Finding one’s career often a long and winding path

At the end of last month’s column on workforce challenges, I briefly shared why I ended up working in economic development in Aurora, and I thought it would be helpful to share the full story.  Sharing individual stories about why someone chooses to live in a certain place and how they found employment is important in helping us talk to the next generation about job opportunities. It also helps us understand the different processes that people follow in finding a place to call home.
To get the full picture on my employment history, let’s start at the beginning. I grew up on the Hamilton County/York County line, attending Henderson/Heartland Community Schools through graduation. I was your typical small-town kid involved in many activities, sports teams, and worked on the family farm doing a variety of “character building” jobs. 
Pursuing my bachelor’s degree took me to a small college in Kansas where I was a communications major. During this time, I worked in several different jobs including in the college athletic recruiting department, as a bank teller, and an intern for the chamber. 
During my college career I realized that I would be marrying a boy from my hometown who was planning to be a farmer. Knowing this would take me back to the Hamilton County/York County area, I began using my summers to work at businesses that could lead to a job after graduation.
The summer before my junior year, I worked at the York News-Times, which might be a reason you hear from me regularly in this newspaper. The summer before my senior year, I interned for the Henderson Chamber of Commerce knowing that if I built a connection with local businesses, it would be easier to find a job. 
During this internship, the director of the chamber announced that she would be leaving the position that summer. In college I had a professor who talked about getting her current job as a professor because she went through the interview process to gain experience for future interviews. In the end she was hired for the job she was using for practice. Following this example, I did the same thing and applied for the Henderson Chamber director position. (This is some of the influence of teachers, I alluded to in last month’s column.) Even though I was 21 years old and had one year of college left, three hours away, I was hired for the position. 
The following school year was a wild one trying to run the chamber from a distance. Luckily, I had the help of some great volunteers. Remote working was not as popular as it is today, and I know there was one week I drove back three times to prepare for an event while trying to attend class.   
In the end I worked for the Henderson Chamber for 13 years and did a wide range of jobs from event planning to business support, as well as community planning and economic development. There are very few, if any people, who plan to work in economic development when they grow up. Most of us fell into the career or ended up here unexpectedly. 
I decided to transition into economic development because it complements my natural strengths of thinking strategically, motivating others, problem solving and future planning. Aurora was a natural fit for me because I have lived south of Aurora my entire adult life, but also because it is a progressive community that isn’t afraid to take on challenges big and small and get it done in their own way. 
This ‘make it happen’ mentality has been the theme of my life, so this place and profession fit me well. I love helping different businesses every day, I like having a schedule that is different each week and I am passionate about the fact that rural Nebraska has a wealth of opportunities. Being an economic developer in Aurora Nebraska is a path I never would have dreamt of on my own, but I am glad I ended up here.     

KELSEY BERGEN serves as executive director of the ADC. She can be reached at kelsey@growaurora.com