New to mainland United States, Sasha Madrigal came to SER in need of a job to help her build her new life in Houston alongside her husband and newborn daughter. “I was in the Virgin Islands. We left because it was awful over there. Most of the jobs came from the refinery and the refinery closed down, so everybody was getting laid off.” So their strategy was to move to another area where refinery work was abundant so that Sasha’s husband could continue his line of work.
Quickly, she was confronted with many different cultural changes. “It’s the US Virgin Islands, so you would think that I would know a lot of stuff about the United States, but no. You drive on the different side of the road, the government over there…” Outside of cultural differences between the US Virgin Islands and Houston, there is also a difference in the availability of social programs, like SER.
“There are programs here to help you be better. There is stuff like that in VI, but nothing pushes you to be better like SERJobs. Back home, it’s like you’re on your own. If you don’t know someone, you’re not getting a job. So it’s way different.”
The decision to leave was in hopes of starting a new life in a place where they could better support their daughter. Although, after their mind was made up, they began to sell their belongings to raise funds for their move, “I had to sell everything and just go…”
Adjusting to the Houston landscape was difficult at first, “I was on food stamps, I was on Medicaid, I was on everything that they could give me because we had no money. Then, finally, we were at a point where we had to start using credit cards.”
During Sasha’s search for a job through this tough time, her husband encouraged her to look into bank telling positions; …my husband was like, I always saw you as a bank teller.” Soon after, she found an ad for our bank teller training. She immediately reached out to us and quickly got herself in the class.
During the eight-week training, she found it most challenging balancing her in-class responsibilities with raising her daughter and maintaining her home. “It was super hard because my husband just started working, and I had to try to get my daughter here. Even though he was working, we were still trying to get by, and I had to start paying for daycare so that I could be here to take the course.”
Despite those obstacles, Sasha still pushed through. When asked how she could find the strength to persevere through her training, she expressed that it’s always been something inside of her. “I’m a real go-getter. While I was here [in training], I got my accounting degree online. I’m just a pusher.”
“The whole time, I knew that we needed that second income to be alright.” This leads her to successfully graduate from our training and land a job at Chase. SER helped Sasha with a job at Woodforest, but the hours were not manageable to her needs. Soon after, a Chase recruiter who met Sasha at SER’s bank training graduation reached out to her to come in for an interview.
The trusted connection between SER’s training and our bank partners went long. “I didn’t even apply for the job. They interviewed me, and then they sent me the link to apply.”
This trust was validated when she went into her new job with an upper hand. “I had to pass tests to get into Chase fully, so I had the upper hand because I already knew what some of this stuff meant. Practice handling the fake cash helped a lot, too, because it just gave you the experience of trying to deal with cash and talk to someone. In my interview, they put me in a scenario like that.”
Ten months later, and she’s still enjoying her job. “I like the fact they’re super open with flexibility because I have my daughter and my house, so it’s a lot.” On top of accommodating her needs, Chase also invests time in her career development and personal growth. Something that she also values in an employer.
“Every six months, we have an interview with our boss that lets us go over our skills and how to move forward and stuff like that. They’re pushing me to be a better me.”
When asked what her future looks like, Sasha is currently in the process of training to move up to a Banker position instead of being a bank teller, which is part-time. Because of her time in SER’s training program, “I own my own house now. I was able to pay off bills and get a credit score that let me get the house.”
If you’re interested in pursuing our banking training or any SER training for that matter, Sasha offers this advice: “If you want something, you have to push yourself because they [SER] can only do so much. Everything else is up to you.” To our donors, partners, and staff that work hard to make all of this possible, she wants to say, “Thank you because coming from the Virgin Islands, I can tell you there is no program over there that would ever do this for free. That’s crazy.”
While the training was critical in landing her job at Chase, there are other SER services that she is grateful for. For example, our dress for success helped her through her challenging financial situation. In addition, our training staff and coaches trained her through her “speech problems” to excel in a heavy customer service position like banking.
“Thank you for doing that for me. I wouldn’t have been able to get into Chase if it wasn’t for the recruiter that reached out for me, and that’s where I’m at because of this program.”