Why our talent love
YUPRO Placement
Find inspiration in the career stories shared by our vibrant talent community.
Rain
“My big break occurred when I enrolled in a program by a non-profit organization called Year Up. Year Up helps early career talent receive training and certifications in high-demand areas of expertise. I immediately went online to the Year Up website and applied for the investment operations track. For the next six months, I participated in Year Up’s training each day from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and then worked at a hotel from 4 p.m. to midnight. It was a difficult and challenging year, but I stuck it out, in significant part thanks to the career coach assigned to me through Year Up named Ainsley Castro. Ainsley was simply amazing. She believed in me, pushed me, and supported me like no one else ever had. Thanks to her encouragement, I grew increasingly confident in my skills and made it successfully through the Year Up program. Even though I had started my career, my relationship with Ainsley was far from over. In fact, when it came time to explore my next opportunity, she was the first person I turned to for advice. And this time, she pointed me to YUPRO Placement, the staffing firm owned by Year Up. The team at YUPRO Placement by that time included my mentor Ainsley, and together they listened to my goals, helped me identify my skills, and then matched me with the right opportunities. The YUPRO Placement team also helped me improve my resume and got me ready for the interview process by holding several mock interviews. I went into the interview process well-prepared, but the support and training did not end there. The YUPRO Placement team believed in me and helped me believe in myself. It was that confidence in my skills that landed me my current full-time position at Harbor Capital. YUPRO Placement is the most organized, efficient, and proactive agency in the business. The YUPRO Placement team always showed they had my best interests in mind, and they were not simply trying to fill an open position. I sincerely believe that without their support, perspective, and advocacy, I would not be where I am today.”
Empowering potential.
Brudjah
“Being an apprentice is one of the best ways to learn. Through [my] apprenticeship, I know that having my foot in the corporate door will open more opportunities and allow me to help others break through barriers. I also got the unconditional support of Year Up & YUPRO Placement [and] will forever be grateful for their willingness to help young adults like me.”
Cory
“I would definitely recommend apprenticeships to friends because they can offer you great hands-on experience [and] greater opportunities with bigger companies. YUPRO Placement provided support through services such as Professional Development Workshops, seminars every week [in relation] to our job roles & goals, [and] constant support.“
Lyles
“YUPRO Placement has had a very positive impact on my career. Being able to work at a Fortune 500 company so young is an experience very few can say they have gone through. I feel like I am an active member of my team and would not trade this experience for anything.”
Dominique
“YUPRO Placement has been a great benefit to my success and growth. I have had many opportunities to learn and improve my skills.”
Aiyana
“YUPRO Placement has impacted my career by allowing me to further enhance my knowledge and skills in my role as an Application Development Analyst. In addition, they have provided me with professional development opportunities such as the upskilling program and weekly meetings that offer tools and tips on the best ways to tackle the competitive job market. YUPRO Placement is most definitely a program I would recommend to friends and family who are struggling to find jobs or who are making a career change. A skills-first approach has impacted my career development because it has allowed me to confidently be a problem avoider and expand my professional network.”
Kwame
The skills I’ve developed working here can be applied to take me almost anywhere—from the leadership skills that strengthened my interpersonal abilities—to newfound technical skills and an understanding of how to take a website or mobile application from beginning to end in the software development life cycle. This apprenticeship has provided me with tremendous value and momentum towards my goal to become a software engineer. At DH, I improved my understanding of how a website functions, especially at an enterprise level. I have learned many leadership skills because of the nature of my role, which will carry me through my career as well as the new found organizational skills.
Ernestina
YUPRO Placement has been a significant driver of my career growth. It provided hands-on corporate experience and exposure to professionals, enabling me to navigate real-world scenarios and foster effective teamwork. This practical exposure bridged the gap between academia and the professional world, equipping me with a strong foundation for career advancement. I wholeheartedly recommend YUPRO Placement to peers as its transformative approach emphasizes skill development and networking, a combination that has prepared me to excel in my field. Embracing a skills-first approach through YUPRO Placement significantly enriched my resume, bolstering my technical and professional capabilities, and facilitating access to diverse career opportunities.
