Year 1 Career Learnings: First Year, No Fear, with Victoria Hernandez

In this episode of AVIDly Adulting, we dive into the lessons, surprises, and growth that come with navigating a first year on the job. Victoria Hernandez, an AVID alum and first-year teacher at Wells Middle School in Riverside, California, shares her story and insights. With honesty and heart, Victoria reflects on everything from imposter syndrome to the power of routines, building support systems, and finding joy in small wins. Whether you're a new grad, changing careers, or mentoring someone who's starting out, Victoria’s story reminds us that success comes from showing up, leaning into learning, and believing in yourself. To learn more, visit AVID.org/alumni.

Transcript

Victoria Hernandez 0:00 You don't have to know everything. On day one, you don't even have to know everything year one. You show up with heart, stay focused, and be open to learning. Growth comes from showing up. And even when it's hard, you show up. You put heart into it, and you try your absolute best, and you're already winning.

Dr. Aliber Lozano 0:23 Welcome to Avidly Adulting, the podcast where we tackle the wild ride of transitioning into your first career and all of the life lessons in between and beyond when life and career merge into adulting.

Dr. Aliber Lozano 0:40 Welcome to Avidly Adulting. I'm your host, Dr. Aliber Lozano, and today we're adulting. Yes, we're talking about your first year on the job. Were you prepared for it? Did your certification, did your training? Did your learning at the college or the institution make sure you're ready for what happens in the first year, or were you not, and how do we get through both the excitement and some of the struggles that we're doing?

To help me explore this topic, we have Victoria Hernandez, and she is in her first year of her career. She is an AVID alumni and is a teacher at Wells Middle School in Riverside, California. Now, not all of us are teachers by profession, but we can relate on what it takes to prepare for a job and what happens in that first year. Were we just as prepared? Or could we be prepared better? It's probably the latter. Now I hear a tardy bell ringing. So Victoria, let's get started. Victoria, just tell us a little bit about your AVID journey, and what do you remember most? What tools are you still using today?

Victoria Hernandez 1:53 I've been in AVID for all my middle school years and all my high school years, so I was very fond of AVID. Three years in middle school, I gained relationships, I gained public speaking, being able to carry a conversation. Dress professionally was always a big thing.

But as soon as I came to high school, it was financial decisions, making the best choice for college, making a good choice for careers, and what I'm still using today is time management skills. Being organized as a teacher, it's so important that I'm organized with my lesson plans, with what I'm giving my students and assessments, and even just getting to know them. Great.

Dr. Aliber Lozano 2:37 Now you talked about time management and planning. There's something you still do, because I remember in our discussion that you keep and you still do in your first years of career. Remember that little planner? Tell me about how you still use your planner to organize yourself and manage your time.

Victoria Hernandez 2:55 I love my planner. In middle school and high school, for me, I remember it was such a big part of our binder checks to always make sure that we had our planner ready with all of our classes and all of our homework and what we were doing that day.

Now, as an adult and as a teacher, I don't think I'd be able to process my everyday tasks without my planner. It's so nice to be able to check off things that I've done throughout the day, whether it be just getting to school in the morning, or being able to pass back tests to my kids, or just remembering those little parent details as well. I need to call this parent, call that parent, and all even my professional days when I'm out for PD, which is when I do trainings at the district, I need to have that in my planner, because if I don't, I will forget.

Dr. Aliber Lozano 3:46 We're not going to miss several nuggets there. It's your first year in your job, and you're still going to training, called it PD, professional development. There is a study. There's plenty of studies out there of top CEOs, and when they talk about why they were successful, you're not going to be surprised. Organization is a key skill, so that you learned it early, and it's transferable, both into your college, into your career, you just start getting better at it.

Lastly, we want to talk about opportunity knowledge. You had it in AVID, whether it was communication skills, how to dress, how to interview. Those are the opportunity knowledge that gets you into the careers that you want straight out of high school, because you have an associate's degree or after college. So those two things are my takeaways from you.

Now tell us more about your career, because you didn't always aspire to be a teacher, and that was not your journey. And I bet to the subscribers, there was one or two or all of us that changed our major while we were going to college, or decided to change that track as we were getting prepared to high school to go straight into career. How'd you choose your career?

