Jennifer Bangoura: [00:00:00] The best time to look for a job is when you're not looking for a job and you don't want to see that perfect role open and you haven't updated your resume in months or years, maybe.

David Fano: Hey, everyone. Thanks for joining again today. We're here with Jennifer Bangarra, who I've had the great pleasure of getting to know online, but this is the first time we get to talk and really have a great conversation about her career, but it's always better to hear it directly from the guests. So, Jennifer, would you mind telling us a little bit about.

So thanks

Jennifer Bangoura: for having me, Dave, my name is Jennifer Bangarra and I currently have two different roles. I work for next for the university as their director of career innovation. And I'm also a consultant for the future of learning fund, which is the first sematic fund of future Africa of venture capital fund that's in turning Africa's biggest challenges into global business opportunities.

[00:01:00] And. So that's what I do, but who I am like I do, I had this in my LinkedIn profile and, uh, I feel like what really gets me excited is finding small world connections. So wherever I am, that's kind of at the core of, of what I'm doing and whether it's work or personal. And I also get really excited about.

The role of careers to help build socioeconomic mobility for people and their families. Um, so that's a little bit about me professionally. Yeah.

David Fano: Awesome. Thank you for that. Um, I'm excited to dive into all those topics. So we'd like to kick the show off with the same question every time, which is when in your life did you really start to think about.

Your career and end, it couldn't be as just like a childhood interest, but you're like, I could really see myself doing this and I'm gonna start to take action that, you know, result in me growing towards that. But when would you say that was? And can you talk us through a little

Jennifer Bangoura: bit? So in [00:02:00] 2008, I moved to Mali in west Africa and joined, um, I was a peace Corps volunteer and I moved there.

Uh, as an environment volunteer I'd I'd, uh, in college, worked with a community garden. And so I had some gardening experience, um, and I'd also, I was an art history and French major in undergrad. So I, then I focus my senior thesis on a Malian photographer, Malique CD bay. And so it really feels. The stars aligning of K I'm moving to this country that I've been studying for the past year, and I'm going to pursue this career in museum studies and African art.

And so I lived in Mali for two years and I was in a village about nine hours north of the capital. And I, I would say still, I mean, a career still felt abstract and certainly. Uh, living in a village for a couple of years, I thought, okay, I need, if I'm going to pursue this career in African studies and art history, I [00:03:00] want to live in the capital where there's so much happening.

When I moved to that I started to actually think critically about my career and made this pivot. And you said making like concerted steps and, um, In this direction and I shifted into education. So I was working on a USAID education project for primary teachers, focused on using radio to help train teachers on best practices and pedagogy.

And I hadn't, uh, didn't have experience in that space directly except, um, I was, I was working on the communication side. And I just fell in love with wow. The power of, uh, you know, extending quality access to quality education, and finding ways to do it at scale and in pretty difficult settings. Um, where you, you know, you have a country that's twice the size of Texas and.

Over half of it is this hell the Sahara desert. Um, so how do you, you know, how do you train [00:04:00] people in that setting? So I just became fascinated by the ways that we, uh, and this is back in 2010. So it was a long time ago of, um, before online education became what it is today, for sure. And so then my, my career has just kind of is followed.

From there of thinking whether it's primary education. Now I work in the higher education space and workforce development, but how are people accessing whether it's quality education or quality career services and career development in ways that are truly accessible and not necessarily the traditional face-to-face modality?

David Fano: Awesome. Well, all right. So now you get this exposure, um, and sort of a little more clarity on what it is. You're excited about having explored a bunch through, through school. So what did that first job look like when you started to, you know, you're, you're starting to get that clarity. What, uh, what was involved in that when you actually then started to add, to make it kind of real

Jennifer Bangoura: well?

So [00:05:00] what happened is I moved to pharmaco thinking. I'll be here for a year. That was what my contract was. And then shortly thereafter, and at that time I still was thinking mean, I moved to the capital thinking I'm going to pursue this one career path. And then. I met my husband and simultaneously fell in love with pursuing a path in education.

