Laura Roderickz is a Research Analyst at the San Diego Workforce Partnership. Here she tells a little bit about herself, both personally and professionally.
What is a typical day like for you?
I lead our program evaluation efforts. I also write our internal and external labor market reports. Every day I analyze some type of data to report or visualize. There are a lot of things I also do outside of my main projects, such as responding to data requests, procurement, last minute data pulls, coordinating for our department events, managing projects and more.
If you had $30,000 to donate to a workforce development program, what would you want done with it?
I would donate to create more non-traditional apprenticeship programs or programs that train participants for middle-skill jobs. Can I have $300,000 instead?
What professional moment or project are you most proud of?
I started as an intern working with the Life Sciences Summer Institute and I’ve worked my way up to Research Analyst II. I recently completed a report where I had to gather all the data, analyze and write about my findings on labor market information.
What do you like best about working in workforce development?
The people that I work with. They inspire me to do better and ask for better. I’ve had a lot of great mentors here and have also learned a lot. Having worked in two different departments, I’ve had a chance to fill many roles and tasks. When I first started working here I had no idea what I wanted to do—I feel like I have a much clearer path now.
What do you enjoy doing when you’re not working?
This is going to sound really nerdy but I truly enjoy creating budgets. I think visualizing where my money goes and creating a budget for myself has helped me save up and fund my travels (and other things). Traveling is one of the things that I love doing when I’m not working. I’ve taken a month off to travel to Japan and South Korea while working here. I’m also learning to budget time (and money) to travel during three-day weekends. So far, I’ve been to Mexico (twice), New York, Chicago and I have a few more trips planned.