Career Growth Advice from Kristen Miller, Career Development Leader | Career Tips for Women in Career Development

2B Bolder Podcast – Episode 14
Featuring Kristen Miller, Owner & Founder of College Ready

Episode Title: #14 Career Podcast Featuring Kristen Miller Dedicated to Helping Young Adults Prepare for Their Future – Women In Business

Host: Mary Killelea
Guest: Kristen Miller



Mary Killelea (Host): Hi there. My name is Mary Killelea. Welcome to the To Be Bolder podcast, providing career insights for the next generation of women in business and tech. To Be Bolder was created out of my love for technology and marketing, my desire to bring together like-minded women, and my hope to be a great role model and source of inspiration for my two girls and other young women like you. Encouraging you guys to show up and to be bolder and to know that you guys dream of it's totally possible. On To Be Bolder, you're going to hear inspiring stories of how successful women, some I know, some I just want to bring to you guys, and they're going to talk about their careers in business and tech, and they're going to tell us their stories about their passion and their journey and their challenges, and we're going to learn some of their advice along the way too. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the conversation.

On today's show, my guest is Kristen Miller. She is the owner and founder of College Bound and Ready, which provides professional training and coaching along with a variety of comprehensive packages to help students of all ages assess and prepare for college admissions. Kristen received her independent educational consultant certificate from UC Irvine and is a member of Pacific Northwest Association for College Admissions Counseling, the Higher Education Consultants Association, and the Portland Area College Counselors Consortium. While being a full-time working mom and business owner, she somehow finds the time to volunteer at Lincoln High School as an aspiring mentor. Welcome to the show, Kristen. I am so excited to have you on as a guest.

Kristen Miller (Guest): Hi, Mary. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be a part of your new program and to talk about women and their paths to their careers.

Mary Killelea: Awesome. Okay, well, let's get started. So, getting into college these days is a huge, big business and can be so overwhelming both for individuals as well as the parents. And I think your company is so great because you take some of that stress out of the dynamic for families. Tell us about your company and how you got it started.

Kristen Miller: Yes, I think the process of applying to college and helping your child apply to college is filled with a lot of anxiety. I think in large part on the parent side because parents want the best for their kids and it's just really hard sometimes not to project what your hopes and dreams are for your child onto your child and let them be the driver in the process. And for the kids, they feel that pressure externally and internally and there's just so much information and a lot of choices. And I discovered this when I was volunteering when my oldest, who is now a junior in college, when he was a freshman in high school, when I was volunteering in our local high school counseling office, just learning about everything that students were going to have to manage, but they weren't learning about it until their junior year in high school. So I really felt that students and parents needed to know about this information much earlier.

Then I was volunteering as an Aspire Mentor, as you mentioned, where I was paired with an undocumented student. And back then in 2013, 2014, there weren't a lot of resources for undocumented students. DACA wasn't a thing and so I had to work really hard and use a lot of resources and spend a lot of time researching how to help this particular student who happened to be in a home life situation that wasn't ideal. And so I felt a lot of pressure to help her find her path financially, as well as educationally. And so, when I was spending time working on this project, I met with a career counselor for myself as I was trying to transition careers. And as I was going through my resume, the career counselor said, do you know that your eyes light up when you talk about this volunteer position? And she said, did you know people do this for a living? And so that's kind of what sparked this journey for me. So, I started researching and talking to everybody I could get connected with that was in this business and heard how they got to where they were and then started, that's kind of where the seed was planted for me to start this business eventually.

So what I do as a college consultant, families hire me to help their students through all parts of the college selection, exploration and application process. But the best part and a large part of my job includes helping students explore who they are, as well as who they want to become and how college fits into that picture.

Mary Killelea: That is so awesome. And I love that that woman or that person watched you light up and guided you and kind of brought that awareness to you. So I think that's really cool. And that you were able to follow a passion that maybe you didn't even realize could be profitable.

Kristen Miller: Yeah, I mean, I really am so grateful to her. And it was wonderful years later to come a little full circle. I was able as part of through one of my consortiums, the Portland Area College Consortium, we meet monthly, it's high school counselors and independent counselors to meet and discuss topics and have ongoing programming. And I was able to bring her into our one of our meetings as a presenter. She was actually talking about how businesses look at new graduates when they're trying to hire for both internships and positions. And it was really fun to reconnect with her when I was down this path that she had had started me on. So that was very rewarding.

Mary Killelea: That's neat. Okay, so the world of admissions and even remote learning for colleges has been turned upside down with COVID-19. What different things should the class of 2021, 2022 be thinking about now related to their college choices and even the process?

