TERRA Helped Me Turn My Passion for Helping Others into a Career

By Jezabel Southard

Posted on November 15, 2018

Sometimes you find your passion, and sometimes your passion finds you.

For Andra Kent, it was the latter.

Andra began her career working in retail and food service when she was in high school.

She worked for one major international retailer for over four years, but when she was offered a management role, she declined. While she loved her store and her coworkers, she wasn’t passionate about retail.

Unsure of how to transition into another field or what even what industry to pursue, she decided to contact a staffing agency. They offered her a temporary position as a sales admin at a steel distribution company, and she accepted.

It was in this role that she truly realized that she had a passion for customer service. She loved working closely with people, helping them and building relationships.

After two and a half years – and a promotion – business started to slow down. Andra saw this as a great opportunity to pursue a degree.

She moved to the Portland area to attend college and help her grandmother, who lived in the area. While she was in school, she took a retail job to help pay her bills and student loans.

Just being back in a retail environment solidified that this was not good long-term career for her. She wanted to work in an environment where people put effort into the work and cared about the job. In retail, she felt, it was the exact opposite.

She was determined to get a full-time administrative position.

Having success with a staffing agency in the past, Andra searched online for a local staffing firm. That’s when she found TERRA’s NE Portland office.

She saw they had an ad for a general administrative position and she submitted her resume. NE Portland Branch Manager Josh Byrnes called Andra and scheduled an interview with her.

It just so happened that TERRA’s NE Portland office was in the middle of its busy season, and Josh was looking for some temporary administrative help for his office. After interviewing Andra, he thought she would be a great addition to his team. He offered her a temporary Interview Coordinator position, to support the branch for the next few months, and she happily accepted.

During her time at TERRA, Andra was reliable and consistent, and was very tech-savvy. Josh valued her as an employee and saw that she was a highly capable candidate. He really wanted to find her a job she’d be perfect for.

Josh had a client that was looking for a customer service support representative role at their call center. He felt that Andra’s administrative experience, great phone presence and passion for customer service made her ideal for the position.

And Josh was right – she got the job immediately!

Andra loves that she’s learning new skills, handling a variety of administrative tasks and fulfilling her passion of helping people.

She wanted to thank Josh and the entire Portland TERRA team. She is grateful for the opportunity to have worked as part of the TERRA family and thankful for the learning experience the job provided.

If you haven’t found your passion yet, Andra had this helpful advice:

“If you’re not happy, look for something that makes you happy. There’s risk involved, so you have to be willing to take the risk. But it doesn’t have to be scary. Don’t be afraid to use as many resources as you can to help you. Most importantly, make sure you have a good resume – it is your best friend.”

Congratulations on all of your success and thank you for allowing TERRA to help you find your passion, Andra!

How TERRA Can Help You

Are you looking for a career you can be passionate about?

We can help connect you to many opportunities in your area.

Getting started with us is simple. Just check out our current job openings.

We have offices in the Seattle-Puget Sound, Portland-Metro, and Phoenix-Metro areas and our expert recruiters are waiting to speak with you!

Categories: Success Stories

Tags: find a job you're passionate about, passion, Portland, Success Story

Related Posts