Interview: Teknesha Robinson, Senior Software Test Engineer & Founder of EmpowerU Career Coaching

By Angela Tai

You’ve held notable positions at the National Institutes of Health, USAID, and the Naval Surface Warfare Center. What sparked your interest in software engineering and business analysis? 

Yes, in 2011, there was an opening at the organization where I was working at the time. Under the umbrella was the National Institutes of Health — the specific project that I was working under was a project for the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases — they had an opening for a Software Quality Assurance Analyst. I had no real experience working in the field of tech, I have a degree in Biology so that’s what I was doing there, I was working as a Health Information Specialist there. I used my transferable skills that I was learning inside the field that I was working in to get me the job in tech. In the Army Reserve, I was working as a Laboratory Specialist and testing field products. I knew that they’d want me to test software in the tech role - I know I wouldn’t be testing the same thing but I’ve learned skills as a Lab Specialist and went to 3 interviews, really sold myself and ultimately got the position. As I got into Software Quality Assurance, I learned that this was an up-and-coming field and lots of companies were hiring for Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Test Engineers because they want to ensure the product they’re putting out into the world is free of bugs and issues. That’s what got me interested in staying, once I learned more about the nature of the work, it was like a video game because I’m constantly testing so many different types of software and get to work with developers. I came from that 9-10 years ago; I have some certifications under my belt and I’m the software lead now so that’s how I got into the field. 

You are also the CEO of EmpowerU Career Coaching, which helps provide people with the necessary tools to prepare for an effective job search. When did your entrepreneurial flair first reveal itself? 

Yes, thank you for asking that question! I’ve never been the entrepreneurial type per se, some people are raised to be business-minded and I always shied away from it. As I got older, I broke out of my shell, so to speak. It was around 2014-2015 and I noticed a lot of people were coming off of active duty and into my reserve unit but so many of them didn’t know how to write a resume, prepare for an interview or how to do professional networking via LinkedIn, etc. As time went by, I figured I would turn it into a business because people were coming back to me and saying that they got hired. My roommate was in grad school at the time and got the job that she wanted - in international economics. She got a job working in Africa and gets to travel to different countries every so often so I was really excited for her. I looked into it and did some research on what it would take in order to be a successful business owner. I took some classes and wanted to turn it into an official business and we opened our doors in October, 2016 and we’ve been moving ever since. 

We understand that your mission is to empower veterans, transitioning military, and entry-level professionals with the knowledge and tools needed to have successful careers. What are some of the obstacles that you faced when growing EmpowerU Career Coaching and how did you overcome them?

Yes, that’s another good question because there are tons of challenges that come along with being a business owner. One big challenge has been time management, the way I’ve been able to do really well with my schedule is by blocking my schedule a day or two beforehand. The night before, I take 20-30 minutes and block out my schedule for the next day. I’m a big planner but I also like to use automation and technology to my advantage as well. I use Google Calendar to block my schedule but another big challenge I had was managing my projects. As you know, I work full-time, manage my business, and am in the reserves. I put all of the due dates for my business and personal life in Asana - a project management tool. I use this platform to manage all of my projects and ensure that I’m getting everything done that I need to do before the due date. Lots of business owners have this mindset of “work work work” and I love what I do but I didn’t want my life to be all about work. I also wanted to spend time with my family and travel so what I started doing was giving myself an end time at the end of each day. It would vary - I try to be done by 5pm everyday but it depends on what I’m trying to get done. When I first opened the business, I would pull all-nighters but now I’ve gotten to a point where I have stopping points for myself everyday so setting boundaries was difficult in the beginning but what I learned is that if I didn’t set boundaries for myself, then other people wouldn’t have boundaries for me. I learned this from my fiance (he’s a business owner as well) - people will message him outside of the office or on his Facebook page but he always insists that he will get back to them on Monday since it’s after hours for him. I’ve taken a page out of his book and setting boundaries is part of what makes you successful in business. I’ve been in business for 4 years now and they say that once you get over that 3 year hump, you’re well on your way and I’ve been working to grow my business ever since. The business started with just me but now I have four people on my team - two resume writers, a social media manager who has helped me with my social media strategy and email marketing campaigns, and myself of course. At the beginning, I was doing a lot of resume help and we’ve been able to expand the number of services that we have to offer. We do LinkedIn profiles now and have a career advancement program as well. We do interview coaching as a service now too so we’ve been growing but there’s still room for advancement in this business. 

Your blog post - “Degree or Certification?” - piqued my interest. I think most people assume that college serves as a prerequisite for a successful career but this isn’t always the case. Choosing to go on to post-secondary education is a big decision (and an expensive one that not all are privileged to do). There are certainly many factors to consider, what is your take on career-focused certification programs as an alternative to a four year degree? 