Kristen Miller: I think it's really different for those two classes. The class of 2021 is, so much is up in the air, I think for 2022 that there will be time for the dust to settle a little bit. But particularly for the class of 2021, they are having to be more adaptable and patient than, you know, we typically ask our teenagers to be. So, I'm really trying to coach my students, my juniors, to take advantage of what the opportunities are. We acknowledge the challenges, but every challenge offers an opportunity. In fact, I just sent an email to my juniors this morning with different challenges and opportunities for multiple topics. Exploring colleges. There's a challenge. It's you can't go visit right now, but the opportunity is that colleges are scrambling more than ever to put online resources available for students. And now everybody has the same opportunities. Before it was you had to be able to afford both financially and in your schedule to be able to fly and visit colleges. Now everybody can sit in on an admission session online, meet with a counselor, connect with a current student, online tours. So, while it's not the same as visiting, there is so much new information that is out there and available to students in a way that has never been before.

Mary Killelea: What advice are you giving families who are dealing with like disappointment of the year being cut short for the high schoolers?

Kristen Miller: Yeah, I mean, my so my seniors this happened right when many of them were getting their regular decision and admission offers. And they were planning on going on spring break college visits to make their decision. So, seniors in particular have been dealt a lot of disappointing cancellations, you know, prom and graduation and being able to visit colleges in person and really feeling like they got to cross this big finish line that they've been working towards. So, I think just giving them the support and trying to acknowledge their efforts and their accomplishments has been what I encourage families and students to do for each other. As far as juniors, they're really frustrated, especially for the schools that have chosen to go past or incomplete instead of offer grades this semester. And these students have been working so hard to show colleges what they can accomplish. So now we have to focus on what they can do to show that and explain to them what other opportunities there are out there to show what kind of person students are. So again, the challenge is you don't get to show your improving grade trends, but the opportunity is you will be asking your counselor and teachers for letters of recommendation really soon. And the way I coach my students is we're really intentional about what we share with their potential recommenders, what the letters of recommendation will share with colleges. And that is your opportunity to share with colleges, improving grade trends, new skills that you had learned, right? The other opportunity is that first quarter, first semester of senior year is going to be more important than ever before. While that might not be good news, it is an opportunity that they still have control over.

Mary Killelea: An opportunity that I've seen is volunteering has gone online. It doesn't mean your volunteering that you were putting on your resume goes away. It just means that you can show your flexibility and ability to pivot and continue your volunteering, maybe not from the same organization. But if you illustrate that volunteerism is still a value of yours and now you're doing it in this way, I think that's beneficial.

Kristen Miller: Yeah. So that's another thing that I've been talking to my students about from day one. There are tons of online opportunities for students. There's also tons of online classes that are free. I actually signed up for Yale's, one of Yale's online classes about happiness. And there's lots of things to take advantage of. And one of the things I had my juniors do early on in this process was just do a little free write about how they're feeling about the coronavirus and the effects and what they are doing to take care of themselves or others. And most of the students told me it was a really cathartic process, but it also just helped them kind of process through what they're going through. But it also helped them recognize a lot of them that they had been just kind of on a gerbil wheel, if you will, where they were burning themselves out. They weren't sleeping well. They were recognizing how stressed they'd been and they're recognizing what's important to them and what they value. And they're reconnecting with themselves and good habits and their families. And so I think step one, that's a great opportunity here.

And step two is students have more time to re-choose how they spend their time. Somewhere along the way, students get on these paths that they have to do this activity and that activity. And now it's kind of like a clean slate. And if a student is really compassionate, yes, there's volunteer opportunities. If a student is really intellectually curious, then that's where I encourage students to focus their new free time. So instead of following a prescribed recipe, I really do encourage students to think about what they value and what would really fill them up and to find a way to improve their lives and or the lives of others around them.

Mary Killelea: And that's a great way to look at this odd time. And I think students, adults, everyone needs to be doing that. So that's fantastic that you're reaching out to the kids and having them write that down. I do think that would be very cathartic.

Kristen Miller: Yeah.

Mary Killelea: So you mentioned, one of the college trends to, as far as recruiting, they might be providing more online visibilities through online tours, if you will. But what other trends are you seeing that colleges and families should be prepared to kind of get ahead of for the future?