Courtney
I have been an apprentice at Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness, a Publicis Health agency, for almost six months. I can honestly say this has been the most rewarding yet personally challenging role, and I can happily say that with a smile on my face! I’m grateful to have a new opportunity in an HR role and it has always been a dream of mine. Finally, I can utilize my Project Management skills, my love of helping others, and my creativity to be of service all at once. I am so excited that this new role will help me grow in my career! I thank YUPRO Placement, my peers, and everyone at Publicis Health who has contributed to my career success. I don’t take it for granted, and I have become a better professional and individual because of my experiences here
Ashley
During my first six months in Year Up’s Business Fundamentals track, I developed professional skills through presentations, projects and coursework in order to be prepared for a six-month internship. Year Up provided me with the right resources to be career ready. I prepared for interviews, updated my resume, practiced professional Zoom etiquette, constructed an elevator pitch and networked with peers and co-workers. My first internship, at Salesforce, lasted nearly a year. Then I embarked on a new phase in my career. I began my second year of college and converted from the Year Up program to YUPRO Placement, whose mission is to place Year Up Alumni in full-time jobs with employers committed to an inclusive and equitable workforce.
Ashlee
Six years ago, I was accepted into Year Up. Shortly after, I earned an internship at Mozilla Corporation where I received a full time position in the IT department. Fast forward about five years later, I lost my job at Mozilla in March 2018. At the time, it felt like one of the hardest experiences I had to endure. I quickly reached out to Sahaar at YUPRO Placement for help. Before I knew it, I started practice interviews with Mags, had several interviews lined up for me by Amber, and was given a job coach, Wendy, to start up professional momentum again and to keep me on my toes.
It was the weekly coaching sessions with Wendy that kept my drive, focus, and positivity going. She reminded me that my skills and experience would be an asset at another great company and I could land another great position if I was willing to put in the work. Late July 2018, I landed a full time position at Pandora Media Inc. As a loyal music listener, this was an opportunity of a lifetime. It’s still surreal today. There are a few things I’d like to highlight that stood out along this journey. The quality of work you put in determines the quality of the outcome you’ll get in return. Hard work really pays off. Don’t give up. YURPRO and Year Up staff, thank you again and again for keeping the movement going. Special thanks to Sahaar, Wendy, Amber, and Mags for your compassion toward students and alumni, for the examples you all lead every day, your loyalty, your listening ear, and for all the time you continue to give to both the alumni and students.
Reason
“I started my working career as a college dropout with no experience. Now I am pursuing my Bachelor’s from one of the best universities, Rutgers, and work at the number 2 best place to work in my dream department”
To read Reason’s I didn’t think a staffing firm could help me in my career. I was wrong feature with Staffing Industry Analysts’
Rada
“I had a zero experience in Project Management, but knew that apprenticeship [was] an amazing opportunity to gain experience in any field. It was also a great opportunity to present myself as someone who was willing to learn . . .which further led to [obtaining] a full-time role.”
Nakeita
“I consider apprenticeships one of the more attainable and approachable paths to gaining hands-on job experience. My apprenticeship helped me understand how and where the aspects of theory and skills I gained academically fit into the role I was hoping to land. YUPRO Placement provided support. . .that helped me to revisit and refresh previous career goals I had set for myself“
Lewis
Before Year Up, I worked at a blur of dead-end jobs—Macy’s, school janitor, bouncer. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I knew I loved computers. So I enrolled in a program called CTI, Career Technical Institute. It was the only IT program that I knew about—the only one that anyone I grew up with knew about. First, it was okay… then the bills started to come. And it was just book-learning, test-taking, and too fast. There wasn’t any one-on-one instruction or hands-on learning, no way to see the motherboard or the RAM.And I couldn’t afford to continue anyway. My mother was helping, but I didn’t want to continue to ask her for money. I was unemployed and out of school, with a 3-year-old daughter and a son on the way. I went to McDonald’s and asked if they were hiring. I put in an application, and I waited. Then I kept popping up every week for a month straight to see if I had been hired, and just kept calling and calling. They lost my application, but I asked for a new one. Finally, the manager said, “Okay, let’s just hire him!” When I first started, they knew I needed hours, so they would call me on my off days, on the weekends, dayshifts, nightshifts, holidays, come in early, stay late—I would always say, “Yes, of course!” I worked there for a year as a Crew Trainer. They wanted me to be a Manager, but I said no. I saw the managers there; they were all miserable and worked as managers for a very long time. You had to almost break an arm and leg to get a new position. And I had 2 kids, I was 24, and I didn’t want to work at McDonald’s my whole life. Thankfully, I heard about Year Up, and like many of my colleagues, first wondered: “Is it real?” It was real, and it was a life-changer for me. I learned how to dress professionally, speak professionally, send emails, and be an effective team leader.
