What do public administration and working as a mental health technician have in common? Leslie Kohli. She has used what she learned in her studies as a psychology undergraduate to do both jobs, with plenty of interesting twists and turns in between.
Many students, faced with the question of choosing a major, opt for (or are advised to pursue) an “all-purpose” degree that will serve them well in almost any profession. Business, English, communications, and psychology are all common choices. Leslie Kohli chose to pursue a psychology degree out of a real desire to practice psychology and help others, but after graduation she discovered just how versatile that course of study could be.
Although her first career aspiration was to be a Broadway performer, Leslie realized at a young age that the performing arts were a risky proposition. So she decided by the time she was in high school that, as she told me in a phone interview, “I wanted to do something working with people and something where I would help people, and [psychology] seemed the most interesting to me, and I thought that would be helpful to me no matter what I did.” Was it? “It definitely has been. The problem was…that psychology degree is kind of like a communications degree – standalone, it’s hard to find a good job. Whether it’s dealing with people, how to manage people, how to communicate with people, It definitely helps with whatever you’re doing, but without going on and getting your master’s, there’s very little you can do with it.”
After college, Leslie moved back home and started looking for that perfect job. She took a job at the Medical College of Ohio (now the University of Toledo Medical Center), where she became the third generation of women in her family to work for that particular hospital. “I knew that if I could get a job [at MCO], they always hire within first, and they had an adult as well as an Adolescent & Youth center, and I really wanted a job there, but they didn’t have an opening. So I worked as an administrative assistant in billing, and then I got a job doing medical records, and then I worked in the medical school for two months, and then finally they had an opening in the adult mental health ward as a medical health technician.”
Leslie knew where she wanted to work – her mother and two of her aunts had spent their whole careers at MCO – so she took the first position available there and worked her way gradually into the field of her choice. When you have an “all-purpose” degree like psychology, communications, or one of the humanities, the side-step approach is especially effective. People who are looking for work experience should take entry-level jobs that will help them build relationships with those in related fields who can put in a good word for them when a vacancy appears.
Leslie loved her job in the adult mental health ward, and was able to use her psychology degree to its fullest without going to graduate school. “I loved that job, and I learned a lot,” she says, but unfortunately, the hospital closed the adult psychiatric unit a few years later. “They took all of us who were first-shift full-time and tried to divide us all up into second and third shift part-time, and I went to the child/adolescent psych unit. That’s where I really wanted to be, but it was only part time and I couldn’t really live on that.”
Leslie, seeing the writing on the wall, applied to law school. While she was waiting to hear if she was accepted, she also applied to be a probation officer, and she was accepted for that job. “It was the best of both worlds. It was related to the law, but I worked with the substance abuse cases, so I got to use my psychology degree and lead AA and NA groups,” she says. “I got to use my psychology degree along with my interest in law, and that’s what let me know for sure that I really did want to go to law school.”
Leslie was accepted into law school and, because of the strict requirements of the program, had to leave her job as a probation officer. But she had enjoyed that job so much that she had a hard time deciding between specializing in criminal law and family law, which would allow her to use her psychology background. So she tried a little bit of everything. “I did a prosecutor’s clinic, I did a public defender’s program for about two months to see what it was like on the other side. I did an internship doing mediation in the juvenile court, and that was the psychology part coming back again, because I got to work with kids and their families. I also did another prosecutor’s internship in Wake County, NC, and I did the mediation program again there.” All these internships helped her get a feel for the different types of law practice and prepared her for her first job after graduation.
Leslie started working for a law firm in an administrative capacity before she got her bar exam results, and when she passed, they offered her a position as an attorney. “It was not at all doing what I wanted to do, because it was all medical malpractice and personal injury. They let me do all their criminal stuff, but it wasn’t really what I wanted to be doing.” By then, Leslie also had a young daughter and was working a lot of hours, so when her contract expired a year and a half later, she opted not to renew. It was a hard decision because she didn’t have another job lined up, but Leslie’s faith that things would work out for the best allowed her to take a giant leap into uncertain territory.