And so I did my master of arts in international education. So I went on campus for it to sit graduate Institute in Vermont for two weeks. Um, and. Uh, moved back to Mali to finish the program. There was a coup d'etat in 2012, right after I moved back. And so I was evacuated back to the us and, and within weeks I had to pivot from, okay, I had a pretty stable communications role with this USAID contract to, I needed to find a job quickly.

And my fiance and I are moving to the United States for the first time together. And so I, my. Like [00:06:00] free quote unquote real job was not related to, uh, education really at all. I was working for an environmental think tank world resources Institute. And I think this is where I fell in love initially of like, oh, this is how people find jobs.

I had never searched for a job. LinkedIn was new. I looked back when I was talking with some folks a few months ago. And when I moved back to the United States in 2012, I had four connections on LinkedIn and one of them. Was this guy I had done peace Corps with and he worked at the company that I had seen a job opening at and I emailed him.

I said, Hey, are you, do you know about this job opening? He said, oh, I don't know about that one. But my job is going to go on line shortly because I'm, I'm quitting. I just put in my notice last week, uh, and you should interview for it. So, and then I spent three years in that job and it was a, it was with a GIS, uh, project in Western central Africa and the.

W we're like, do you speak French? And [00:07:00] I said, yes. And so they say, great, we can teach you all the other stuff. Um, what you can figure out. Well, you know, we'll figure it out the rest once you start it. So that was my first real job.

Well, I I'd been studying French since the seventh grade. I majored in it in art history and French and undergrad. And, um, and so, you know, like why French? My mom was a French and Spanish teacher for a few years when she started her career and my brother studied Spanish. And so of course I want to do the opposite and studied French and, um, Language has, has been like the thread throughout my entire career, whether I've used it in my job or not.

I mean, in that first job I absolutely did. And for the first few jobs, it was a reason that I got the role, in fact, um, and I just, yeah, I fell in love with, you know, being able to communicate with people and. And yeah, and learn about culture through language.

David Fano: That's very cool because one of the things I try [00:08:00] to pinpoint in these conversations or these sort of career assets that we have, and I don't think we think about our skills in these ways.

You know, people say, Hey, learn a language. It might be useful, but I always love to see where when some of these things actually come to fruition and. Yeah, because of this language, which you always see people put languages on their resumes, but here's a very direct example, right? They're actually like less concerned with your hard skills.

Obviously you were in a category of work where your people knew what you did, but that language was kind of the differentiator.

Jennifer Bangoura: It was. And I remember feeling like at the time, um, like when I moved back, honestly, that's how I did my job search. I would just put French in the job, the key word, like what other skill do I have?

I've been planting trees and, um, working on your end fertilizer projects for the past two years. So, um, and. Uh, when I moved to Mali, the reason they, they [00:09:00] often send people who have at least some French language experience to it is a Francophone country. But when, when I got there, I learned another language called Bombora.

But I, and I thought there's no way I spent 12 years studying French and I only have just become fluent. I'm not gonna be able to learn another language in two years, but the, the language training through peace Corps is just so stellar and they do such a great job that within six months I was, I mean, not fluent, but like certainly.

Heavy conversational. And it, and part of my jobs in the, you know, five years after peace Corps, whereas I'll, uh, reviewing, um, resumes and hiring consultants and hiring staff, um, in our field offices or even in DC. Yeah. You always see language and people put like proficient professional, and then you get them on the phone and you're like, they're like, yeah.

And mean, I took a couple of classes in college.

David Fano: Now you're getting your first real work experience. Um, what were you developing? What were you figuring out about figuring out about yourself? Would that transition from more of like that arts [00:10:00] education into this sort of newish path to your career? Well, that

Jennifer Bangoura: job at world resources Institute taught me the value, the real value of relationships.

I had a fabulous boss who had also done peace Corps and he'd lived in central Africa and. Um, and we were working across certainly time zones, cultures, uh, you know, the U S west Africa, central Africa, different, you know, over seven countries and just observing the nuance that he had in, um, and how he approached conversations and how thoughtful he was with.