Victoria Hernandez 4:56 Well, funny thing. So, that actually happened to me too. So growing up, I've always loved school. I especially loved helping others. So during my time in AVID, I did do my community service hours in an after school program where I knew that I wanted to work with kids. I did my community service hours at Twin Hill Elementary, which is my previous elementary school that I attended as a child, and that is where my path was shaped.

But then that's where I needed to know, okay, I want to work with kids, but how? And at that time in high school, I really was fond of the medical field, so I actually applied to my university with a pre-Nursing major. That was me, and about my pre-nursing major, I did start one whole year in my prerequisites class of biology and math and science, and it wasn't until I spoke to one of my old staff members that I grew fond of and I grew close to during my community service hours that I asked, "What are you doing in school?" And she told me, "I'm studying to become a teacher." And I said, "Wow, I don't know why I never thought of that," because as soon as I got to school and I found out nursing is a very, very, very great career. I wish I would have stuck to it, but it just wasn't for me. It wasn't making it didn't make me feel as fulfilled when I would sit with my students, when I would sit with my community service groups, and I would play with kids, and I would talk to them, and I would help them with their homework. And those are the best times that I had remembered. So I thought teaching, maybe that's where my path lies, and here we are.

Dr. Aliber Lozano 6:51 Yeah, and here we are. And with the maybe that came into probably, that you increase the probability and are completing your first year on the job. Two nuggets there, of course. When you're thinking about your career, thinking about internships, thinking about volunteering to inform your decisions, you went and volunteered in elementary and still went into nursing. By the way, you and I have something in common. You went into nursing, so biology, all of those science courses. I was pre-pharmacy when I went into college, and you and I both ended up in education, and I think our subscribers probably went and started a major and most likely have switched to a different career field. And that tends to be the trend now. We tend to stay in first in our careers for three or four, five years, and changing your profession is not uncommon.

Let's talk some more, because change and learning how to change and manage, especially in your first years, can inform your latter years. So what was the job search process for you? What strategies help you land your first teaching job? This one?

Victoria Hernandez 8:00 Well, my journey started way before I had my credential. I did work in the after-school program, so because I was able to branch out and find what I wanted to do, I knew I wanted to work with kids. So if I couldn't work at a hospital, then I was going to work at a school, and at this school, I was able to not only build relationships with the staff and the adults, but also with different students, and just making those connections outside of what you're needed. I was a high school student, and a group of adults already knew me by first name, and they knew my work ethic, and they knew what I brought to the table, and they knew that they could depend on me, and it felt nice to know that, because when I started applying for jobs after high school, they were my references.

I was able to have references outside of school. Of course, I had a teacher or two, but being able to bring those people in and them talk about you and know your work ethic and who you are as a person really benefits where you do apply. I had my roots in the district as well, so to share that experiences with the students and telling them I was sitting in that seat too, and here I am now, and now I can even do that as a teacher. This is one of my sister schools. I didn't go to the school that I work at, but I went to the school down the street, and just being able to share that with students and say, "This was my journey. This is where I headed, and this is where I'm going."

Dr. Aliber Lozano 9:37 So subscribers, whether you're going to be a nurse, a police officer, a mechanic, an engineer, roots establishing those, we're talking about networking. So networking and taking that into your first career is really important to land that job. That's what we're talking about. And then we're going to get into the career.

One last question about landing that job and then going into your career and your learnings for a minute. What can we, as your listeners, know more about it to prepare us? We know it sets you apart in your job interview. One of them was your networking and knowing the school system where you were, so it's again being doing mentorship or doing an internship in the career that you want so you establish that networks. What do you wish you would have known as you signed your contract or negotiating that you would have known now, that you didn't know then?

Victoria Hernandez 10:36 Oh, definitely I wish I would have known to read, to be able to read the fine print and be able to understand what I'm signing up for. As coming fresh out of college, the first thing someone thinks of is, "I need a job. I need to I just graduated, I'm applying like crazy." All the students, all my peers and my cohort, are all applying for the same jobs, especially if you're all in the same area, and you're landing interviews back and forth. And something I wish I would have known is knowing what I was signing up for, reading the fine print and what it was expected of my first year, and what I needed to bring to the school.

Dr. Aliber Lozano 11:19 All right, so you got to come to the school. Let's talk about now your first year learnings. While we're all here to listen, you're in your first year. What were the biggest surprises first, or challenges that you faced in your first year that you're still facing in your first year?