Here’s my take - it depends on the chosen career field you want to go into. If you want to be a nurse, doctor, lawyer, etc. then you’ll need to go to college. They haven’t created any apprenticeship programs in these fields. I know for lawyers, I think you can be an apprentice and somehow take the bar without going to law school in the state of California. However, I believe you can also be successful in life without going to college. I went to college - I did my undergrad in Biology and got my master’s in Management and Information Technology. But I didn’t need these degrees to be successful. Success doesn’t come with a degree but more so with what you know and what you use with what you have. I would push people to go to college if it’s for them. If you want to be a Plumber or a Cosmetologist, there are technical training programs that you can go to and you would then be well on your way to starting your career within a year. What I will say is that regardless of the career path you choose to pursue,  you should still continue to educate yourself. If you’re a Barber - what’s your plan? Do you want to just work for someone else or do you want to own your own Barber shop someday?If you want to own your own shop, I think you should still take some business classes but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to go out and get your degree. I’m a career strategist and I stay abreast of the latest tech when it comes to resume software so I can continue to give advice to my clients. For example, twenty years ago, it was common to put an objective on your resume but today, it’s completely different. I’m always trying to learn new software that I can implement in my team so we can save time and money for the organization, continuous education is always important. Certifications go a long way in certain career fields - in the field of Information Technology, certifications are great to have but if you’re working in retail, maybe not so much. My take on it is ask yourself, “where do I want to live?” Then, pinpoint what the booming industry is for where you want to live. If you’re living in a rural place and they don’t have what you’re looking for, maybe you should look at your options and think about relocating. What are you passionate about? When it comes to certifications or training programs, look at these certification programs that you can start after high school if you don’t want to wait four years to finish your degree. Go ahead and maybe take some business classes if you want to open up your own business. It should be continuous education no matter what. Think about a doctor who went to school in the 1980’s, if they’re still doing the same techniques that they were doing in the 70’s, I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t be running an efficient practice now. You always have to educate yourself no matter what career field you want to get into - whether that means pursuing college or a certification program. 

What is the most rewarding part of working with veterans? On the contrary, how do you help veterans cope with potential ‘culture shock’ if they decide to return to college? 

I work with veterans and lots of them are looking for a career change, the real world is a new world for them, especially if they joined the army right after high school or college. Lots of them have never had to write a resume or do a LinkedIn profile. They all come to me and the good thing about EmpowerU is that I can understand the military jargon and lingo, not everyone knows what certain acronyms are but I will always know what they mean. I like to help them out outside of their career too, even if it’s something as small as helping with affordable life insurance. There’s lots of programs to help start small businesses and I’m always a promoter for my clients. I’m always here to promote anybody if they decide that they want to start a business. I help by providing resources to them because I don’t want to be the one-stop shop where you never hear from me again. I also like to pass along leads and I like to be that liaison if I know someone who is hiring, it’s great to have a mentor or a leader that you can look up to. I had a client who got out of the air force after twenty years of service and admitted to me that she didn’t know how to write a resume. I told her I would write her resume and show her how to write a resume - a resume training course essentially. One of my gifts in life is when I was a kid, I wanted to be a teacher. I did a teacher’s practicum when I was in the 12th grade, it was kind of like a work study. I figured that I didn’t want to work as a teacher in that capacity but I’ve still been able to live in my purpose of teaching people and encouraging people through my business. If you put a plan in place - you can get to where you want to be. When you come to me, I’m not just going to be a person who will write your resume, I want to be there as a resource as well. In regards to the culture shock, I want to help these veterans in any way that I can with their transition. 

What’s the most common challenge you’ve seen in veterans returning to the workforce?

So I am seeing a trend - I’m always asking my clients what their biggest challenges are. I ask them what specific challenges they personally face that ultimately stops them from reaching their ultimate goal and many times, it’s fear or lack of confidence or not thinking you can achieve something. They may be afraid or very introverted or think to themselves, “I don’t have 5-7 years of experience so I’m not going to apply.” But guess what? There’s someone who doesn’t have that degree that you have so don’t ever stop yourself from applying to something that you know you can do. I try to live my life without regrets; when I was in the 5th grade, I was a very advanced speller and the teacher asked me to be in the spelling bee. The teacher asked if I wanted to participate in the grade-wide spelling bee. You know what I did? I went home and didn’t want to be in front of people trying to spell and I was a lot more shy than I am now. Now, I’m totally extroverted but they gave me the decision and I had to make it for myself. The grand prize was a $500 scholarship and I let my fear get in the way. That just goes to show other people will let their fear hold them back but it’s actually people holding themselves back, not those external factors. 

