Career Confidential: Rachel Castillo

As I mentioned last week in this post, I always get a bit sentimental when someone I have known for the majority of my life fills out one of these Career Confidentials. This week’s is no different because I have probably known Rachel since middle school, maybe even elementary school? When someone I grew up with in San Antonio does the Q&A, it is interesting to me because we essentially started life in the same place, but we have all taken such different paths.

I have always thought it was awesome that Rachel decided to pursue social work, but I never really knew why until I read her answers. It is pretty inspiring, so make sure you read all the way through.

Full name: Rachel Castillo

Position / Job title: Behavior Interventionist (School Social Worker)

1. When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I think everyone wanted to be a veterinarian at some point. I mean, who doesn’t love puppies? But once I grew up, and discovered what my interests and strengths were, I thought I could be a lobbyist. I wanted to fight for legislation to protect social rights, especially for minorities. Once I took my first government class in college, though, I realized politics was all about money, and I didn’t want to play that game. Years later, I fell into social work, which allows me fight for the little guys and help the underdogs on a much more personal level, a level on which I feel like I am able to make a much greater and more meaningful impact on people’s lives.

2. Fast-forward several years/decades. How did you land (or create) your current position?

During my social work master’s program, I took courses related to working with kids and families. I found out that focusing on youth was something that really intrigued me. Working with adults on a therapeutic level is one thing, but working with younger and (I say this with zero disrespect) less-developed minds is a challenge I really enjoy. Being in schools allows me to serve that population. Plus, I enjoy the complexity of the school system. I get to work with the kids themselves, parents, teachers, and community partners. Its a wonderful blend that keeps my ADD brain moving and challenged.

3. Tell us what a typical work day looks like for you. What is your job REALLY like, both the glamorous and not-so-glamorous parts?

My job varies day-to-day because as a school social worker I wear a lot of hats. With some of the students, I play a therapist role: helping them work through personal problems or furthering their relational skills, so that they can better interact with others.

Other times, I’m a mentor and a role model. Many of the students I work with are surprised at the idea of a woman being 25 years old, successful, unmarried, and without children or baby-daddy drama. To these students, my presence alone is influential enough. I also often play the disciplinarian, which is one of the harder roles for me. I definitely have a toughness in my voice, but I always try to be very careful and intentional when I’m dealing with a student who is in trouble. I want to ensure that our interaction helps them grow as a person instead of causing them to feel angrier or more down on themselves.

4. What is the biggest career mistake you’ve ever made?

The biggest career mistake I made was not knowing how to balance the needs of the agency I work for with the demands of my clients. I am a people-oriented and in each job I’ve had, my main concern has instinctively been for the clients I’m serving. What I learned as a new professional was that I also have to be very aware of what the company I’m working for expects of me. Many nonprofit (and even some for-profit) agencies have requirements that are difficult to follow, but necessary to keep the agency funded. Social work isn’t a field that is necessarily self sustaining, so you have to keep in mind who provides the money that keeps your paychecks coming in and your company alive.

5. What is the single most important piece of advice you would give to other career-minded women?

Talk. When you are new, when you are struggling, when you are unsure if you are being treated fairly: Talk.

I mean this in two ways. First, talk to your colleagues and friends. Talking to peers can be beneficial, even if those peers don’t work in your same field. Sometimes it is good to vent — if done so professionally or in the proper environment. Sometimes you learn those around you are struggling with similar concerns, and you can help each other. Sometimes a co-worker may have vital information that you somehow missed that could save your job (or your sanity).

Second, I’m a firm believer in keeping communication lines open with your supervisor. There have been many times that I’ve been nervous and intimidated to approach my boss. However, I’ve always walked away feeling better because I usually find help, clarity, and relief, by having a simple conversation. I’ve also been lucky to have had very supportive bosses. However, as a general rule, keeping communication lines open leaves less room for self doubt and more room for professional confidence and success.

6. Let’s talk about work/life balance. What does that mean to you? Is it important?

Growing up my mom taught me the analogy of a Life Pie. In the analogy, each significant piece of your life equals a piece of your personal imaginary pie. What she always told me was that it’s a bad idea to have any one piece of the pie be significantly larger than the others. When I was younger, she tried to teach me that my “boyfriend piece” should not take up 80 percent of my pie. That lesson I learned.

Now that I’m an adult, I feel the same is true of the “work piece” or any other piece, really. Continuing with the analogy, I also believe the more pieces of pie you have, the better. Sounds yummy, right? For me, I have a piece of pie for work, for love interest, for working out, for alone time, for playing-with-my-cat time, for drinking-a-whole-bottle-of-wine time, and so on. If we imagine the pie as a pie chart, the more colors you have, the better. Fill your life with as much as you can so the stresses of work (or of relationships, or of raising a family) don’t outweigh the parts of your pie that make you a happy person.

7. Should you work for the money, or do what you love?

After choosing social work as my profession, each time someone found this out, they’d jokingly comment “Well, I guess you’d like to be poor the rest of your life.” I would always reply with a smile, “Money isn’t that important to me; doing what I love is.” Because this blog is all about being honestly, I will say that once I graduated, and started working I realized my pay really was low compared to that of other fields.

I have to work harder and longer to obtain several licenses on top of my master’s degree to earn what some of my peers made right out of undergraduate school. This has been discouraging at times. However, there are these magical moments I experience regularly when I look at the person I’m working with, and I see the help I’m giving them start to resonate. In those moments, I know I am where I’m meant to be. To quote Ralph Waldo Emerson, “to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is so have succeeded,” big bank account or not.