Victoria Hernandez 11:35 One of the biggest challenges was learning how to manage everything: lesson planning, grading, classroom management, all at once. There were moments I felt overwhelmed, but I reminded myself that every teacher, every person, has their first year in their career, and I leaned into learning and didn't expect perfection. I'm coming in as a new teacher, and anyone in their first career, you're always going to be a student. You're always going to learn. If you don't get it right the first time, you will get it right the next time. You just need to be able to learn from it. And that's what I'm constantly still learning.

Dr. Aliber Lozano 12:18 And that's what we talked about at first. While we're talking to an educator, and that may not be a profession, we all have something in common. We're all learners, and Victoria just talked about it. Don't be afraid to fail. It's the title of our episode, right? "First Year, No Fear." Take some risks, and that's how you're going to learn. So I really, really that.

Now you're in that first day, that first week. You may be going into next week, which I think I heard you go, it's now state testing. So it's your first job as you're managing state testing. Do you ever feel the imposter syndrome or self-doubt in this new role of yours?

Victoria Hernandez 12:57 Oh, I definitely still feel imposter syndrome, especially during the first few months of school. But then I remembered, I have students who were in my internship and in my community service where they would tell me that they felt seen. And now, because we're going closer into the end of the school year, I have students telling me they feel safe in my classroom, and that just reminds me that I am making a difference and that I'm giving them a space where they belong, and I belong.

Dr. Aliber Lozano 13:31 That's a really good tip for all of us in any career: make yourself visible and make sure others feel visible too. So it's a good learning in your first career. So, and you talk about strategies, about getting to know and building that trust with, in your case, students, young adults, and also the adults that you're working with.

Now you're managing a lot. Everybody's managing a lot. There's a learning curve that we have to adapt to. Projects are coming out at me. I have to be part of a team, or lead of a team, part of a project, or leader project. How do you manage this workload and avoid burnout?

Victoria Hernandez 14:12 I give myself grace, first of all, and I remind myself that I don't have to do everything at once. I make sure to make time to rest and recharge. I also build routines that help me stay on track. I also find joy in little wins, for example, as a teacher, I find joy in a lesson that I'm giving and a student is making progress.

I also have learned to make boundaries and to be able to know when it's time to walk away, in the sense of my contract hours end at three, but the first couple months of school, I wouldn't leave until eight. But I kept reminding myself I need to give myself grace, and I'm just anyone in their first year of career. You want everything to be perfect. I felt I had eyes on me. But then as soon as I branched out, I talked to my team. I have a beautiful sixth grade team that I don't think I'd be able to do anything that I'm doing without them, because it's that support system that I lean on and that helps me avoid burnout, because I'm able to share experiences with them, and then they say, "Victoria, I'm in my 22nd year of teaching, and I still feel that way sometimes."

And I look at them and I say, "No way," because I'm in my first year, and I think, "What am I doing wrong? Why am I not where they are? What can I do differently that they're doing?" And I have noticed that sometimes they tell me, "Victoria, we're learning from you because you are fresh eyes. You are a fresh set. You're a fresh set of brain." Because a lot of my co-teachers haven't been to their university, or they graduated or started their career about 5, 10, plus years ago, and I'm fresh out of school, and I'm coming with new strategies. I feel connected with the kids. I'm able to bring new ideas, whether it be from online articles or even YouTube videos where I say, "Hey, let's implement this. Let's implement that." And that's the only way I feel I can avoid burnout, being able to branch out and get ideas and give ideas, and that way my brain is never too full.

Dr. Aliber Lozano 16:28 And your concept of team is going to be my next question, and how do we build teams, and that networking, which I'm going to hold. But I just want to review on some nuggets you just gave us in your first year, or even now: build routines, really important, because when you have a routine, you reduce variability, and you're able to say what's going well, so scale that, and what's not going well, so stop that. So I just heard that.

The other thing is joy in the little things. I have a colleague who, when we were in the office, we're all remote now, she came out of the office and was celebrating. "Tiffany, why are you celebrating?" She's like, "Because I just sent an email out." Why can't we be football players, where every play they give high fives, and are doing chest bumps. So make sure you're celebrating those little wins, much like other professionals do. That's the other nugget I took away from you. And the other thing is setting boundaries in your first year, telling your colleagues, maybe your boss. No, we're going to explore that a little bit more before we leave.