Um, I mean, even like, this is a small example that I still remember. It is, uh, you know, the way that Americans will often use idioms. When in, in conversation like, oh, you're going to be, uh, an an and not a baseball person, but like a pinch. Is that a pinch hitter? Oh, can you be our pinch hitter? So these, these casualties [00:11:00] that if you have never worked with somebody from another country, I mean, I'm American and I don't even know this baseball expression.

Just being cognizant that that's not something that everybody, that's not a phrase that everyone knows or uses. And so I've just carried that through in my career. And I think it helps me to be a better communicator, no matter if I'm from the same culture as someone or from, you know, or from a different color.

Um, and then to, it was a job that, um, I was a project coordinator, so it was anything from booking travel for my boss to, um, you know, yeah. Reviewing resumes and hiring consultants to managing our budget. Um, and I saw the importance of like interdependent, like internal. Intra interdepartmental relationships and building them before you needed them.

So either you always have some curmudgeon somewhere in your office. Right. And, but for [00:12:00] me, I thrive on like commute on building friendships with people and building relationships. And so before I would need. That person in finance department or in contracts to help me with something that came up last minute.

Like it always does, you know, I already knew I already had built that relationship with them. And so they'd be like, okay, well I'm gonna help you out this time. Cause yes, like you're my person and I'm your person. And so, um, I just saw that play out time and time again, and I would observe other people who was.

You know, go in, in a Huff and be like, I need this right now. And you've got to give this thing to me or whatever it was and how unsuccessful, or at least, you know, even being demanding on people without having put in the currency and built, built the currency, I suppose, in the relationship.

David Fano: Yeah. That makes total sense.

I mean, I think people take a very, I think it's what it's. One of the challenges people have with networking is. They don't see it as an investment. They see it as a short term [00:13:00] transaction. And, you know, I think that's, that's part of these career investments. Even just like learning a language. We'll take it back to what we talked about.

Is taking a longer-term view towards your career, even though you may not know the exact, like output you're going to get. Right. It's like eating healthy. It's like, I know it's like the right thing to do for my life. Like, am I going to feel better tomorrow? Maybe not in a month, maybe. No, long-term absolutely.

Um, so already I'm kind of like picking up on. Your ability to like invest in your career. Maybe you weren't thinking about it that way at the time. Now you sort of understand that in retrospect, but I think that's a really valuable tip for people to take away from this. I mean, now that you've helped people with their career and, you know, let's say you have much more like in tune relationship with it.

Like, how would you think about that now, these kind of longer term investments in your career, like relationships and, uh, soft skills and things.

Jennifer Bangoura: Well, what [00:14:00] I would give the advice I'd give to myself. And I've been thinking a lot about this lately, because it's, it's just incredible to, at any stage for people to look back and think, yeah, how did I get where I am today?

And, um, you know, w we just had an international move and it's been a big transition for our family. So there's been a lot of that reflecting and, um, I would say to somebody or like the advice around the soft skills or the networking of it is to like delight in your surroundings. Like, like, don't just keep your head down in your work, but keep, pick your head up every now and again, and actually think, get to know your colleagues and don't treat things like as a transaction.

Um, and. Soak up. And I saw that you, you know, you tweeted about this, like this curiosity coming out in so many of these conversations. So I don't want to be, you know, just, you know, add another one to your mix. But I was in peace Corps. I went back, I was doing my master's in with peace Corps. You can do a third year.

I did a peace Corps response. So I ended up saying four [00:15:00] years total, which is not the normal, um, time. And by the end I thought, you know, I really want to work in international education. Like that's my. North star. And then when I moved back to the U S and a really pretty abrupt manner or abrupt, yeah.

Abruptly, I, I felt disappointed like, oh man, I'm. Doing what I, you know, I started this masters and I wasn't able to find a job in education and oh, this feels like a setback. And then you look back now and you're like, oh man, it's okay. Take a deep breath. It's okay. But to find ways. So I was working and nothing related to education, but, um, Well, I was able, I, and I always had wanted to work once I learned about them at IRX I R E X, which is an international development agency, nonprofit.

And so I stayed, I followed them on social media and they are, they, um, administer the state department program called the young African leaders initiative. And so it was following that and [00:16:00] you can, you know, I was volunteering to review applications for it. So keeping my, uh, Toes in the water list. Like here's my non-use of idioms.

