“I walk away at the end of the day feeling like I’ve done something very good.”
Eight hours or more a day… five days or more a week… you’ll find BDI Data Specialist Angel Jimenez at the desk in his home office, plugging away at his computer, ensuring client files are prepared correctly so their mailings will reach their donors.
“I’m in contact with BDI clients, letting them know what they need to provide and maybe some changes they need to make. Then we verify the final mail file and code it to track responses.”
That’s the simple description for a very intricate, complex and vital process!
Angel’s surroundings are quiet, serene and solitary – save for the antics of a dog, two cats and a couple of lizards that offer occasional comic relief. And although BDI’s office is only minutes away, his visits are few and far between.
Yet while this daily routine may sound tedious to some – perhaps even lonely – it actually suits Angel just fine.
That takes a lot of people by surprise…
“Given the fact that I was in customer service for so long and people love talking to me – and they say that I’m good with people – I really like being alone. I’m really OK with that most days. It’s very easy for me just to be in my own company.”
His awareness is impressive, but it hasn’t come easily. His career path has been a journey of self-discovery.
Angel worked his way through college as a waiter at several mom-and-pop restaurants, where his customers enjoyed his attentive and friendly service and gave him rave reviews. After graduating with a degree in economics from Cal Poly Pomona in Southern California, he took a job with a banking and financial services company. In sales. And he quickly learned that was not his thing.
“I do not like sales. I despise sales with almost my entire being. I cannot do it.”
To expand his skill set, he moved on to an insurance brokerage where he excelled with customers as a certificate analyst… and was promoted to a new position. In sales. Willing to give it a second chance, he began the required training.
“But throughout the course, I thought, ‘I don’t want to do this.’ It was just too different from who I am.”
And then he had a lightbulb moment…
He remembered a musing from Alan Watts, a philosophical entertainer, writer and proponent of self reflection: “You’re a baby and then you go to grade school, middle school, high school and university. And then you get a job selling insurance.”
“I thought, is this what my life has amounted to?”
After this hard dose of introspection, Angel moved on… to BDI.
Since joining the agency in 2022, Angel has found his job a perfect fit – for his skill set, his character and his goals.
“When I was hired I was ecstatic, because it was something I wanted to dip my feet into. The data world is very close to economics, as I’d suspected, and I’d always been into computers. It was an easy transition because my role is half customer service and I’d already done so much of that.”
And this time, as Angel demonstrated his competence and proficiency, he wasn’t promoted to a sales position. Instead, he’s been tasked with a new project he’s thrilled to take on and which has expanded his role to include “data engineering.”
“I’m doing a lot of work in Azure Data Factory and in BigQuery (enabling management and analysis of data from a rich variety of sources). That’s something BDI has really never done before, so it’s kind of a big change, kinda groundbreaking, kinda pushing us into the world of digital reporting.”
Words to live by…
Angel describes his job at BDI as the first professional highlight of his career. Considering the satisfaction he receives from his interaction with clients – and the end result of their work to help hurting people – “I walk away at the end of the day feeling like I’ve done something very good.”
But just as important, “BDI is pushing me to grow my skill set and I value that more than anything – expanding human capital.”
Today, as he looks back on his journey to the job he loves – that fits him like a glove – he recalls more words from Alan Watts that helped him through tough times:
Living in the “eternal now.”
“To me that means that when life is stressful or eating away at you, don’t look forward or back. Just give everything you have to what you’re doing at the time. Even if it’s just sitting in the sun, all alone, reading a good book.”
Something we all might keep in mind!
Also about Angel…
- Even more than his own company, Angel enjoys time with his fiancée, Maddie Lara, who’s also a BDI team member. They’re looking forward to their wedding in September.
- Angel plays the guitar. He started at age 10 after seeing kids competing in contests on Nickelodeon. But he only plays for pleasure. “It’s a good skill set to have because it kind of centers and relaxes you.”
- He loves reading science fiction and fantasy and just completed a trilogy called The Three-Body Problem, soon to be produced by Netflix.
Stay tuned for more Insider’s Outlook articles, where BDI team members share their insight!
