deep down, what she really wanted to do was marry her love of design with her passion for anthropology. And, it turns out, General Assembly’s UX Design Bootcamp helped her do just that.
The 12-week full-time program provided Barbara with the perfect opportunity to apply her visual prowess toward cultural significance, teaching her how to unite research, strategy, and design to better connect people, products, and services—all with the support she wanted for the journey. “I went with General Assembly because of the opportunity to interact with instructors and the career advancement services that GA provided after graduation.”
Barbara’s instincts were right, because soon after graduation she landed a role at one of the world’s most prestigious financial firms. “I went to JPMorgan,” she says. “That was a fantastic opportunity because they had such a well-rounded research program. It’s been great to be able to impact millions of people every day based on the research that I’m able to conduct.”
But of course—the learning journey is never over.
From diving headlong into artificial intelligence (“I use AI for everything”) to practicing the art of teamwork, Barbara epitomizes the attitude that makes a champion: always be growing.
“When you graduate, you think you know everything, and you do up until a point, but you also don’t know what you don’t know,” she says. “And ultimately, whatever you decide to do—data science, research, UI design—there really is no ‘I’ in team. It’s all about that collaborative effort with the stakeholders.”
(Enterprise leaders: Does Barbara sound like the kind of person you’d want working at your own organization? There are more where she came from.)
On that note, she believes companies should work with GA to hire talent or train their teams.
“You have people who are motivated, who are excited, who are ready to jump into the workforce—and it’s this amazing opportunity to be able to get a set of fresh eyes and a new perspective.”
Don’t let her cheery, upbeat demeanor fool you, though. Beneath Barbara’s smile is a fighter who knows nothing good comes easy—especially when it comes to landing your first job out of bootcamp.
“The job search is the hardest thing you’re ever going to do,” she says. “It’s constantly being told, ‘No, you’re not the right fit,’ or ‘Try again when you have more experience.’ And it’s this feeling of a door being slammed in your face over and over again.”
When you find yourself in that situation, her advice is simple: don’t give up.
“Interviews are half about strategy, also half about being in the right place at the right time—and it’s really about just being able to take what you’ve learned, roll that into the next one, and not get discouraged.”
“Ultimately,” she says, “you can do it.”
Ready to make GA part of your championship team? Get started today.