Leslie started her own law practice and struggled with financial uncertainty while she waited to see if she was going to be able to maintain a client base. She was accepted as a public defender for three local suburb courts, which occupied her time at least three days a week, and started building her client list through referrals. Ten months later, Leslie’s mother was diagnosed with cancer, and a year after that she passed away. As difficult as it was, Leslie was glad that she was able to have the flexibility of being self-employed so that she could help take care of her mother and spend her remaining days with her. Furthermore, about a year after Leslie left the law firm, they were investigated by the FBI for possible embezzlement. “As the newest attorney,” Leslie said, “I know I would have been the scapegoat. God was really looking out for me.”
Four years later, on a trip to New York with her daughter, Leslie suddenly got a call from someone she’d gone to law school with offering her a temporary position as an attorney for the United Auto Workers. The pay was excellent, but they needed her immediately . Leslie cut her trip short and returned to Toledo so she could start Monday. Six months later, the attorney Leslie had replaced came back from medical leave, and three weeks after that, Leslie’s father suffered a debilitating stroke. Leslie went back to private practice, and once again was thankful for the flexibility in her schedule that allowed her to get through her family crisis. “That was a really hard year, financially, and emotionally because I was trying to be there for my dad, and for my daughter, because she was only in about second grade at the time.”
A year later, a chance encounter with an old friend from grade school opened a door to a whole new career path. Her friend was married to one of the three trustees who sat on the governing board of Springfield Township, where Leslie lives. “We were helping a friend move and afterward we were just sitting around chatting, and [my friend’s husband] had said how he thought I would make a really good fiscal officer for the township. At that time they had a fiscal officer, so it was mostly just talk.” But suddenly, three months later, the township’s fiscal adviser resigned. That night, her friend’s husband called her and asked her if she’d like to interview for the job. Normally, the fiscal officer is an elected position, but in the case of a mid-term resignation, an appointment is made. Leslie became the new fiscal officer in July of 2006, and when the Township Administrator resigned the following February, Leslie (and thirty other people) applied for his vacancy. “I didn’t have any administrative experience, but I had a law degree, which made people feel like I had some intelligence. But I think what really won people over was that I had eight months of experience with this township…If I had not had eight months of relationships with these people, I would never have gotten that job. I probably would never have even known it was open to apply for.”
“I think a lot of people think that if you go to school for one thing, there’s only certain things you can do, and that’s not true,” said Leslie. “When I went to law school, they gave us this piece of paper that was like, okay, here are 100 or 150 different jobs that you can find yourself in that are non-legal. At the time, I knew nothing about being an administrator, but looking back, I realized that was probably on the list.”
And she loves it. “I think it’s a niche for me. I think it’s right up my alley because I get to work with people -- part of my job as administrator is human resource and personnel issues, and benefits and stuff. But it’s also really diverse...I’m the kind of person who I can’t see myself being anywhere for ten years because I get bored too easily. But this job, I could do for ten years because one day I’m looking at maps trying to plan where the new roads should go and another day I’m writing a grant to get a homeless shelter, and sometimes I’m looking at contracts. I use my law degree a lot because, whether we’re looking at who we get our trash service from or what’s going on with our police force, it’s all contracts. So that’s why I love my job, because I never get bored.”
Leslie’s story has plenty of lessons for students and recent grads. If you know the general field you’re interested in, it’s important to get a foot in the door and stat building relationships that can help you move up. “Realize that a Master’s of Something is important, but experience is just as important,” said Leslie. “I think it makes just as much sense to get your master’s while you’re getting the experience. Because people will be like, oh that’s great, you’ve got an MBA, but you don’t have any experience, so you’re not going to get the job. And I you think you want to work in, for instance, healthcare, get a job in a hospital, even if it’s not in the specific area you want to end up in.”
And if you don’t know what field you’re interested in, Leslie advises that you do as Danny Dunston did and think about what kinds of things you enjoy. “You may not even know what job would make you happy, but what kinds of things do you enjoy? For me, it’s not really the politics aspect of it. If I really, truly think about it, I love my job because: one, the diversity, it’s always changing, and I don’t get bored. Two, I get to organize things, and three, I get to manage people. I could probably do that in a lot of different settings and be happy. And I’m constantly learning new things. So that’s what makes me tick, that’s why I love my job.”
1 comment:
Well done Jamie.
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