Um, staying connected in small and volunteer ways to international education. And ultimately they put out a request of, oh, we need organizations to host these fellows who are coming from Africa throughout the continent to the U S for six weeks for fellowships. Um, we want them in Washington, DC and everywhere in the U S and I thought, oh my gosh, this is amazing.

Let's host them here at our office in DC. I we did. And so since our project was focused on central and central Africa, someone from central Africa came to the U S spent, did a fellowship here, and then they also arranged to do fellowships when people returned back to their home country. From that I connected with this woman who worked at IRX and then the three years after I had started this job, she ultimately passed on my resume for [00:17:00] the role that I got.

Propelled me in back or into for the first time, formally in international education and workforce development. Um, and I just would never have, I couldn't have anticipated that. Like how can you know that this one job opening is going to come up, that this person's going to have, you know, no, I emailed her when I saw this job opening.

I said, oh, do you know this person who's hiring? She's like, oh, she sits to me in my cubicle. So yet like, yes, I can pass on right now, your, uh, your resume. So. And that was just because I was excited about the initiative and had, you know, I had those targeted companies that I kept an eye on in different ways.

And even though I was not working in what I had hoped to be, I was still able to find ways to be connected to, to what I was really passionate. All

David Fano: right. So you you've had these experiences, you've made these connections, you took this job. What was that next kind of like big moment for [00:18:00] you in your career?

We talk a lot about, you know, experience like we, we, we stop learning or something external happens, but what was that next moment in your career where you're going to have to pause think and take action.

Jennifer Bangoura: So I transitioned to this role. It was like it was a dream roles and another job where I needed, um, they needed someone who was fluent in French.

Uh, it was sort of, uh, career center programs in Morocco, in Iraq, where we were helping a start up and expand career centers at public universities in both countries at all of their public universities. So, um, and then Morocco. Um, they speak Arabic and French, so they needed the French speaker. Anyways, I was in this job.

It was amazing. I loved it. Um, really lovely people. And I, you know, I shared this with you, but I had already had one child. So I had a young daughter at this point. And for me, my career has been shaped by like abrupt moments. There was the school data, moved back to the U S [00:19:00] uh, started a job, had a child moved and then.

I the next moment, whereas like, this is a big pivot was in 2017. I started feeling this itch of like, okay, how do I move into a technical path? And, you know, I've been working in it like largely in administration, not administration, but administrative roles. Um, And I had fallen in love with this workforce development side and the power, as I know you share because you've built your company around this, like building career community for people.

Um, and, um, the, what I had seen the path that people had taken was they worked in university career centers. So I started looking for jobs. I wasn't getting interviews though. And then I found out I was pregnant. Um, And so then I put my job search on halt and I really, and I said, this teacher, like, I don't feel like we hear enough about this.

I was young. I wasn't, I don't [00:20:00] think I was 30 yet. Um, you know, I'm definitely wasn't and, uh, I was not in a high level of like I see sometimes on LinkedIn women are like, oh, I'm interviewed at eight months pregnant and got hired. And then I took my six month leave. But for me, I was the benefits holder of our family at the time.

I was like, I have to be stay in this job now for another, at least year because I need FMLA. I wanna at least have access to my benefits and unpaid leave that I had for my first child. Um, so I had stopped my job search and felt really again, like deflated and disappointed because I felt like, um, I'm not, I, I know you say, people say you always have a choice, but I really felt like I did not have an option to pursue a job search.

So, uh, you know, a month or so went by, and then I had a miscarriage and it was, uh, like this shaking moment of, wow. [00:21:00] Okay. Yeah. You have, you were, you were unhappy right now in what you're doing. Um, and you have to find something otherwise you and I, we did want to have another child. So it was like, I needed to find something quickly.

Otherwise, how long is this going to drag on? And I'm going to stay in a role where I'm. Feeling like I'm growing. And I, so I like can just distinctly remember I went online and I found this, this job opening. It was a career services specialist says that to you. I had been following them on Twitter and I applied that night.