But let's talk about teams. You said that's one of your learnings, and how you manage workload and burnout. So tell me how you build relationships to either get a mentor, to get a team. You say you have this whole team, and how do you build relationships with your supervisors?

Victoria Hernandez 17:49 Being open is definitely a big one. Asking for advice and showing appreciation really helps me a lot. I made an effort to connect with others, even if it was just stopping by to say hi or to observe a lesson. Those moments, even as small as they can be, build trust within the workplace. Being able to hear ideas and speak ideas and share ideas with everyone is very important, because you're able to show, "I'm a team player, and I'm here at the end of the day to make sure the team is doing good, not just myself, not just you guys, the whole team."

Dr. Aliber Lozano 18:29 Really good advice. Ask for help, see other people in your area doing that work, so that you know what's expected of you, and you know organizational culture, whether it's in a classroom, in an office, or you're working remotely. I think that's in being open, as you said, to be a listener. Often in our first year, we always get the first advice: put your head down and get to work. You're telling us, pick your chin up, your eyes open, your ears open, and it sometimes contribute, because you may have a fresh approach that may lead to a solution, or you may have a fresh approach that may see, that's not it, but it's a catalyst, as I said, for other types of thinking, so that you and your team and your work situation advance.

All right, let's talk about a little success, those little, small wins, small joys. What was a moment when you felt, this year, in your first year, that you really succeeded? You're "Yes, I got this. I made the right choice over nursing."

Victoria Hernandez 19:29 Well, there was a moment when one of my students who struggled to stay motivated told me, "You actually make me want to come to school, Ms. Hernandez," and that, still to this day, hits me hard in the best way. It makes me feel everything is worth it. And being able to have a strong community, like I said previously, this is a community that I grew up in, so it's just nice to be able to see students and be that teacher that I may or may not have had throughout the years, and say we are connected, we are the same. We have different struggles, but we come from the same roots, and it's nice to be able to connect with my students and feel and just feel good with that.

Dr. Aliber Lozano 20:23 That's a really good thing. So any of us, whatever profession we are, how do we bring inspiration to ourselves, as you first started, bring joy to you, but how do we inspire other people? Your inspiration is changing the trajectory of someone's life, so how do we apply it into all careers? How do we inspire our coworkers to be the fullest, best version of themselves? In your case, you have coworkers, and then you have the young adults who you're teaching.

Now let's go the opposite way, because it's really hard when you're not doing so well, and you're going to get constructive criticism, and that's putting it nicely, depending where you are, what your office culture is. So what happened when you got some constructive criticism, some unsolicited feedback that you could be doing better? In fact, "we expect better of you."

Victoria Hernandez 21:15 At first, it is hard not to take feedback personally, but I learned to see it as a tool to grow. My advice, listen with an open mind and ask clarifying questions. Even tough feedback can help you become a better version of yourself.

Dr. Aliber Lozano 21:34 And it's tough. I mean, how are you that day and that night? Because let's dig into it. Because it's, "be with an open mind, be reflective, metacognition, reflect on your own thinking." All good tools, but sometimes it's easier said than done.

Victoria Hernandez 21:51 Definitely.

Dr. Aliber Lozano 21:53 What was your headspace in that?

Victoria Hernandez 21:55 I did have to resonate with it, and I am a first-year teacher. We have a program called induction, so we don't get our credentials cleared until we go through a series of observations and submitting lesson plans to see if we know our stuff. Because ultimately, we are teaching our kids.

So in the beginning of the school year, I had multiple observations and being able to take that feedback of "I could have done better in that lesson," or "I could have checked with that student more," or "Why didn't I further the thinking more?" It helps me sit in it, and then, okay, I can do that better next time. So it's just a constant learning process where it's, "right now, it's not good, but it's going to be better." And you just can't stay in this spot where it's "I'm not good enough," because I knew if I were to stay here, I wasn't going to get better. I was just going to always be here, but we all have the capacity to go more further than that. We just have to put in the work and say, "Okay, this is what I didn't do. I'm going to make sure I do it and do something better next time."

