I grew up in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, home of Mercury Marine outboards and Walleye Weekend, the world’s largest walleye fishing tournament. To this day when I go home, I see people I know every place I go. I didn’t realize it until I was older, but there’s something to be said about growing up in Smalltown USA, where people know your name, Friday night fish fries are the standard, “God, Family, Packers” is the mantra, and people genuinely care about each other and help each other out no matter what.
I’m the middle child of three and the only girl – I realized pretty early on (after my little brother punched my teeth out!) that I had to learn how to defend myself. They toughened me up! I was definitely “Daddy’s girl” – I was introduced to sports as a little girl, watching the Milwaukee Brewers play while snuggling on my Dad’s lap eating popcorn. When my older brother played high school football, I would stand next to Dad on the top bench of the stands, and he would explain to me what was going on. Hence, my love for football and the Green Bay Packers was born!
I went to Lutheran school my whole life – in high school, I was on the dance team and was in choir. In the summertime, I was a member of the color guard in the Lutheran Vanguard of Wisconsin – a marching band comprised of kids from the Lutheran high schools in Wisconsin. I gained lifelong friends, traveled the US and Canada, and I got to see a lot of the country this way. It was a blast!
After graduating high school, I went to a tiny school, Wisconsin Lutheran College, in Milwaukee, but quickly realized I wanted something “bigger” – I enrolled in UW-Oshkosh with the intention of transferring to University of Minnesota – I had gone to Minneapolis for a wedding and loved the big city feel. However, I quickly acclimated to life at UWO and through new friends, I joined a sorority, Phi Mu. Something I never thought to do and that I didn’t realize at the time would give me direction in life and get me to where I am today. I stayed at UWO and in 2003, I graduated with a BA in Speech Communication. My Dad always said it should’ve been a BS because I like to talk – but the joke was on him as I inherited the gift of gab from him!
I had gone to college for five years and didn’t know what to do with my life, so my sorority sisters who lived in the DC area at the time, said “you loved visiting us, come sleep on our couch while you look for a job!”. So, I packed up my car and drove halfway across the country. Almost 21 years later, I’m the only one that is still here.
My first job was with the Hearth, Patio, and Barbecue Association as an Education and Certification Assistant. At happy hour with coworkers, we met a group of folks who worked in the staffing and recruiting industry, and I mentioned that I always had an interest in doing recruiting. One of the gents said give me your name/number and I’ll pass it on to our Corporate Recruiter. Three weeks later, I had a new job. I’d started my career in recruiting. I never got to thank him for passing my info on – by the time I started, he had moved on!
I worked in the downtown DC office, where we hired temporary employees for mostly clerical/office positions, which was fairly “easy” to me. I transferred to the Alexandria office after a year or so and continued to hone the craft of recruiting. The company was a cleared facility and I noticed they didn’t really capitalize on that, so I approached management about growing their cleared business and being the “Cleared Recruiter”. The owner of the company gave his blessing and thus started my experience staffing for government contracts. It was here I also received my first clearance and served as their Assistant FSO. Staffing is a tough industry – it’s cutthroat and doesn’t really foster a “team” environment.
After 8.5 years with the same company, I took a corporate position with another small government contractor where I hired for primarily technical and intel analysis roles – I gained the right type of recruiting experience I needed to be successful with Invictus.
In April 2017, I found myself out of work after being laid off from a tiny company due to lack of business. I was invited in for an interview, and after being put through the gauntlet of Jim, Jamie, and Ric (which we still laugh about my interview to this day!), I was hired.
A couple of days before starting with Invictus, another opportunity presented itself. I struggled while contemplating both offers, but ultimately decided to stick with Invictus as I just knew that something special was happening with this company, and I wanted to be a part of it.
There has never been a day that I’ve regretted the decision to become a member of the Invictus family. With the tremendous growth we’ve experienced, it has been quite a wild ride in the last 7 years, but it has been fun to be a part of it. I’ve gained life-long friends working alongside my fellow Spartans, and I feel like it’s a way to do my part and support those who defend the gates of America!