In 2010, I was an NJ National Guardsman attending college full-time, while also working part-time as an asset protection specialist at a consumer electronics company between classes and at night. I wasn’t enjoying my criminal justice major as much as I wanted, and simply felt I lacked direction.
One day during drills for the NJ National Guard, a soldier in my unit told me about Workforce Opportunity Services (WOS). He was a part of the first veteran cohort with Prudential and found the program to be very rewarding, and encouraged the soldiers in our unit take advantage of the opportunity. I applied for the next cohort that
Funny enough, a few days later I mentioned WOS to a coworker at my job, who is also a veteran. As it turns out, he was also in the first WOS veteran cohort! He highly praised the program and put me in touch with a WOS recruiter. The rest is history.
When I was accepted to the program, my nerves started to kick in. The program seemed too good to be true; I kept waiting for the catch. My biggest fear was that I wouldn’t get a job offer after completing the program. The program’s courses gave me a foundation in application development while also improving my soft-skills. It was the first time I was exposed to object-oriented computer languages and the idea of dynamic applications. It was also the first time I had thought about corporate culture, and how I would fit in.
I saw the real value in the academics and the process once I started part-time as a WOS consultant at Prudential. I received praise from coworkers which gave me reassurance and confidence. I started believing that my learnings and skills could actually translate into a permanent position on their team.
In May 2013, I was hired by Prudential as a full-time member of the Remote Access Services team, the same group I was assigned to during the WOS consultancy phase and the team I work with today. Since then, my responsibilities have increased from small administrative tasks to customer support and eventually application development. I now oversee the accounting and reporting for more than three million yearly logins. I’m in-charge of backend scripts that define VPN sessions from server logs and provide formatted executive level reports. I frequently work with computer
My biggest piece of advice: follow what drives you and never be too afraid to take the next step. One foot in front of the other will get to your goal faster than you realize. Looking at the whole picture, or end goal makes it easier to put the puzzle together.
Since joining Prudential full-time, Eric was promoted in May 2016. Outside of work, Eric has returned to school to get his Bachelor’s in Software Development at Western Governors University. He recently bought a house with his wife, with whom he’s expecting his first child in July 2018.