Taylor Smith
Project Manager
HCA Healthcare
“It’s not a bad thing to not know what you want to do when you’re 18, 20, or 25! Nobody else’s timeline is yours and it doesn’t have to be.”
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By Roadtrip NationTaylor Smith
Milestones
My road in life took a while to figure out.
I grew up in a very small town in Texas and was involved in a lot of extracurricular activities, including sports and band.
I went to a small university straight out of high school and filled my course schedule with music classes—but I eventually decided it wasn’t where I wanted to be, so I came home and started working.
I started working for HCA Healthcare at 19 years old and held a variety of positions in the clinics while also taking classes at the University of North Texas.
I switched my major a few times before deciding to leave school because I was spending a lot of time and money without ever deciding what I wanted to do.
After working in the clinics for years, my name was suggested for an open IT role in the corporate office—I moved into the position and fell in love with software development.
After working for a decade and finally finding my passion for software development and healthcare, I wanted to advance in the field, but was told I needed a degree.
I decided to go back to school and was drawn to Western Governors University's program because it was all online, which was crucial for me as a mother who also works full time.
I graduated from WGU with a bachelor’s degree in healthcare management and am now eligible to advance into higher roles within my company—it’s my goal to become the chief information officer!
Keep following my journey
Education
High School
Bachelor
Healthcare Management
Western Governors University
Healthcare Management
Western Governors University
Career
Project Manager
I work as a project manager in the IT department for an urgent care.
Career Roadmap
My work combines:
My work combines:
Technology
Medicine
Helping People
Day to Day
My day to day as a project manager revolves around communication in order to see projects are worked on and completed. I also perform QA for all of our software applications. I essentially spend my time in QA trying to break our systems in order to test them. I also spend a lot of time processing paperwork.
Advice for Getting Started
Here's the first step for everyone
If you're like me and you don't really know what you want to do in life, know that it's okay to not know. Instead of spending a lot of time and money on school, I'd recommend working in various positions for a while as I did. That experience helped me find my true passions and now I've been able to set real goals for myself that I'm excited about.
Recommended Education
My career is related to what I studied. I'd recommend the path I took:
Bachelor
Healthcare Management
Healthcare Management
Hurdles
The Noise I Shed
From Society in General:
"You have to have your life planned out."
Challenges I Overcame
Changed Major
Family Stress