You dedicated a post on your Instagram to #Juneteenth. Certainly 2020 has been quite a challenging year and certainly one that’s caused many of us to examine our own biases and racism. What do you hope the takeaway is from this year for people, especially non-BIPOC? 

This year has definitely been challenging for the country as a whole - all ethnic groups. We are a melting pot of ethnicities and cultures; I’m African American and half of my family is from the Bahamas, my fiance is from Haiti. One of the things we can take away from this situation is that we all have our learned behaviors that we pick up as children. As far as this year goes, in regards to Juneteenth, I’ve always been celebrating the holiday ever since I’ve known about it. I believe some state government programs gave the day off to their employees which is great. When it comes to African American history, it’s sort of white washed but so many more white citizens learned about the massacre in Tulsa this year. African Americans, in addition to other cultures as well, have really had a tragic history in this country and after George Floyd passed away, it was the tipping point of the iceberg. People were stressed as it is with the pandemic and finances, I knew I couldn’t put on my best self if I was working in my business as per usual. I couldn’t give 100% of myself because I was beat down, I don’t work with any other black women in my job. I work with mostly white males. I work with one white male, one asian lady and one caucasian lady but I’m the only black woman there. I knew I’d feel some sort of internal tension during this time and I’m glad I was able to work from home during this time. The media has been great during this time period. I have a lot of good things going on for me in the midst of this pandemic; I feel like COVID made people sit and really think about their careers. One thing about your passion is that you can never get fired from your passion. You may get fired or furloughed from your job but you’ll never be fired or furloughed from your passion. Lots of people have died and there has been racial/economic turmoil within this country but we all have to come together as a nation. We need to come together as Americans and that’s one of the challenges we currently face. We don’t have unity, it’s been republicans vs. democrats r white vs. black for the longest time. But now, we need to make sure that children are treated right and we have to ensure that we’re all being treated equally under the law. It’s been hard because I’m also in the military and a black woman; the military has caught some major flack this year too. You know, I was a bit conflicted because I enjoy my position and helping people and the soldiers that I lead but I’m also feeling like I want to go back to the part where we’re the heroes and not fighting against our own people. I know it’s no fault of the military but I’m feeling optimistic about the future, more so than I have been all year. Some of this year has been very tragic and I did lose my grandmother, it was due to COVID-like symptoms. This year has definitely brought a lot of challenges but it’s brought people together too. I got engaged this year but the way I see it is this marriage will last for a lifetime and the wedding is only for a day so we’ll make it happen. 

What are some of the misconceptions that people, specifically employers, have about veterans in the workforce?

Not all veterans have PTSD. You have to look at the statistics for how many people have this disease and I can’t tell you how easy it is to work with them. I’ve not always had supportive jobs; sometimes, I’ll be gone for 3-4 months at a time and my employers are not understanding at all. Another misconception is that once the veterans return from military service, they’re not mentally sound. Those are the kind of misconceptions that I’ve seen in my career. I've always worked with veterans who are very disciplined. My team of veterans is amazing - we always have deadlines and everyone supports the overarching goal and mission of the organization. We’re very knowledgeable and we will always do our research; they teach every veteran about selfless service since you’re doing something for the greater good of the country. There were certain times where we had issues, not every company will give you maternity or paternity leave in this country so people on my team at EmpowerU will pitch in and give them some of our leave when needed. I make sure I stay in contact with my old veteran colleagues and make sure they’re gainfully employed. I like to keep in touch with my old colleagues because I like to see if they’re hiring veterans. One time, I was in a veteran program and was working in software test engineering and they only wanted veterans on this team and it was one of the best jobs I’ve ever had. Those are some of the positive aspects about working with veterans. 

If you had to use one adjective to describe this year - what would it be? 

One word that I’ve seen in people is resilience. As people, we’ve been through the economic and racial firestorm this year. People haven’t been able to see their families overseas and I was supposed to see my family in the Bahamas this past May but of course that didn’t happen due to the global pandemic. People have been so resilient which amazes me. I feel like children have taken this a lot easier than adults have. You ask them to wear masks and they do it but adults don’t. We’ve learned how to overcome and be innovative, kids are attending school virtually and maybe you’ve had to revamp your home office. I just got a new desk and I’m still rebuilding my home office so once it’s done, I will take a nice picture and show everyone. But that’s what I feel about 2020 - it’s been both a blessing and a curse but we’ve all been resilient this year so I hope we can all keep up with this unity in the near future.