Sometimes a very brief discussion can totally change your view of a person. I was reminded of this again today…

I’ve been working on a side project at work lately, doing presentations to high school kids about why the IT field makes a good career choice. The project has been rapid, and somewhat stressful — one week to create an hourlong presentation, gather all the materials, and coordinate everything among 6 people. One person in particular — we’ll call her Q — has been instrumental in getting things organized: setting up meetings, creating the agendas, and facilitating.

I had never worked with Q before, but something about her just rubbed me the wrong way. I felt like we had a serious clash of personalities and styles.

Today Q gave me a ride back to my building. We got to talking, and she shared with me some of her background. And the story that she told just absolutely floored me.

She came to the States from another country by herself, and worked her way through college by waiting tables. This made it impossible for her to get internships or job experience, so she had trouble getting a job in IT after graduation. She ended up coming to the LFC where I work (that’s Large Financial Company, for those following along at home) and getting a job as a Phone Associate in one of the contact centers.

After she’d been there for a year, she applied to the IT training program that I’m a part of right now, and got in as an internal applicant — the only one in the 2 years the program has existed. Now she’s working on her MBA, and has been very successful within the program.

All of a sudden, I don’t feel so self-conscious about my “different” background anymore. In fact, my “different” background doesn’t seem all that “different” anymore. So I went to a crappy high school — big deal. So I’m not “from” here, or really anywhere — at least I don’t have to battle self-consciousness about my accent and the way I speak English. (This was another thing she expressed to me, which left me totally flabbergasted.)

Anyways, the whole experience was really powerful to me; in fact, I’ve been thinking about it all day. What an amazing story; what an amazing reality check to my own assumptions and prejudices.

I wish I could just not make snap judgments about people. Unfortunately, it seems to be part of human nature, and something that we all do. I can only hope for more moments like this, that remind me that there’s a real human in there with a real story, and not just my own projections.