How to be EPIC

Following core values and finding courage when approaching a career transition

If you’ve been thinking about whether to take the plunge and pursue a new career, Marita Pérez Díaz recommends being EPIC.

She outlined her journey from journalism to tech in our Navigator Q&A last week. Remember, supporting subscribers are invited to register for our upcoming Q&A chats! Learn more here.

Pérez Díaz was grappling with burnout in journalism. She spent a year working in marketing for a plastic surgery company, but found it did not reflect her core values. So she developed the EPIC framework to guide her career choices:

E = Education. Continuing to learn in order to gain skills, whether in a structured environment or in your own time.

“That is something that I have been doing forever, so it’s natural to me,” she said.

P= Persistence. Pérez Díaz once hiked the highest mountain in Cuba. She was the last in her group to get to the top — but she made it.

“I said I was not going to be able to do it, I was not in physical shape. It was the first time I did something like that,” she said. “But…deep inside I knew I could do it. And I just kept doing it.”

She said keeping that mindset of persistence during her career transition paid off. But sometimes, she added, you need to give up. If she had stayed in journalism because that was her first career choice, she would not have gotten to the environment she wanted.

I = Innovation. Pérez Díaz advises people to get their hands dirty and experiment. This doesn’t have to be inventing something new, but creating processes and systems that serve you better. It doesn’t have to be strictly work-related, either: she started painting puppies during the pandemic and loves it.

“Give yourself the permission to innovate and experiment as much as you can.”

C = Community. One journalism professor said that even if you write the best article, if you put it in a drawer and nobody sees it, it doesn’t matter.

”Whatever you are doing in your life, you always have to keep in mind the people that you are trying to serve,” Pérez Díaz said.

She wanted to keep serving the Cuban community, but she wasn’t sure how that would translate to a job outside of journalism. Now, as a web engineer at the American Press Institute, she has expanded her impact by serving newsrooms that serve Hispanic communities.

In addition to being EPIC, we discussed how she found the courage to transition careers.

“It was very scary, and it still is very scary,” she said. “I just had to do it with the fear.”

With the support of her partner and others, she was able to put resources toward training to get started in tech.

“That is where I found the courage, because I had people who believed in me as much as I believe in myself,” Pérez Díaz said. “When you reach out, you will find that there are people out there that want to help you.”

Unlike her switch to marketing, which was “just running away” from the work that had burned her out, Pérez Díaz took time to think about what she could do next. That next transition worked better.

Listen to your instincts, Pérez Díaz said. Recently her manager gave her a tip to look at the tabs that you have open in your web browser. If you have these tabs open for more than week, pay attention to it — why haven’t you closed it, why do you keep it there? In the same way, she leveraged her research into a new career by listening to her EPIC values.

“Be brave. Reach out for help. There are other sailors out there that can help you out. Listen to advice but also keep true to yourself and to your core values. That is what is going to pay off at the end.”

See the full webinar recording: Passcode: @bT9d7k*

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Happy navigating,
Bridget