Adriana is a former HR director with over 30 years of federal experience.
Join Adriana and Host Ryan Polimeni as they discuss the common mistakes Federal Employees make and how to maximize your benefits Early, Mid, and Late into your Federal Career.
Adriana is a former HR director with over 30 years of federal experience.
Join Adriana and Host Ryan Polimeni as they discuss the common mistakes Federal Employees make and how to maximize your benefits Early, Mid, and Late into your Federal Career.
Hello, and welcome to the My fed University podcast. My name is Ryan, Paula meanie. I'm your host of the podcast. And I'm excited to have a very, very special guest on our show today, Mrs. Adriana green. And Adriana is a former HR director with over 30 years of federal experience. And I'm very excited to have her on today. And I'm gonna have her share with you a little bit more about her resume because I could go on and on for days about it, but she's the one that can really break it down and explain, you know, her roles in the federal system. And and part of the reason why I'm really excited to have her on is to really capture some of the insights that she has, and to really help you the federal employee. Number one, avoid some of the common mistakes that people make early on in their career that she's seen for 30 years plus, and how to really maximize your benefits over the long haul. So Miss Adrianna, thank you so much for coming on today, it's been an absolute pleasure to have you and get to know you. If you wouldn't mind to share a little about yourself a little about your background, then we'll start diving into some questions. Well, hello, Thanks, Ryan, for having me. It's my pleasure, actually, to sit and talk with you. Yes, I'm Adriana gray. And I recently retired from the federal government after about 33 years of service, I spent my career really in the HR arena. So 30 of those years was in some form of HR, my passion, my reason why I want to serve the federal sector. So a little bit about me, I started my career, many, many years ago, is a personnel clerk, what's a personnel clerk they say, it is what we currently know, as an HR clerk. So over the times, we have transitioned from personnel to human resources. And who knows what this new era, it may be hr 3.0. But for now, I've been in many roles throughout my journey. Not only did my journey take me from a local field facility in the federal government, but I moved to a regional role. And as well as a corporate level headquarters role, the experience and the journey was remarkable, and allowed me to meet people who really are on the ground, doing the work for the agency, as well as seeing that business, the business sector and headquarters on how government work, how Congress works with our federal agencies. And so I was afforded the privilege of really having a lucrative, lucrative career. When I say lucrative, I'm a public servant. So I'm not talking about a multimillion dollar career, I'm talking about the wealth and importance of what I learned during this journey of how government works, how I can bring my skill sets into the government, and help it to succeed and its mission and go. So that's how I want you, I want you to be able to see yourself is that public servant, one who can lend their skills and their abilities in the public sector to serve America's people. So I'm Adriana, I love HR. And let's go Ryan, what are you? That's a incredible introduction, I gotta tell you, getting to know you over the last year and a half has been an honor for me because to you know, I'm listening to what you're saying, but to be around you on a regular consistent basis, and watching you in action when you're working or I had the opportunity to meet you about a better half a year before you retire. So we got to do some good work together at the hospital at the Richmond VA hospital. And then afterwards, you know, having you become a part of the My Fit University family has been incredible because we get a lot of insights from you. And I think what a lot of our listeners will find too, and if anybody's ever attended, you know, any of the methods, university workshops that we've done, a lot of the content that is is put into those workshop and is built come from people like you because you know, how many times have you come to our office and we say Listen, what do they need? What do federal employees need? And the insight that you've been able to give us is is just priceless to be able to, again bring to the federal system and to federal employees to really like you say give them the edge for a successful career. Right? It doesn't have to be money wise. Obviously we all like to have a lot of money have a successful retirement, which is the goal, but while you're working, what is your career look like? What's a successful career look like? And And for you, you've made that your life's mission, you know, and here we are now you've retired at the end of last year, you now work with my fit University as one of our national trainers. And and you know, it's been again, it's been a great honor to have you on here. So thank you so much for taking the time today to be here to to give a little bit of insight. And I know, one of the things, Adriana that we get a lot of questions on because again, you know it with my fit university, you know, I'm, I'm a network representative, my fifth University. And so what that means is just like you, I get sent out all over the place to do trainings to to work with federal employees across the country, to work with our relationships that we have with other federal agencies like NASA, like a lot of the VA hospitals. And some of the common questions that I get that I want to ask you, because who better to get insight from somebody who's