And then like on Monday I had an email from the recruiter. And within a week, I'd had my first interview. And then by three weeks I had signed an offer and it was just like, oh wow, this is, this feels great. But I didn't, I hadn't didn't network in, I didn't know anybody who worked there. It's the only job that I've had this far, where that worked out that way.

Um, so yeah, that's absolutely the next pivotal moment in my career journey, [00:22:00]

David Fano: but thank you for sharing that. Yeah, I think there are, it's this combination of the sort of things we put out into the world, what the world gives back to us then kind of how we navigate it. Um, and that was impressive, you know, to be sort of, you know, presented with situations like that and navigating, then it feels like you, you were ready, right?

Like, I feel like you like set some intentions and even with obstacles ended up landing in the situation that you, you were predicted.

Jennifer Bangoura: And I think back in the, you know, I like, I wish maybe someone's creating this version, but you know, you look at someone's LinkedIn profile and like, oh, you went from this job to that job.

And like, it all looks so logical when you look at somebody's career profile. And yet I remember, you know, from February of that year, I had connected with my career coach, from my masters and the time that she like invested in me and helping me review my resume, get it ready. So when [00:23:00] that I saw that opening in July, I had already spent hours tweaking my materials so that it, and I, you know, I always say this when I'm working with students is, you know, the best time to look for a job is when you're not looking for a job and you don't want to see that perfect role open and you haven't updated your resume in months.

And I know you are like years, maybe even you preach this all the time with everyone at teal. It felt good to feel like, okay, I don't actually have to, uh, wait to apply and, and spend time updating everything cause it's already ready to

David Fano: go. Absolutely. Yeah. And it's a tricky thing because yeah. There's some complex things in the career there.

Right? Cause we're, we're going to wired to be loyal and there's something icky about job searching while you're employed, but this kind of preventative career care. Is it's just healthy, you know, like very much like [00:24:00] preventative health. It's, it's the right thing to do. There's nothing wrong with it yet.

You know, you're not gonna get potential. You're not gonna get in trouble for taking vitamins. If you know, your boss walks by your computer and sees you editing your resume. Well, that could be problematic. So it's, it's super complicated. It's a complex emotion to engage in these proactive. I'll call them selfish activities.

Even though obviously this word selfish has a very negative connotation, but I would say breathing is selfish. Um, it's these activities that you need to do to look out for yourself and your family, but can do have an inherent risk, just kind of given the nature of work. So what was that? I mean, how are you able to do that?

Yeah. How did you go about that? And also kind of through the lens of helping job seekers, you bring that extra layer in the conversation. Like what do you, what do you tell to people that are in those situations? Well,

Jennifer Bangoura: definitely [00:25:00] do your job seeking on your own times. I mean, this time too, I was working full-time in an office, so it, there was.

There was a much clearer separation of my time. And so I was able to, like, I can remember it was like two in the morning. I'm working on my resume before I'm submitting it. Um, so that, uh, at that time was easier, but I also recommend, um, again, it comes back to, for two relationships for me because ultimately I left my, the job, um, on great terms with, uh, With everybody.

And I had really spent a lot of time building relationships and, um, leaving on a, like a positive, positive foot, which felt good. And I remember telling my boss that I was when I was leaving and it was, she was kind of shocked. Like I can't believe you're going. And then I, and this is of course, anybody, you know, to anyone's discretion of what they want to share, and nobody has to share anything they don't want to [00:26:00] about their personal lives.

But I felt like I owed it to her. I actually had a lot more personal reasons behind this move, even though I wanted to move for my own professional reasons and building my own expertise and this career development space, but I'd also had this, you know, shaking, you know, this personal, uh, you know, my miscarriage.

Made me reflect and redirect what I was doing in my career. And I feel like, I think about that a lot now of all of these things that are happening behind people's computers. And of course, if you're remote, like not seeing people on a daily basis that we just don't know about, that people are going through, um, and how that has such an incredible impact on people's careers.

And we just don't even see that side of it. So. Stay human was also, I guess, a piece of advice can be human in the workplace.

