Michael grew up in a small Midwestern town from a tight-knit working-class family. His father grew up in Mexico, and his mother here in the U.S. After graduating high school early at the age of 17, Michael set off on his own and was the first person in his immediate family to attend college. After a stint in a trade school, where he studied fashion design, he took courses at City College of San Francisco and the University of Phoenix before finding his way to project management at UC Berkeley Extension.
“It finally feels as though I am on a path I enjoy,” Espinosa says. “A lot of people may not think that administrative professionals are project managers, but we are. We manage and develop relationships, have deadlines and timelines, and manage resources and budgets. My education now has prepared me for that reality.”
“We need to be receptive and open to change, adapting, and helping others. Most of what we accomplish is with the help of other people.”
– Michael Espinosa
Q: Tell us about the different jobs you’ve had on your career journey, and which one was most rewarding.
A: This one. But I’ve taken something from everywhere I’ve worked. Before coming to Berkeley Lab eight years ago, I was in a similar role as a business administrator on Microsoft’s PowerPoint program development and engineering team in Silicon Valley, where I worked for over seven years. It was a great job and really hands-on, but the commute was four hours roundtrip every day, and that wasn’t sustainable.
Several recruiter friends of mine asked me if I had considered applying to Berkeley Lab. After a few tries, I got a job working for the Office of the CFO. I was there for a little over two years and learned the fundamentals of operations at the Lab. I gained experience in conference services planning and finance, worked as a recruiting coordinator, and learned procurement from end to end.
Then, a fantastic opportunity came up within the Biosciences area. Since the late 90s, I have always worked in some operational functioning role, and now I’m a senior administrator for a science area, supporting an associate laboratory director, which I’d never done before. I’m working in a research environment, an academic environment, and a government environment. And it’s all very different and unique. I took this job thinking I could learn something new, and I was not wrong.
Q: If you’ve had mentors during your career, either informal or informal, how have they shaped your career path?
A: One of the things I like about Berkeley Lab, and specifically about Biosciences is we have formal mentorship programs. When you first start at Biosciences, you’re assigned an onboarding buddy for your first year, and they do regular check-ins: how it’s going, what do you see, how is everything working for you? And last year I entered into a formal mentorship program that was fantastic.
It was because of my mentor that I developed the courage to go back to school. It’s something I had wanted to do for a while and I’m currently attending UC Berkeley Extension in a two-year certificate program in project management. One of the best parts is that the Lab is paying for it through the Tuition Assistance Program.
Q: What career setback or mistake have you experienced that you learned from or that helped your future success?
A: When I first started at Biosciences, I was overly eager, and I made a mistake and copied someone I shouldn’t have on an email. I took ownership – I’m a big one for accountability – and I apologized for my mistake and told my boss it wouldn’t happen again. She said, “Ok. Now, what’s next?” That simple acknowledgment made me feel like, yeah, there’s room to make mistakes, learn from them, and not have them go against you. We treat each other with respect; we’re kind and considerate, and that is something I’ve appreciated about the Lab.
Q: What’s the most important piece of career advice that you could relay to someone who is considering working at the Lab or perhaps is starting their career?
A: Understand that everything is not always about you. It may sound like a cliché, but everybody we work with, come in contact with, encounter over email, in person, or over Zoom has a unique and different life we know nothing about.
So, if someone is having a bad day or something goes wrong, it’s not all about you. We need to be receptive and open to change, adapting, and helping others. Most of what we accomplish is with the help of other people, which is why the job that I’m in now is incredibly important for me to focus on relationship development and management.
A career at Berkeley Lab offers a range of opportunities supported by training, mentorship, and career development programs. Whether you choose to build a career at the Lab or take your skills to other organizations, a career path to and at the Lab sets you up for success.