been in the federal system for 30 years, and especially as a high HR role? Right. Adriana, tell us a little bit this a question that I'm getting all the time is, you know, what are maybe give me, you know, two or three commonalities that you've seen over the course of your career, that people make a mistake maybe early on in their career, or maybe didn't even if they get ready to retire? What are some of the common mistakes that you have seen? Again, we have to get to two deepenings. I know this could be a, you know, five hour long talk. But but maybe just a few common mistakes that you've seen? Well, that's a good question. Let's start maybe the number one common mistake that I've seen as an HR director, where employees would either come to me or in a workshop setting would ask the question of failed to ask the question about retirement planning. Yes, when you come into the government, you have a very, you have a full what I call a compensation package, one of the things that the federal employees and I can admit, I'm guilty, I lead hundreds of new employee orientations. And we skim over, there's so much information. It's information overload, but we skim over your retirement planning, we introduce you to the Thrift Savings Plan. But we don't share with you what that truly means is a current Federal Employee Retirement Planning, not only retirement planning, your life insurance, those are financial implications that we commonly fail to provide employees and employees fail to inquire early in their career. So we fail to really do effective planning in the retirement. And so one of the reasons why and when I was excited when I was introduced to you was it was a gap. It was a gap for me as an HR director overseeing at that time, over 4000 employees, where I know these employees weren't getting that information, that valuable information that was not coming from Washington, DC, it was not coming directly from our corporate office. And not because we didn't want to share it in HR, we really don't have the time to go deep. And so when we can partner with someone that's going to help you get a clearer understanding of what your financial future looks like 30 years, the government still requires full full return on time and 30 years of service. And so you have a window an opportunity early in your career to set the path forward for your financial future. So I would say that's common mistake number one, not really establishing that pathway to your financial future. Second pathway I made common mistake would be in the area of career development. Many times if federal employees come in, they get the job, they're excited, they do the job, but they become stagnant. And so you want to really establish your career plan. Where do you see yourself a year from now, five years from now, 15 years from now, if you really spend that time to find out what your agency's had as far as career development, leadership development programs, but many, many employees failed to reach out and establish that plan to Career Enhancement and development. You come in as an entry level, federal employee you leave out as an executive as I did, but the planning there's many gaps that employees tend not to take advantage of. So common mistake number three, I would probably say the opportunity to network many times in our federal sector, employees may have to go cross agencies Not only for career development just to broaden our knowledge base, our agency, I will and I work with the Veterans Affairs, we work with many other agencies to get our mission accomplished. And so when we had to work with the Department of Defense, or the various other agencies, it was important to establish network it was employed and my role, or any of my team members role to establish networks outside of your agencies so that you can broaden your understanding of what your mission is how it intertwines with others mission and establish strategic plans to do so. So there are three common mistakes I believe, that will enhance if you listen and turn those mistakes into opportunity is retirement planning, career development and networking. I was there. Excellent. That's excellent. So let's just recap that what I want to do is I want to find out maybe, why do you think it is that when somebody gets started, and you talked about, you know, retirement planning, why do you think that people will push that off? You think it's because the it's 30 years from now, right? And we kind of just focus so much on today? What What have you seen why people really, they don't take it maybe as serious as they should? When they first start? Like you said, I know, based on our conversations to you says just so overwhelming the amount of information people get, is it that they just kind of push it aside? And then life happens and never get to it? Is it the fear of the unknown? What are some of the things that you've seen as far as why somebody would push that off? I think the most common reason would be that they feel like, Oh, I am here for 30 years, I got time to get started. And as you get into the workforce, your work consumes you, your lifestyle consumes you, and you look back, and so many people have said to me is I wish I knew this 20 years ago, I wish I had started planning earlier. So that's probably the most common reason is that you come in, you're given the information, but you put it aside for a later date. And that later date doesn't come in till maybe five years before retirement. It happens it flashes. I mean, we talked to you know, we trained hundreds of 1000s of people every single year. And and everybody's like you said to the same thing that it's, you know, where did the last 20 years go? I wish I had done this 20 years ago. And so it is it's so common to hear. And