For Her, It’s All About the People
Vicki started her professional career as an Administrative Assistant/Concierge at an independent living facility in Greendale, WI. “It was my first ‘real’ job after having my babies, and it was a profession that I had never performed in the past. While I didn’t have many tasks, working there really developed my love for assisting people and creating a smooth behind the scenes workflow,” she recalls.
After a few years, Vicki realized that she wanted more from her career. She applied at U.S. Bank, and after waiting 6 months for an interview, she was quickly shuffled through the interview process and was hired for an Administrative Assistant position.
Vicki says, “That job was the big time for me! You know that phrase, ‘Everything you know you learned in Kindergarten?’ Most everything I know about being in the administrative professional field I learned at U.S. Bank.” Over the course of the 11 years that she worked at U.S. Bank, Vicki supported LeeAnn Bodendorfer and Jean Alvarez, SVP’s, both of whom guided her in developing her knowledge and skills, and to be the best professional that she could be.
Next, knowing that she was at the top of her pay grade with nowhere else to move up at the Bank, she made the tough decision to pursue other career options. Vicki opened her LinkedIn profile to recruiters and was contacted by the recruiter of a local architecture firm. At first, she ignored it because she didn’t think she was at a recruitable level. After the recruiter reached out to her a second time, she gave it a shot and eventually began the next short segment of her career with EUA.
“I was hired to share the front desk role with a gal 20 years my junior. Not only did I think that learning how to split responsibilities was going to be a challenge, but how was a girl 20 years younger than me going to be able to keep up with me and what I already knew?! Andrea Natoli and I not only figured it out, but we rocked the very busy days of keeping the architecture ship running smoothly!”
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Vicki was laid off from EUA after 21 short months, which then brought her to North Shore Healthcare. Other than the few years of working at the independent living facility many years ago, she had no other background experience in healthcare. Vicki says, “I was nervous not knowing enough about who North Shore is and nervous to not know the long-term care acronyms that are thrown around like candy at a parade!” The part Vicki was not nervous about was knowing who she is and how to do her job. For her, every role that she has been in has always been about the people. “I have always made it my goal to know a little bit about everything; to be the person that anyone in the office can go to; to support my work family. I strive to make the little things count. I no longer have the deer in headlights look (ok, maybe once-in-a-while), and feel like I have been part of the North Shore family for years!”