Dr. Aliber Lozano 23:13 Gosh, that's really good and very mature where you are right now. I'll tell you in subscribers, it's not a secret, or maybe it may be, I'm now seeking therapy to continue my mental fitness, just like I look at how to eat and get better exercise and sleep, get it. And so one of the things my therapist is saying is, when that feeling comes in, you said it resonated with you, let it, invite it in, let it stick, and then let it sit next to you, and then when you're done, let it go and exit your house, so that it doesn't continue to just fester and brim and appear in other occasions, other locations, not just your workspace, but your work.

Let's look back this first year. What's one thing you would have done differently in your first year?

Victoria Hernandez 24:06 I would have trusted myself more and not second-guessed every single decision I made. I spent so much time overthinking, and I just wish I would have listened and leaned into my instincts that I knew what I was doing. One of my biggest things that a few of my closest people in my life told me is, "You got hired for a reason. You were wanted there for a reason. They didn't just look at you and say, 'Yes, we hire you.' No, they hired you because they needed you." And that's something that I wish I would have. Really now I can say confidently, because I'm almost done with my first year in my career, that I feel very good about it, but my first few months, I did not feel that way. And if I would have, I think it would have been much better. I would have sat and thought to myself, "You know what? They're right. I. I'm going to do it, and I can do it, and I need to believe in myself," how I have others believe in me, but ultimately, I just need to believe in myself.

Dr. Aliber Lozano 25:13 Listen to your instincts, and whether you're a teacher or having that critical friend or you're a thought partner, while we're all teachers, also, we always are teaching, maybe not by profession. We're always learning as a learner. We're always giving advice. We are kind of therapists, especially teachers, as you're talking to your students and other coworkers. We do give advice to one another, and that's you said, listen to your instincts and be positive. That's sometimes when I have a hard night or a hard day, and I'm reflecting about it, as you've said, and it's resonating with me, and I'm letting those feelings again. I'm going to give kudos to my therapist and look at you beyond your wisdom, your years of wisdom is lead with the "I can do." When I wake up in the morning and I don't want to go to work, to start thinking, "This is what I want to do as part of my day," and that positive thinking really does then create positive actions. So then your thoughts and behaviors are aligned. So really good.

Now you talked about listening to your instincts. Before we leave and talking about your first year experiences, I know you live very close to Disneyland, so you're going to have a good state and brain break before you get into a really rigorous week of work next week, which is state testing. What advice do you have to our subscribers who are starting their first job that you haven't mentioned just yet?

Victoria Hernandez 26:44 You don't have to know everything. On day one, you don't even have to know everything year one. You show up with heart, stay focused, and be open to learning. Growth comes from showing up. And even when it's hard, you show up, you put heart into it, and you try your absolute best, and you're already winning.

Dr. Aliber Lozano 27:05 That's incredible advice. It's about your heart, your head, you don't know everything, and your hands show up and do it, and that's how you learn. Victoria, thank you so much for sharing your advice and learning about adulting, adulting in our first year in life, and you're going to see that our subscribers in year five, and even myself, are taking learnings away from what you have shared with you. "First Year, No Fear" is our goal. But we're not really saying you shouldn't fear. We're just saying, think positive. The things that you have doubt, start with what you can do, so that you fill the gaps of what you actually cannot do, and have your team, have your mentor, have your networking, help bridge those gaps. Thank you again, Victoria, for everything you've done.

The "No Fear" is a healthy plan to prepare likely, so that we have our day to day. I would to end with a quote by David McCullough, which is "real success is finding your life work in the work that you love." We heard a lot of love and care and hard work and learning and action from Victoria today. So how do you get through your first year and beyond into your 20th year is through love. It's through living, and it's through learning what you are doing in your first year, and in various facets of your life and your career will make you happy, and it will show in your work, and it will show in your daily lives with your family and friends.

Subscribers, that is our time for today in this episode of Avidly Adulting. Remember, be good today, because that's enough, and together, let's be great tomorrow. Avidly Adulting is powered by our AVID alumni and is brought to you by AVID. To learn more about AVID, visit our website at avid.org. If you are an AVID alumni, join our network at avid.org/alumni. Thanks for listening to Avidly Adulting. Join us the first and third Mondays of every month as we feature guests and topics to help you navigate your first career with laughter, insights, and life lessons, because adulting isn't just a job, it's an adventure.