Kristen Miller: For the seniors, right, that are planning to matriculate next fall, they need to be prepared that the fall isn't going to look like probably like what they thought their graduation was going to look like it, right? They have to just kind of alter what they've been visualizing. It could be a very different fall. It could be a delayed fall. A number of colleges are, I think, wisely planning for what they call mini-mesters. So instead of a four-month semester where students typically take four classes, they are cutting those in half and putting a break in between. So it'd be like a two-month or seven-week mini-mester with a little break in between where students only take two classes so that if colleges need more time before they can bring students back to campus, that it's not a whole semester that's lost, but maybe just two months of online learning and then they can have all the big fall welcome to campus events in October instead of in August. So that's one of the trends that I see in colleges prepare for where everybody's still waiting.

Other things that students should prepare for is just that this is a time where we're all kind of in a level playing field in some regards. And like you mentioned earlier about online learning showing or online volunteering showing that that's something students value. Colleges are going to be looking at this time and evaluating how students react when they're thrown a curveball in life. They want students that are resilient. They want students that are creative. So, this moment in time that everybody's experience will be evaluated. And of course there are situations where students have hardships that many of us, into a better or a greater degree and colleges will absolutely take that into account. So, I think the trend that we're all going to see is that colleges will have to be more holistic and really evaluate students based on their circumstances.

Mary Killelea: Yeah, that's really interesting. Good. I'm glad to see that. I love a level playing field. I think for a time we were all on the hamster wheel and we were all doing so much. So I don't know, it's kind of the reset. While it has tremendous bad, I think there's some good.

Kristen Miller: Yeah, I mean, I agree. And again, we all are have variable situations. But I do think that life won't be the same because we all have experienced the way things could be different. So I hope some of it sticks. I hope a lot of it returns back to normal. But I hope some of this being more connected to yourself and being more purposeful will stick.

Mary Killelea: So do you think that kids choosing to stay local and attend state colleges might become more popular just because of fears or anxieties?

Kristen Miller: Yes, I definitely do. And I know that's the word out there. I've seen varying different studies with varying percentages anywhere from 15 to 20 percent of current seniors have changed their college plans, whether that's taking a gap year or staying closer to home. I think the longer this crisis goes on and the economic fallout continues, that that could just get bigger. So I think a lot of families are just holding out hope that the bleeding will stop soon, and they could continue with their original plans. But it's really just going to depend on how fast everything can start to open up again. My families at this point, for the most part, are still continuing with their plans, although they've second guessed themselves, right? So, they made this commitment. Their students are have mentally pictured themselves on a particular campus in the fall. And it's really hard to pull that back, I think. But it could change again if this goes on for a longer period of time.

Mary Killelea: What about a shift in majors areas of focus that kids are picking? Do you see that changing?

Kristen Miller: Yeah, I have not seen that so far. I haven't, but I wouldn't be surprised if we look back in time and see a big shift, just like we did in the financial crisis in 2007 and eight, where students shifted away from the liberal arts and moved towards business and engineering. So I haven't seen that yet, but I wouldn't be surprised. Fortunately, I think from my perspective, students are not shifting because of this crisis what they want to study. Students are still focused on exploring what, you know, finding their own passions, which I'm really happy to see that I don't see an immediate shift. But again, I wouldn't be surprised if there is one.

Mary Killelea: Yeah, that'd be interesting to look back on. So, I've heard some schools aren't looking at providing the SATs or actually they couldn't do the SATs because many students weren't able to take the test because they got canceled. So, I think we touched on this a little bit earlier, but a lot of people relied on the SAT score as being part of their package. With that gone, I mean, it might benefit some. I mean, my daughter wasn't a great test taker. She had outstanding grades. So in this particular case, it would have done well. But in the reverse, those that test really well, I think it goes back to kind of what you were saying is you've got to showcase other elements. You're a holistic person. Let's talk a little bit more about that because I think people are frustrated if you are a good test taker and that was a really strong thing for you. What can you do?

Kristen Miller: Well, test optional does not necessarily mean test blind and most of the time it doesn't mean test blind. So, test optional usually means that colleges will still accept test scores, but they're not requiring them. There are some schools out there that are saying they, you know, won't consider them. And most schools that are test optional are saying that students that don't submit test scores will not be at a disadvantage. But for many situations, if a student is a strong test taker and the school will consider it, I think they should still submit their test scores. Colleges, first and foremost, are academic institutions. And they are looking for evidence that a student will be successful in their college and possibly in a specific program within that college. Some students can demonstrate that with their course rigor and their grades, as well as letters of recommendation that talk about their academic qualities. Other students might benefit from a standardized test that supports another element that is either a little questionable or it just is another piece of evidence that what they see elsewhere is solid.