When I got to my internship at the Carlyle Group as a Service Desk Technician six months later, I was a little unsure what to do. But the second week I was there, nearly every computer at the company suddenly got hit with the blue screen of death. My team didn’t know what to do at first—everyone was going crazy. I didn’t know how to fix it, but I said, “I’m here for support, so I’m going to help the best I can” That’s the moment when I gained their trust and they realized they could rely on me. My manager would come ask me, “Did you take care of that yet?,” and I would always respond, “Yes, an hour or two ago.” Towards the end of my internship, our VP asked me what I was doing after Graduation, and if I wanted to be part of a migration project. I said, “Yes, of course.” I was kept on as a contractor, and then 3 weeks into the project, the head VP talked to my manager, and asked who could be relied on to be in charge of the project… and the answer was me. They asked me to be the Windows 10 Migration Team Lead Consultant. Taking on that role was very new, very important, and very serious to me—I knew there was no buckling, and I couldn’t turn it down. I was and still am in charge of all inventory and devices, and any machine with Windows 10. Now, my colleagues at the Service Desk come to me regularly with questions: “Have you seen this before? How do we do this?” I am happy to show them what to do and how to fix it, and they say, “That’s all?” I have learned that I have a knack for teaching people and showing people how to fix things. I am very grateful that I am recognized for the great value I bring to the Carlyle Group. After my contract was over I worked closely with YUPRO Placement to prepare me for my new assignment. They help sharpen my skills for the interviewer. For example we did practice interviews, and touched up my resume to make it look up to date. I really appreciate the help that I have obtained from Patricia Hughes, she was a very big help in that process. I am so thankful for her, with that I was accepted to be Desktop Engineer at Freddie Mac. It was a journey and very tough, but she gave me the encouragement to get through that phase. Thank you, and I am glad that I chose Year Up it changed my life for the best
Kheyshawn
Taking that first step was one of the best things I have ever done in my professional career! I was a 2015-2016 National Capital Region student studying in the software track where I earned an internship with Freddie Mac in Mclean, VA. Upon graduation from the program, I was extended an offer as a contractor at Freddie Mac through YUPRO. YUPRO Placement was there to support me from contract negotiation to professional development coaching during my assignment. Knowing I always had support was a big plus! The services YUPRO Placement provides Year Up Alumni are very helpful and my coach Wendy was always there to give great advice! In less than a year, I was offered a permanent position on my team with the opportunity to relocate to a new state. The best advice I have for anyone in this program is to build bridges, take advantage of your resources and don’t forget to lift as you climb!
Justin
My Year Up Internship was at Kaiser Permanent and I was a Desktop Support Technician. My experience actually changed a lot during the course of the full six months. In the beginning I was doing a lot of shadowing with my manager and doing what we call “rounding,” which means you go from the top floor to the bottom floor of the hospital troubleshooting technical issues all along the way, such as problems with the barcode system, printer connectivity issues and working face-to-face with a lot of end users. With rounding I had to submit detailed daily reports so we could track the progress of our work. During the end of my internship we started getting a lot of projects and I started to learn more about imaging computers and getting deeper in the tech tools and software that Kaiser Permanente uses. I was imaging up to 10 computers a day depending on my work load for that day. The last month and a half of my internship I was kind of a liaison between end users and our tech team through our ticketing queue. We’d also get a lot of “shoulder taps.” Meaning you are walking through the hallway and someone stops you and says, “You’re IT, can you come help me fix this?” It was a great experience for me and I got to learn a lot about procedure and processes.