I think that it maybe you can correct me if I'm wrong here. But do you think that it's also kind of the fear of the unknown, meaning, you know, I'm not a financial person money, and I, you know, I don't speak the language of money. And it's overwhelming. Do you think that that plays a role in it as well, and plays a big role on the majority of people are really, financially fearful. When it comes to numbers in it, when it comes to the complexity of the various let's say, TSP, the Thrift Savings Plan, TSP, it has various buckets that you can put your money into, but just that information alone can be overwhelming. And so to your average, let me say to your average employ, they, they may be technically sound, but when it comes to financial, if you ask them, Do you have a financial planner? Have you ever thought about a financial planner? The answer is no. But it's the same answer you will get and says do you do a monthly budget? You know, it's like you have good intentions. But the reality is, if you're not financially wired, if you're not wired to think of money and finance and that, then it really is fearful. And it's complex to add on that. And so you again, you just avoid it. Yeah, yeah, we've seen it a lot. You know, it's one of those mistakes. And, you know, really my fit University was built, as you know, like, our mission is simply to take the complexity out of what a lot of people feel is a complex situation, right? Meaning all their benefits, the money side of it, you know, and even the TSP side of is really take the complexity out of it, and bring it to a simplified way for people to understand that they can say, Okay, I know how to now make a decision. And I think that's the most important thing because like you said, the TSP has so many different options to it. How do you know what fun to be in? Right? Well, you know, you and I are joke, we call it the watercooler advice or you hear it all the time is, you know, how did you end up coming up with that strategy? Oh, my coworker, you know, they told me to be in this fun, but the reality is, is your co workers financial situation is probably totally different from yours, right? their risk tolerance is probably totally different from yours. So you know, making those kinds of decisions is what you and I are on a mission to do to educate people to say look, this is what this is. See, this is what they mean, this is how you make that decision that's based best for you and your family. That's so true. Ryan, the first time that I sat in one of your seminars at our facility, I sat there as a student, as a life learner, I sat in as a student, but I walked away with such clarity, such simplicity in such a complex topic, not only me, I had so many coworkers come up to me and says, Oh, my goodness, I understand this information. And so it opened up not only engagement, so now they want to take part they want to participate, they want to learn more, it also allowed to just, you know, it just took away the fear of is not is, you know, complex, I can do this, but it was you and you really turned a light and a light bulb on that room fill up full of individuals who says, I understand that, when can you bring him back? And so it was something where these employees had been asking for a long time for this type of information, and be able to provide it to the federal community, I think it's really something that we really need to cast across the US. Sure, sure. And that's our mission. So we're trying to accomplish that. No, you also had mentioned the career advancement side. And I'm excited because I know you and I are working on building an entire online academy specifically around this topic. In watching you film these videos, as you know, passion you are is so exciting. But maybe walk us through that a little bit. Because, you know, when somebody you had mentioned, what are your goals? Right? What is it you're trying to accomplish? You know, you come in at one level. But do you actually have a goal, a timeline strategy to advance your career? Or are you just going to kind of go through the motions of your working career? And at the end of it, go on I woulda coulda shoulda, all right. So maybe you can give us a little more insight as to, you know, what's kind of the thought process? How did you think about that differently? Right? Because let's go let's use your example. You went from starting off to the one of the highest positions in HR, you know, not just in Richmond, which a lot of people know, but also in DC, you spent a lot of your career out that way. What was your mindset, like from the early on in your career, and maybe this could help some people who are kind of stuck, maybe they're like, I just don't know, if I'm if I'm fit for the next level, or I don't know, if I'm good enough for the next level. We all have those, you know, those self doubts, and maybe you can share a lot about your mindset. Okay, my mindset, really, when I got into federal sector, like many people unclear on what the future would look like. But I was very clear on the mission of of our organization, I had the pleasure of working and serving with the armed forces, veterans, and the veterans have fears. So when I embraced the mission, it really became a part of my why. And I always ask people, What's your why? Why are you in this position? Why are you at this agency, because it has to be more than a job. It has to be something that you're passionate about. You're skillful, and, and for me, connecting passion with purpose is the key to success. And so may person is like, what am I passionate about? I've always been passionate about helping people succeed, always been passionate and seeing people's potential come to full fruition. And so for me, what Korea what does that look