David Fano: It's great advice. I also think, I think it pairs nicely with your advice that you gave earlier is don't [00:27:00] wait to be human. Like don't just be human in the moment. Right? Cause I think if he's like, if you just drop that, it's like, oh, Hey look at all these things like in the moment.

Okay, sure. But if you actually reveal more parts of yourself and who you are and share that, cause some people are quite guarded in the workplace, but you know, you don't have to spill everything, you know, but I think building that personal relationship in the context of work is also a good thing. Cause then you can have those more human discussions, you know, over time.

So, so you make that move, um, you land at, at, to you, which I think became a big part of your kind of online identity, helping a ton of people. So tell us a little bit

Jennifer Bangoura: about that. Oh, it was so much fun. I mean, so one, the headquarters is only 15 minute drive or reverse commute from. Um, in Maryland, which was amazing after, you know, having an [00:28:00] almost hour long commute into the city into DPC.

Um, so I remember going in and like the, it was, I was like, oh man, I'm working for a tech. I'm working for a tech company now. And, uh, yeah, I'd imagined before my career, like, okay, I'm going to, I'll be working in nonprofits for the rest of my life. And that would have been, that would have been something and lots of people do that.

And that's great, but it really felt like, wow, I, um, Never imagined this for myself. Like you have this narrow vision again, of these steps or chapters for your career. So I had had my mind, I'm going to work in international education. I'll be working for nonprofits. That's what a lot of peace Corps volunteers do after.

And so that's the path that I had seen. And then even. Thinking for my transition, I thought, okay, now how do I become someone? Who's a technical expert in career development and workforce development. And well, they work at university career centers. Like what other option is there? And so stumbling pretty much, it felt like on to you.

And it was just [00:29:00] like, oh my gosh, my eyes are opened to this entire. It's a, it's a publicly traded company. Uh, it's at this intersection of higher education and online education. And. Um, being, getting to be on the career services side of it, where instead of working narrowly in, you know, maybe a business school career services office, I was working across our physician assistants, data science, social work, nurse practitioners, teachers, and getting a feel and flavor for.

People who are making really significant career pivots at times. And others, you know, more natural people going from being an RN to a, uh, you know, FNP or family, nurse practitioner. So, um, it just felt thrilling everyday, honestly, to get to be part of other people's career journey. And I felt this click of, wow, this was worth the weight of, and everything that has come before.

It just was like, this was. [00:30:00] I am building on the skills that I, from these different careers or different jobs. Um, and it's culminating. And I felt like, um, you know, it's just that it all came of was valuable. Um, and I also loved my, the thing that was remarkable to me, where, where my colleagues and having.

Just this incredibly diverse group of colleagues. And what I mean there is that I, you know, someone on my team was previously a pastor, and then now he had transitioned into career services and another person was, had worked in organizational development for a bank. Someone else had come from a university career center.

Someone else was working in data science before. So to see people. And what brought them to, to you and how to you value their different skill sets, um, was really exciting to me.

David Fano: Yeah. A great company with really done a lot of incredible things. And so, you know, [00:31:00] I think your career, I think a lot of careers are affected by this, but I love that you're sort of sharing the, um, I'll call them the pressures between personal and professional and, you know, we like to make these.

Clear delineations of work life balance. I don't believe in that. Um, because our brains don't do that. Right. Um, and our mood at home affects our mood at work or mood at work, affects our mood at home and, you know, and look where we want to go in life. There's physical places. And sometimes those have job constraints or not.

You've done a really elegant job of managing the balance of those two. And so, so to get to where, what you're doing now, you've just made this big move to the other side of the planet, um, that you had familiarity with, which is amazing, but talk us through that and, and kind of what were, what was like the impetus for the move and what has been the impact on your career and how have you navigate.

Jennifer Bangoura: So something, I [00:32:00] think we also don't hear much about, and I'm this isn't a challenge, Dave, but it is a question because I'm curious how teal is addressing this, but so often career advice. Yeah. Focused on the individual, like, what do you want to do? What do you like, what is your, what are your passions? What are your interests?