I am currently a Desktop Support Technician at UCSF Medical Center.
The training and infrastructure at Kaiser Permanent was incredibly well rounded. I went in there and there were expectations, online training and shadowing, as well as a lot of information I had to take in over a very short period of time. They were prepared for every upcoming project. Kaiser was one of the first facilities to implement WOWs (Workstations on Wheels), so they had it down and their processes were very efficient and concise. Overall, I feel like my experience at Kaiser prepared me well.
I didn’t start my job search as soon as I graduated Year Up. As much as I think about it I’m ok now, but for a while there things got pretty tough and I feel like I could’ve avoided that If I had started my job search sooner.
Based on my experience, my class had some individual who were hired at the graduation ceremony, that late into it. There were others who were told they would be getting hired half way through their internship, and then upon graduation the situation changed and they were told that there was no longer head count. My point is that nothing is ever guaranteed and you don’t have the job until you sign the paperwork. You should start thinking about your next steps and start looking for work while you are still in the program. Year Up is a great way to get your foot in the door, but the employer may still go with other options. Make sure you hone your interviewing skills because it’s not only about knowing what to say, it’s also about knowing what not to say, as you never want to accidentally give the wrong impression. You want to make sure you are goal oriented towards working at the company and that you have a vision.
I like working at UCSF and I want to become a Tier II Technician. I have the opportunity to shadow other Tier II Techs and there’s a lot I can learn from them. I want to see myself go up in the tiers, as there are different skills required at each level and I love absorbing new information and learning how to do new things. My future is still open to a lot of different options. I want to have a career in technology because I love technology and because I love working on something that requires problem solving, and the satisfaction it gives me when I know I’ve done a good job. I also want something that I love, technology, to help support other interest in my life, such as art, writing and music.
Eva
Amber
Before Year Up I was working as a customer service rep for an Internet service provider. Because of the lack of a college degree I was unable to make more than minimum wage to provide a lifestyle that was beneficial to my young children. After learning about Year Up from my mother, I have learned that even the most unlikely of situations can be a blessing! Now, as an alumnus of the graduating class of January 2017 from Year Up of Greater Atlanta and with the help of YUPRO Placement, I was able to return to my former internship site as a contractor. I worked closely with my YUPRO Placement coach during my assignment. After serving a contract position for about a year and a half YUPRO Placement worked with me to negotiate a full-time position with Manheim as an associate Scrum Master! I am currently the only associate Scrum Master in our organization that has responsibility over two Agile teams. I have earned three more Scrum Master certifications in the past year and I will continue my Business Management degree at Eastern Gateway Community College. I will continue to help students and interns in their journey through and from YU and beyond. As well as I hope that my journey can and will inspire other young adults to never give up and to always keep moving forward no matter what circumstances come to pass.
Kenisha
My experience at Publicis Health was such a warm and insightful experience, and I really look forward to applying the leadership and independent skills that my team has taught me in the future. I love the family dynamic they’ve created for not only myself but for my fellow apprentices. All in all, I really enjoyed my experience here despite any obstacles I may have faced and I would do it all over again.
Crisandra
My experience with Year Up has always been a positive one. Since entering class one in 2001 in Boston, MA, they have encouraged me to dream big and work hard to achieve success. My experience with YUPRO Placement is no different! In the summer of 2016, I wanted to rejoin the corporate world and reached out to YUPRO Placement for potential opportunities. Not only did they assist with resume and cover letter writing, Patricia and Wendy helped me prepare for interviews and my elevator pitch. After a series of interviews, I accepted a 5-month contract with the local Boston non-profit, Strategic Grant Partners. YUPRO Placement continued to work with me on my weekly one-on-one weekly check-in calls to ensure I had the necessary tools to be successful in my position. I am extremely happy to say, that after 2 short months on assignment, I was offered a full-time salaried position at the organization! Two months after my conversion to perm, I received a promotion and a raise. Year Up has always been dear to my heart. I started my lifelong relationship with Year Up in 2001 when I entered Class One, and more than 15 years later, YUPRO Placement is continuing to help me realize my full potential!
