Hi, I’m Melissa Malpica and together with my wife Kate Starostina we started T3 Transition to Tech in late 2020. At T3 we lean on a combined 20+ years of corporate tech experience to help career women leverage their transferable skills and learn the strategies that have helped us transition to, and grow, successful careers in the tech space. We live in Cary, NC along with our 3 kids and Ginger, a Maltese/Yorkie mix. 

Born and raised in the Bronx, New York, I was the first to graduate college in my family and am a proud alumni of The City College of New York. Going to college was my plan to achieve success: go to college, get a job, grow a career, be successful. Easy peasy! 

Boy was I wrong!

Being from New York, I have always had the “hustle” mindset and I had to really lean into that for the first time in 2009 when I was laid off from my job in the publishing industry. Print books and magazines were not the future and so I had to pivot. Since then I have had to pivot and reinvent myself numerous times and in various industries before finding my home in tech.

Each time I pivoted, I learned how to leverage my prior experience and existing skills, how to effectively look for a job, how to have career growth, what success means and what it takes to be successful. Over time, I was able to apply everything that I had learned to achieve the career growth that I was after. I made notes of what worked and what didn’t so that the NEXT time I found myself on the job hunt, I had a list of effective tools and techniques to use. 

I have systemized these strategies to create the T3 Transition to Tech coaching program aimed at helping women from non-technical backgrounds leverage their transferable skills and experience to achieve career success by transitioning to the tech industry.

The big key for me was shifting my mindset from “I don’t know why this keeps happening to me”, to “well, this is happening so what am I going to do to own my outcome?” The ability to hustle and pivot has proven to be a higher driver of success than what I learned in college or the skills I was born with. Without this mindset I would not be the success I am today and on the road to retirement by age 50 when more than 56% of Americans can’t even afford to retire at age 65. I believe everyone has the same chance of achieving success once they commit to put in the hustle required when defining and executing a strategic approach to their career roadmap.

Kate’s story is a little different, but the lessons learned are the same. Kate grew up in communist Russia and came to the States when she was 9 years old. Education and career success held a huge importance in her culture and family and she also did the “right” thing: go to college for a STEM degree, get a job and be happy. But that didn’t happen “out of the box.” Kate encountered bosses and employers who loved to micro-manage, had outdated “rule by fear” management styles and non-flexible and misogynistic work environments. She too had to learn and implement strategies to navigate the corporate world and find a career path that would offer her growth, flexibility and financial security. Leveraging her finance degree and analytical skills, tech is also where Kate has found her home.

Today, both Kate and I made it through those toxic environments and now work for employers that treat us like the adults we are, allow for work life and mental health balance, financial freedom and career growth. Most of what we learned along the way are things you would not learn unless you actually went through it. 

This is the WHY behind our starting T3 Transition to Tech LLC.

The T3 Transition to Tech career coaching program will shorten your learning curve and get you on the path to achieving your goals faster. As a woman, you don’t have to choose between family, kids and work; you don’t have to sift through all the information and misinformation out there alone. We are here to tell you the truth (we actually work in tech), help you navigate the information and most importantly provide real-time help when needed.

At T3, you’re starting from experience, not from scratch!  We are here to help you visualize and customize your journey to success, equip you with the tools and resources you need to not only grow your skill set but your mindset; now and in the future . You just have to BYOH (Bring Your Own Hustle).