One that you like, it's very individualistic and maybe that's an American thing too, but we, everybody has something outside of themselves that influences their career and really deep. Like it's very rare that people are just on their own, completely floating around whether it's a spouse or children or parents or.

I mean anything that impacts how they can navigate their career. So my husband and I, we, we live, I share that just because, um, for me, like my career has absolutely been intertwined with my husband's and my, um, and from me, you know, when I first starting to needing to have a job where I had benefits, because I was the only one that [00:33:00] had a job with benefits to then we had set this goal for our family to.

Back to west Africa might where my husband's from. Um, and so that had always been in our mind when we moved back to the, when moved to the U S is like, well, we want to be here for a time, build our, you know, build a family here and then move back. So we can be closer to my husband's family and, you know, have our children experienced life, um, closer to where he grew up and.

I remember at two, you like, are my boss's boss asking? And you know, this is such a powerful, like it, it made me feel, I still remember, you know, made me feel so special. Like making time he said, oh, well, what would make you leave the company? I said, honestly, the only thing right now is that we want ultimately to move back to west Africa.

So I would want to be able to, I would need and want to be able to work remotely. And if I couldn't, then that would mean that I left the company. And that was, I mean, that maybe happened that conversation was probably in 20. [00:34:00] Uh, 19 maybe. And it, now it feels, I wouldn't say prophetic, but like ultimately that's what happened.

So, um, we, uh, an opportunity came up at my husband's company and he, um, so they moved us. We overshot instead of west Africa, you know, farther east. And so I tried my hardest to make a case for working remotely, which I know the irony is too, that it's, I was working in online education, but it just was not possible at the time.

And I don't think, I don't think it is now either, um, with that company, but so I had. Had to quit. And it was absolutely terrifying and scary because I wasn't a job I loved. And of course there's always things that you, you know, there's always something that could be better, but ultimately, like, I really was enjoying what I was doing, but I also knew, you know, we had set this goal for our family to move back and it was absolutely, you know, an opportunity that we couldn't turn down.[00:35:00]

Um, so that's what made me leave.

David Fano: Yeah, I would, you know, to answer your question a little bit, I mean, I think it's John values alignment at the end of the day. Um, because I think we do yeah, very much believe in like the airplane metaphor that you got to put the mask on yourself first, before you put it on the child.

And, and I think you were looking out for you. But there's nothing wrong with that. I also think like we have a semantic issue and that, that just like those words sound like a negative, like selfish and say no, but as a species, that's what we're engineered to do to survive. So it's actually what you're supposed to do and it, and it can make me feel good to help others.

And if I feel good, then I can help others even more. And I think that becomes a virtuous cycle. And I think a lot of times we, we sort of like fall into this like space of martyrdom, you know, um, that I think then actually [00:36:00] results in like the vicious cycle, because we don't get filled with. Because we're just putting out, putting out, putting out and we're not tending to ourselves first.

And so the way I would think about it is like being clear on what my values are, right? Like value family and family fulfillment is an important value to you. So you prioritize, prioritize that there's other people who for it that just may not be as high on the priority then for them for value. Career growth and money, or who knows what I said, Hey, look, we can't move because the biggest financial opportunity is for me to be here.

Um, and so we re I, I, at least the way we would talk about it in the way I would talk about it is around like values alignment, and the closer you can get to alignment with your values, the more fulfilled you'll be in your career, the happier you'll be. Um, so that's kinda how we think about it, even though it does kind of align with.

Like, what do you want to [00:37:00] do? It's actually like being really honest with yourself about what really matters to you.

Jennifer Bangoura: I love that. So I think too, about, you know, before there were all these online webinars that you could attend, I was just hungry. Like something I've done throughout my career is. Uh, like a brown bag lunch session or a, you know, someone's coming to speak or there's a panel, you know, for during lunchtime or after soon after work, I would just, I would soak them up like the board.

I remember world resources Institute. We had this session and it was, uh, I think it was during women's history month. And so it was all the female board of directors. Came and people are asking questions. How do I balance being a mother? And this is not y'all. This is the questions that are just repeated ad nauseum.