“Crisandra is whip-smart, hard-working, and funny. The candy she keeps at her desk is low on the list of many reasons to stop by and say hello.” – Crisandra’s Manager, Claire
Daniel
Dom
Before I was contracted at YUPRO, I was working at UCSF in San Francisco as an IT Field Services Analyst through Teksystems. It was remote work at a call center and I got into this job after my Year Up internship ended. Before that, I was at Year Up, hyper-focused (ask the Year Up Silicon Valley staff!) and working a night job to make my ends meet last month’s ends. Before that, I was working at a customer service job with wonderful people that left me little-to-no room for growth and (I felt) no time to complete school, which contributed to that hyper-focus. Year Up gave me the experience and knowledge to put on my resume, and the opportunity to intern and create a network. YUPRO Placement helped me to tighten and shape my pitch, my resume, and my goals. They reached out to me with a position at Expedia as an IT Desktop Support Technician and helped me every step of the way to obtain it. I wouldn’t have this position without their help. Even through transition trouble and beyond, YUPRO Placement was in constant contact with me and helped reinforce the value of open communication and encouragement. I am soon to be a FULL-TIME EQUIVALENT IT Desktop Support Technician at Expedia with a salary and benefits. I work with desktop hardware, software, virtual desktops and I support ~200 users. I’ve gone from not interacting with a computer at all most of the time to helping remote users, setting up hardware for 20+ new users at a time for large projects, and training other techs and users on the software they use every day. Even with what I had learned about tech previously, Year Up and YUPRO Placement were invaluable in grooming me into the tech professional I am today. In addition to the help I received from YUPRO Placement as a whole, I couldn’t have found a better coach than Margaret Snow. Not only does she have an amazingly uplifting attitude, but her encouragement and excitement for what she does is infectious. We had many informative and helpful coaching calls that have helped elevate me towards achieving this FTE position and I can say I am more than grateful to have had her in my corner.
Analissa
My story is not your normal educational story, it started when I dropped out of high school many years ago. I was “living my best life,” as any young teen would say; drugs, alcohol and the desire to fit in were my priority. Without realizing it, I really didn’t have much to look forward to when it came to education. I found myself working, thinking it was all I needed until life hit me hard and I hit rock bottom far deeper then I imagined. Being caught by the law, walking away from my job, and not knowing what to do next was terrifying. Seeing my life crash before me helped me realize I was neglecting the things that mattered — family, school, and caring for myself being the number one factor. It was then that I made the choice to go back and try again. After many months I was introduced to Year Up by a wonderful former recruiter. It was tough to decide what to do, but realizing I was 24 years old already, I went for it! It was rough, as life would continue to challenge my strength to keep going and I considered quitting often. However, I stuck with it and was selected as an intern with Bank of America in the Fraud Department. At the close of my internship, YUPRO Placement provided an even bigger opportunity. I was introduced to Amber Bartz who helped me in taking my next step toward my career. She assisted by setting me up for an interview at Bank of the West, while giving extra resources and advice along the way. Now I am a proud employee with Bank of the West as an SME Admin Loan Processor. Year Up and YUPRO Placement impacted my life so much! Without these programs I wouldn’t be able to share my story for others who are in the shoes I was in, hoping for a second shot at life. If I can hit the bottom more times than I can count and still make it to the top, so can others. A little positivity is all you need because the programs will do the rest and before you can blink, your life can and will be another motivational story of success and empowerment for young adults who dream of a better life.
Tell Us Your Story
We invite you to share your journey since securing your new position through our placement services. Your unique experience and insights can inspire and guide others in their career endeavors. Share your journey and inspire the future!