like? It was not going to be an accountant. Because although I have a master's degree, I would not be passionate about applying your numbers in your budget. But when it comes to seeing people come into an agency, and what they can contribute, I saw I was passionate about that. And so I did not start in federal government in HR. My very humble beginning was with the Department of Energy in Washington DC is a clerk typist, administrative track and administrative check. I've always been, you know, proficient in administration organization, but I wasn't passionate. I felt that there was so much more. And at that time, there wasn't mentors, they weren't mentoring programs in place. And so you have to look with them was my passion. What am I passionate about? And then if I want to make the federal sector, my career choice industry, where do I want to take my passion? And so I was introduced, just in a meeting to the veterans of fears and and working with veterans. I'd never considered that I always saw myself finishing college, to New York City working in one of those big businesses and administration. However, the career path when I met the leader at a Veterans Affairs, and I saw the passion, and I walked into a VA hospital, I was convinced that I wanted my passion in HR, to be a part of making sure these veterans are getting the best care. I want to be that HR person to help get them that care. And so how do you do that? I took the time to really educate myself, I advanced my education, I took advantage of the programs, that agency had leadership programs, customer service, soft skills, technical skills, and I navigated a path. How do I get from being a clerk to being the leader that I knew I was, and so I took courses to courses apply for the leadership development, those are some of the things so I was self motivated. And I was determined that I not only want to work in HR, I want to be the best HR servant leader that I can. And so I personally took my education to a higher level I network to find out where the jobs were in those leadership track had conversations on how did you get your job? Those are some of the ways that Adriana navigated from a GS four to a GS 15. But her career, so if I can do it, you can do it too. That's incredible. So, you know, knowing your why is such an important variable in here, you know, why are you here are you here just to collect a paycheck, right, and let's be real, if that's the case, fine. But you're gonna go through the motions of your career, whereas with you, you said, you know, I don't want to just be here for 30 years and get through it, I want to be the best that I can be, I want to find out through networking, what other jobs are available, I want to self educate, because no one's going to do it for you, let's be real, no one's ever going to do this for you, it's up to you to take the bull by the horns, which is what you did, and go out there, and really make something of yourself. And I'll tell you this, look, you and I have known each other for about a year and a half now. And I have the privilege of talking to a lot of other HR directors, you know, within the local areas and across the country. And whenever I mentioned your name, they go, Oh, I know Adriana, she was the best when she was working. I mean, you know, your your credibility has really shined amongst the industry, because of the passion that you brought to it. And even now, half a year retired. They're actually almost going on a year, right? Since you've retired. You know, people still know who you are, they remember you. And they remember the impact that you made on them. I think that's the most important thing, right? If you're going to do a job, make sure it's impactful. And you went out there to make an impact in the HR world. And you did that you see you blaze the fire on there, and people still remember you and still appreciate you. So that's an incredible thing. And I think that, you know, everybody should strive because I think that if everybody strived to accomplish, you know what you set out to accomplish and you know, in their own path in their own career path. I think people will lead a much happier life and much happier career to versus just showing up to it's Monday morning. All right, another Monday here at the hospital to another Monday here at NASA or wherever they are, and really start living out their passion. And I think that that's going to come with exactly what you said is just know your reason know your reason why, why are you here? What is it you're trying to accomplish? And what's the path to get there and don't stop at anything until you do? Well said Ryan. Well say Well thank you so much for watching or listening to this episode. We obviously want to make sure we're bringing as much value to you as humanly possible and thank you Adriana for really being on here and pouring into our listeners today. And listen if you have yet to visit the my fed university.com website make sure you do that. And subscribe. There are over a year and a half worth of content on there that you can listen to whether it's webinars recordings from people at the very very top like Adriana just pour it out to you. I really make it a priority to get your resources from my fed University. Also, if you have not yet make sure you go to the My fed University YouTube page and hit the subscribe button so you don't miss any of these shows. Adriana, thanks again so much for being on. It's been an absolute pleasure. Ryan the pleasure actually is mine and I look forward to continuing these conversations and have an opportunity to share with my federal employees, the gems and nuggets of making your career the best career and more importantly pursuing Your passion Have a great day everyone thanks for watching