And this one woman was a, he was a former senator's wife and she was just like unapologetic in how she pursued her career. She was a lawyer for something and she's like, I don't let anybody [00:38:00] make me feel guilty about. That I don't want to feel guilty about like, nobody can control what I, uh, if I feel guilty and I remember, wow, that's powerful.

And then also she's like, the best decision that you can make is if you choose to have a partner is to choose your partner well, and you hear it, you hear that time and time again from people as well. So those are things that I reflect on

David Fano: a hundred percent. And I think with the career, the mark, Claire, like the folks that I see have that higher level of fulfillment in their career as they've, they've got that clarity and they feel no guilt about it because they're more excited about what they're running towards than what they're running away from.

Um, but, and I feel like you're doing these. Right. I feel like you're, you're iterating on it. You're super clear on what's valuable. Um, and you're making moves for you and kind of your collective that help everyone. Right? It's [00:39:00] that's also, you know, one of, I would say family slash team, like your, your team, your core team, I E your family is high on your values.

And you guys, as a collective are making the decisions that benefit the collective, which isn't. Thank you. Well, thanks so much for sharing your career story. Uh, so many cool things to learn. Um, you've, you know, in kind of the extremes of moving across the country, but I'd say like in the abstract situations that a lot of people face, I think a lot of people can relate to the decisions you've made for, you know, why you move, where you moved.

Um, also just like you're pivoting from what, what I hope a lot of people take from this. That shift you made into tech from, you know, being in the sort of philanthropic work and transferring those skills into a tech company, which then took your career in like a totally different direction. Um, I think that's super impressive.

And thank you for sharing. Yes.

Jennifer Bangoura: May I share one small [00:40:00] anecdote again? I have another thing that, like, I think I told you this, um, the theme being like, okay. Stay curious, but also like keep listening because I distinctly remember the webinar you hosted. I think it was, it was November, 2020 with Jeff . Is that right?

Pardon? My apologies. Around how to land a job in a startup. And he was going like 1 0, 1 of like what startups are, what the venture capital space is like. And I remember attending and thinking, okay, like, I've just been learning about this venture capital space through working at two, you and hearing about GSV and all these different, this, this whole new world of investments in education that I just, in my mind.

Solely relegated to wall street and business and financial. And I had never thought about like the way that investments happen in education. And after that webinar thinking, okay, like I went on this Twitter, following spree of [00:41:00] people in venture capital. And then at that time, not knowing that I was about to be, I was about to embark on my own really big career transition and ultimately landed working.

Now. I work part-time for them. Capital a VC firm. And for a startup, one of their portfolio companies. And it's like each of these pieces I could never have like pulled apart. And it's not that maybe if you pull one straw out that nothing would have happened. Like I think something would have happened for sure.

Hopefully. Um, but I just now looking back again and can just see so clearly how they all interconnected and I always say to people. Um, who are in their job search and feeling like, oh, I'm slogging through this and nothing's happening. Like you're collecting puzzle pieces for a puzzle that you don't know what is at the end.

So like keep collecting your points, keep collecting the puzzle pieces and see what comes out.

David Fano: Oh, I love that as a metaphor, because I think motivation is the biggest inhibitor of like a [00:42:00] successful job. Um, I love, love that metaphor. Well, Jennifer, thank you so much. This was awesome. Thank you for sharing your career with us.

How can folks follow along with all the great content you put out there? I feel like every time I see one of your posts on LinkedIn, I smile. What's the best way to follow along.

Jennifer Bangoura: LinkedIn is great. That's where I'm most active. Uh, Twitter less. So, but I'm there and I'll share those links with you.

Absolutely. And let's connect or follow on LinkedIn and I'm always happy to make new friends.

David Fano: Awesome. We'll put the links in the show notes, wherever you're listening or watching the podcasts. But Jennifer, thank you so so much. And I'm excited for the next time we chat.

And that's it for this episode of Non Linear. If you enjoyed today's conversation, make sure to subscribe, share, and rate us wherever you listen to podcasts.
You can learn more about Teal in our website tealhq.com, or follow us on social media @teal_hq. Thanks again, and please join us again to keep hearing about how we make decisions that shape our careers.