I have always been interested in careers, how we choose them and why we all know so little about them. Higher education and trade schools are wonderful IF you know you want to be school teacher, electrician or engineer. However, they fail miserably educating us WHAT careers actually exist and what it is like to work in them.
From a young age, how much money people earned fascinated me. I guess because I always wanted to do and have cool stuff. Annually, our local paper would publish in the “Parade” section,“What People Earn”. It’s still published every year. Of course, celebrities and professional athlete’s would make gobs of money but most people earned a working wage. Moreover, I hadn’t the foggiest notion what the careers listed were or did.
The genesis of Vitaes began when I faced a crossroads in my life. I was a working CPA for Bank of America and I hated my job. Like many, at this time in my life, I was married, 2 kids, a mortgage and car payments so “starting at the bottom” and taking a huge pay cut was out of the question.
I struggled shifting careers from accounting, after investing so much in a degree, studying and passing the CPA exam and working in the industry. I felt like I was flushing all that effort down the toilet. But I knew I HAD to make a change. Only did I learn later that my experience in accounting and auditing made me a better employee . My experiences were not wasted, They NEVER are.
My long banking career gave me a ringside seat into many, many different careers. I was able to see up close how business really worked and the richness of hundreds of different careers.
It is clear that, for lack of a better term, “career ignorance” remains an issue for us all. This is especially important now since careers are disappearing and being created at a lighting pace. My research confirms that the current best tool to learn about potential careers is a government website. While informative, it remains incomplete, incorrect, impossible to digest and slow to respond.
So, as they say, “If you want something done right, do it yourself”. I built src.vitaes.com as tool to encourage individuals to upload and profile their careers, build a personal brand and share their career knowledge with others. For one thing I am most certain, VERY FEW people have ANY idea what you do, the challenges and rewards of your career, and the journey getting there.
Help others learn about your career by uploading your profile while building your brand and sharing your story with others. I GUARANTEE, there are many who would LOVE to have a job like yours, if they only knew it existed. And, you may learn about YOUR next career move. If you only knew………..
Steve Lozano.
Steve retired early from banking to build Vitaes.com.
Most recently Steve was Managing Director and Market President of Commercial Banking for Union Bank responsible for Washington, Alaska, Oregon and Northern and Central California. Steve started his career as an accountant and is a licensed CPA in California.
Steve is a 5 year board member of the YMCA of Greater Seattle, chair of the audit committee and 2016 Annual Campaign chair.
He is a proud public school product, (California State University, Sacramento) graduating with an accounting degree. He worked for the State of California for a short time before finding his space in the finance industry with stints at Bank of America, First Interstate, Bank of the West and finally with Union Bank.
Steve is married and lives in Seattle with Sabrina, his wife of 37 years .They have two daughters, both of whom live in Seattle. He is also the proud new grandfather of young William Vogt.
Steve is a musician, (drummer) and enjoys live music, skiing, golf and hanging with friends.