Romneka G.

Hi. 

My name is Romneka Guion and this is the story of my career.

I graduated HS in 2001,  Top 30 of my class out of 300.  I got accepted in a full academic scholarship program to Norfolk State University where I majored in Computer Science and Minored in Applied Mathematics until 2004 when I left to be home.  I was accepted and graduated from Grambling State University with a degree in Computer Information Systems in December of 2007.  

February 2008 I was hired as a Systems Analyst for a CRO called Health Decisions.  While working there I discovered an interest in Systems and Network Administration.  I enrolled in grad school at Strayer where I majored in Management Information Systems with a focus in Information Assurance, i.e. security.  I graduated in 2011.  At that time I was unemployed, having been let go from Health Decisions at the burst of the real estate bubble under Bush Jr.  

In August of 2009, I was employed as a Tier 1, Inbound, Mobile Support for ACS, A xerox company with a large Apple, Inc contract.  I worked there for almost 11 months.  In that time I was promoted to Tier 2, Inbound Mobile; Tier 1, Inbound Desktop, to finally Tier 2 Inbound Desktop Support.  In October of 2010, I was employed as a Setup Engineer at Aon Hewitt where I updated the benefits on managed web pages, updated insurance benefits in the back end of systems.  In June of 2012, I was employed at Avanade, Inc.  Upon hire I was given my choice of coming in as a Sr. Business Analyst or a Software Engineering Analyst.  I was looking for a challenge so I chose Software Engineering.  AFter a year, I switched to Business Analyst and a year later, I was promoted to Sr. Business Analyst and in line for promotion to Consultant.  Unfortunately, in that time, in my personal life, I experienced life and character altering experiences with required STD and then eventually FMLA and eventually separation from the company in 2019 after 7 years of employment.  

In 2020, Covid hit and like billions in the country, I found myself unemployed.  In that time I attempted to learn Salesforce, Epic, Peoplesoft, SQL, Python, Excel, and the latest PMP practices.  I also became a certified yoga instructor and personal trainer, a learned herbalist, and I began writing my first novel. I also started my first business, Ella’s Kitchen Store.  In 2022, my business folded and I got a job working at Nordstrom’s in Women’s Shoes.  That same year, I also began my personal training/yoga business.  In 2023, I was hired as the Project Manager for R&D at Lucidworks, however by the end of the year, I voluntarily separated from the company.  In 2024, I got jobs at Home Depot and Burlington, part time retail employment while I continued to build my skills and update my resume.  In November of 2024, I was hired as a temp contractor with Telus Digital working as a Real Time Analyst on the FEMA project.  

Through the duration of my career, I have learned that I am a highly skilled communicator and an effective leader.  I learned that unlike many in the industry I had a keen curiosity about the technologies we used and worked with but I did not have a passion for it. My passion was for helping people understand. How the tech worked, how to use it, the myriad of ways it can be implemented, all of the systems it works with, how it can be used to do the unthinkable.  I learned that I was a creative thinker and a natural learner.  I also learned that I was not a team player.  I am not the type of person who functions in volatile, disrespectful, violent environments no matter how lucrative.  I learned that I will not do anything for a dollar or to be likeable.  I learned that I am ok with not being liked, with being left out, with NOT being one of the guys/gals.  I learned that being unique, singular, is a lonely but oh some lovely position to be in.  I learned that my natural quiet observation skills were my super power.  I learned that I had the right to be bold in my authenticity regardless of whether it was accepted or not, appreciated or not, or desired.  

It is now February 2025.  I am still employed with Telus until the end of April.  I still work part time at night at Burlington.   I created my website www.romneka.com to showcase my portfolio of creative things.  I’m still adding to it and building it up but I’m very proud of it.  My first marketing case study is live and active.  I took a familiar approach, ops management, to get it from ideation to live and now i’m working on phase, which is marketing and ad testing.  

I am also still actively looking for work while pursuing my creative and otherwise curious rabbit hole hobbies in the pursuit of this mythical employment people keep speaking of.  

Until then, I’ll be here, writing, creating, fiddling, learning, researching and trying to remain hopeful.