So, for students that are frustrated, I think that they should focus on staying engaged with the online coursework right now and prepare to have a really solid senior year. But if the college will consider the test scores, I would say still send them. And yes, I think about students like your daughter so much when all this happens, because I do work with a lot of students that aren't great test takers but are intelligent and capable students. And so that breaks my heart a little that it isn't hasn't been an option for everybody.

Mary Killelea: Okay, so let's bring this conversation back to you directly. So as an independent business owner, what have been some of your biggest challenges in the past? And what do you see being biggest challenges in your future?

Kristen Miller: As an independent business owner, unsurprisingly, probably is how many different hats I have to wear. And some of the hats I like wearing, and some I don't. But I also am a little bit of a control freak, I think, and a perfectionist. And learning to let some of that stuff go has been my biggest challenge. Specifically, a challenge owning this kind of a business is that while I try to really customize how I work with each student individually, and create a customized plan, there is a clear application cycle. And so, we get a big bottleneck in the early fall, when everybody is trying to get their essays and applications in. And so my limitation is how to be one person and help multiple students when they all need me at the same time. Those are my biggest challenges.

Mary Killelea: I know you're a Duck and attended the University of Oregon. Did you see yourself owning your own business when you were in college?

Kristen Miller: You know, I didn't. And looking back, I have always been obsessed with how people got to where they did. I would hear somebody's job title. I would ask them to backtrack their whole life story and how they got there. And then I started finding myself really feeling a little envious of women in particular that had their own businesses, women entrepreneurs. I didn't recognize that that was something I should pursue at first. I just started to recognize that is what I would obsess about a little bit. And so, it was really sweet. A couple of years ago, my son who is a junior in college, he took his first marketing class, and he came home and said, Mom, I'm in this marketing class. And everybody is talking about how they want to own their own business. And I was just thinking, my mom did that. My mom does that. And so I thought that was just a, that was the moment where I recognized what I had done without even recognizing that I'd done it. So I think it just goes to show you can do, you can create something that you want to create. I didn't have a guide or a coach telling me and encouraging me, except for my family and my husband. But way back when, no, I didn't even think it was possible. I just was aware of very specific career tracks and thought I had to pick one. And I didn't know I could change lanes for a really long time.

Mary Killelea: Yeah, well, that's great. And then, I think I was in the same boat. And that's why I started this podcast. It was like, I wanted to provide the younger generation exposure to all these different types of jobs and women like you who have designed a career out of a passion that they love and to know that anything's possible, whether they go into the corporate America and choose down that path, that's excellent. But what do all the scenarios and options look like, just educating them on their options?

Kristen Miller: Well, I think that's wonderful. And I hope they all listen. I wish I had heard some of these stories when I was younger.

Mary Killelea: Yeah, me too. What do you enjoy most about your job then?

Kristen Miller: Well, gosh, I mean, I love working with students. I love getting to know their stories. I love helping them feel good about themselves. I love helping them feel like they have some control. A lot of times I see students when they're stressed and college talking about college can be stressful. But I love when students eventually open up to me about their fears and their goals and learn how to articulate their goals, aside from what they think their goals should be. So, I think one of the most rewarding things that I get out of this business is when a parent says to me that it was a confidence building process for their student or an empowering process for their student. That is what I love to see.

Mary Killelea: That's awesome. What's the best piece of advice you've received over the years?

Kristen Miller: That I know enough. Being a perfectionist, I had a hard time starting my business until I felt like everything was perfect and ready and until I felt like I knew everything. And I had a mentor who said you have the information that can help families. You know enough and you know where to find out what you don't know. And so that was really helpful. And sometimes I still have to tell myself that, that I know enough because I want to be right. I want to give the best advice. I want to steer students down the perfect path. This is a little bit of a big responsibility. So sometimes I have to remind myself that I know enough and, you know, working, doing the best I can is enough.

Mary Killelea: So do you see a different approach from the girls and boys that you support in how they come at their applying to colleges or assessing colleges?

Kristen Miller: Gosh, that's a good question. I've never been asked that. I would really, I'm just not sure. It's hard to generalize. Sometimes I find, if I'm thinking about it out loud, that girls take a little bit longer to not listen to maybe the adults, what adults are telling them they should do. I wouldn't say that's true for everybody. But I feel like my boys in general, my male students, they're pretty darn clear. If they, if mom and dad tell them something and they don't like it, they're, they're going to say, no, thanks. Whereas some of my female students, I can tell it takes a little bit longer for them to separate themselves or to feel confident answering or making a decision about what they want or don't want. And so, when I noticed that I try to meet just with the student for the most part, but I've had some families where the parent always wants to sit with the student when we're meeting. And so I just gently ask them to wait for us until the last 15 minutes and I'll invite the parent in to recap what we had done so that the student eventually can find their own voice. Now that we're meeting virtually, it can be a little bit harder to have parents that aren't curious and it's nothing malicious that they're doing. They just want to support their student. But I do find that sometimes that can happen. And while I want parents to be included in the whole process, I also want the student to find their voice.

