André Bearfield
IBM Blue Box
Seattle, WA USA
"I’ve been very successful, and it’s not because I’m special—it’s just because I always focused on what I wanted."
Career Roadmap
André's work combines: Science, Technology, and Problem Solving
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Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Advice for getting started
Figuring out who I am, is still a work in progress. You get a set amount of energy for the day and I always try to make the most of it. The thing I had to learn was not to waste that energy on things that I can't control. I had to own my voice.
Here's the path I took:
High School
Bachelor's Degree
Chemistry, General
Hendrix College
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life has been direct
1.
He was born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas; the city had one of the top 10 highest crime rates in America when he was growing up.
2.
Also went to college in Little Rock, where he originally studied biochemistry because he thought he wanted to become a doctor.
3.
By his junior year, he knew he didn’t want to be a doctor, but he also didn’t have the money to change majors and spend more time in school, so he put his head down and pushed to finish.
4.
After school, he realized he didn’t want to keep living in Little Rock, so he researched different cities, searching for a place with a low crime rate and an upward trend in growing technology.
5.
He settled on Seattle, Washington; packed up all of his stuff in his car and drove halfway across the country without any plans for when he got to his destination.
6.
Despite having to figure out where he was going to live and work, he was so excited about the change that he wasn’t worried.
7.
Within a few weeks, he’d found a place to live and the perfect job for someone looking to learn more about technology.
8.
Says that really successful people always take big risks; once he figured this out, he didn’t become a huge risk-taker overnight, but he started building more risk into his decisions.
Defining Moments
How I responded to discouragement
THE NOISE
Messages from Myself:
I have no idea who I am.
How I responded:
Figuring out who I am, is still a work in progress. You get a set amount of energy for the day and I always try to make the most of it. The thing I had to learn was not to waste that energy on things that I can't control. I had to own my voice.
Experiences and challenges that shaped me
I grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas, which at the time, had one of the top 10 highest crime rates in America.
When I decided to move to Seattle, I pack up all of my possessions and drove 1800 miles for 40 hours. I moved without having a job lined up or a place to live.