Mary Killelea: Well, that's interesting because me as a mother of two daughters, I know I'm consciously trying to raise them to be individual thinkers, but I do know that they try to please me. And so, I can see that happening and how important it is for the parents to step back and for you to nurture and have those individual conversations with the students without the parents, just so that they can develop and express their own thoughts.

Kristen Miller: Yeah, I'm glad that you mentioned that because it definitely isn't just a parent thing, but yeah, sometimes, you know, the student looks to the parent for approval in their response, right? Yeah. So yeah, that is, you know, part of the confidence building process. I do tell my families that part of this process is that I want the students to become good decision makers. And so that is also one of my goals because students are going to have to make a lot of decisions for themselves in college. And I do try to take the time that I get to work with them as an opportunity to help them build up their skills and confidence in that area.

Mary Killelea: Yeah, that's great. So I know you're actively engaged in industry organizations. What are of the benefits that you've taken away from those experiences?

Kristen Miller: Oh my gosh. I mean, I love my colleagues. They are so generous and we constantly learn from each other and share information. As part of those organizations, a number of them coordinate college tours where we will be together for five days in a hotel and on a bus at 6 a.m. in the morning and going school to school and furiously taking notes and photographs. And we all try to, you know, sit with multiple people on all our different bus trips so that we can make these connections and learn from each other. And now if I have a student interested in a school in Ohio and I haven't visited and I don't really know the nuances between the schools in that area, I have a colleague I can call and vice versa. So, I mean, really more than anything, it's just having these connections where we can learn from each other.

Mary Killelea: That's great. How do you stay positive and focused?

Kristen Miller: It's easier to stay positive than it is to stay focused. To stay positive, I just feel like I have a mission. It can be frustrating, some of the inequities in the college admissions process and the way colleges make decisions. And so that can be where I get frustrated. But I try to stay positive because I want to help my students navigate all that. And focused can be really hard because there is so much information coming at me all the time, especially right now, everything changing on a daily basis. And so that is my hardest thing. I try to give myself a checklist for each day, but I have lots of checklists. So yeah, that's my challenge.

Mary Killelea: What would you tell your 20 year old self if you could?

Kristen Miller: Oh my gosh. I would tell my 20 year old self that number one, it's okay to change your mind. I grew up with a mindset for some reason that once I made a decision or a commitment that I had to stick with it and honor it, even if I was not particularly happy. I had looked back on my career and how I've moved from place to place and things have led me to the next great thing. And if I wouldn't have taken those risks and those leaps, I wouldn't have met the people I met. I wouldn't be where I am. I wouldn't have the confidence that I do. And so I think I would have told myself just that you can change. You can change. You make the best decision you can at the time, but then you can change your mind.

Mary Killelea: Right. That's good advice. Do you have any good business or career books that you would recommend?

Kristen Miller: Business or career books. I, I can't think of a good career book at the moment, but I would say my parenting advice that I like to share with parents or a book is How to Raise an Adult by Julie Litcott Haynes. I think that's a really great book for parents who are sending their first kids, or yeah, their first child off to college. I like the book Out to Sea. I can't remember who the author is right now. Actually, I do. It's right here by my feet. Kelly Ratty. It's a parent survival guide. I thought that was a great book. I'm always reading about college stuff, not so much business stuff, but if you find a good book on how to manage your own business, will you please tell me?

Mary Killelea: Yes! This is awesome. So I'm sure there's going to be some people interested in learning more about your company.

Kristen Miller: Yeah. My website, www.collegeboundandready.com. And on there, you can contact me. You can learn a lot more about me. I have a blog where I post a new article every year. I'm going to post a blog every month. I have a blog where I post a new article every, the first of every month. And this month is going to be kind of a tweak on the message that I mentioned earlier that I sent to my juniors about challenges and opportunities right now. So whoever's listening might want to check that out. But my contact information is there and more information about me and my business.

Mary Killelea: Thank you so much, Kristen, for being a guest today.

Kristen Miller: Well, thank you. It was really fun to walk down memory lane a little bit.

Mary Killelea: Thanks for listening to the episode today. It was really fun chatting with my guests. If you liked our show, please like it and share it with your friends. If you want to learn what we're up to, please go check out our website at www.tobeboulder.com. That's the number two, little b bolder.com.