“You can do things you never thought possible,” Tina Feijóo tells us while reflecting on her upbringing.
As her story unravels, these words couldn’t ring truer.
Due to family hardships, Tina left her childhood home in Tucumán, Argentina at 17 years old and worked to pay her way through college. She had to maintain a high grade point average to keep her academic scholarship while balancing her job and studies. Despite the hardships, Tina graduated with the highest grades in her class and eventually landed a senior product designer opportunity for the leader in easy automation, Zapier.
“It wasn’t easy to stay positive and keep at it, at times,” Tina shares. “Sometimes, I still have those fearful moments where I don’t think I can do something. In those moments, I remind myself that, so far, there wasn’t a single challenge that I didn’t overcome. There wasn’t a single commitment that I didn’t deliver. I’m still here, and if I could do it when the odds were against me, I will be able to do it now.”
Tina’s story is a testament to how, with resilience, you can turn the cards you’ve been dealt into a winning hand. We sat down to hear more about her story, including her best guidance for overcoming adversity and turning challenges into opportunities.
Uncovering a silver lining
Tina’s childhood was marked by shifting homes, various caretakers, and domestic hardships.
“I was born from an affair, so I never knew my father. My mother suffered from mental health issues that prevented her from raising me. I was raised by my grandmother until her passing when I was 11 years old.”
Tina lived with her mother again, until a violent outburst required her to leave home and finish her last year of high school with her uncle.
Yet, Tina managed to find the light in a dismal situation. Her grandmother was a primary school teacher and would bring home kids didactic magazines and crossword puzzles to complete on their living room couch. With each new word, Tina was instilled with the importance of education.
“When my grandmother passed, I wanted to make her proud and focus on something positive that I believed would help me get out of the difficult situation I was in at the time.”
She applied herself diligently to her studies, landing a scholarship for a graphic design college program — initial proof of how overcoming adversity wasn’t out of reach.
A balancing act
Tina was met with a new set of challenges as a college student.
“I was attending college in the morning and working part-time as a secretary in the afternoons. I had a long commute between school, work, and the place I lived, so my days were jam-packed, with little time to sleep or study.”
However, succumbing to the pressure wasn’t an option. Tina stayed on track by slotting in her coursework during her commutes, slow hours at work, late nights, and weekends. Her college backpack became her inseparable sidekick so her schoolwork was always within reach.
Tina never skipped a class and paid close attention, taking extensive notes to minimize her study time before an exam. Despite feeling shy, she was the first to raise her hand and ask questions, ensuring she understood each topic. She relied on a detailed to-do list to organize her week ahead of time and mapped out which assignments she’d complete and when.
Finances were tight as she scraped pennies to cover her school expenses. “I remember this one assignment for which some of my classmates came back with high-quality carpenter-made solid wood deliverables, and I used cheap styrofoam, spackle, cardboard, aluminum wire, and paint — and still got a 10/10 grade on the project.”
It was a sacrifice, and Tina admits that she rarely met up with friends.
“The concept of education being the way forward was so deeply ingrained at that point that I just focused on getting my degree — one day at a time, one assignment or test at a time. It was a long four years, and I experienced a lot of pressure since I had to maintain very high grades to keep my half-scholarship, without which it would have been impossible for me to continue my studies. I just kept thinking everything would be okay if I could just get my degree. I would have tools to make something of myself and achieve my personal goals.”
And achieve her personal goals she did. Right before graduating, Tina landed her first fully-remote UX design position with an international agency.
Living her dream at Zapier
As her ideal career came closer into view, Tina continued to persevere through obstacles. Working on an international team involved a crash course in business English (Tina shares some tips on how she improved her English skills here) as well as battling the complex labor laws of remote work for an overseas employer.
“I was also very young, inexperienced, and female. That sometimes meant that some people wouldn’t take me or my work seriously.” Tina focused on building rapport, delivered high-quality work, practiced active listening, and took feedback to heart. “I slowly started building more experience and knowledge, and gaining trust from both coworkers and clients.”
A few years later, when a product designer role opened up with Zapier, Tina was already familiar with the organization. She’d used their automation tools and read about their incredible company culture, including how the founders pioneered remote work.
“I was so scared — imposter syndrome is a real pain — that I had the browser tab open for days before I finally gathered the courage to fill out the application. I honestly didn’t think I had a shot; it was more of an ‘at least I can say I tried’ type of situation. When I got that first email from a recruiter inviting me to an interview, I literally cried.”
Through all of the adversity, from a difficult childhood to a demanding degree and many sacrifices in between, Tina was stepping into her dream role.
5 tips for overcoming adversity
Tina’s story reminds us that obstacles can be transformed into opportunities with the right mindset. Here, she shares five ways to push through adversity and reach your goals:
- “The biggest [piece of] advice I can give young women is the same one my grandma gave me over 20 years ago. Education can open doors you never knew existed.”
- “Try, even if you are afraid to. Request that scholarship, send in that job application for the job you think you will never get, ask for that promotion. Sometimes, I tell myself that if I don’t even try, the answer is ‘no’ anyway. At least I can say I tried.”
- “Your perspective is unique. Many times in my life, I thought there was nothing I could contribute. What can I add in a room full of smart people? What can I write about that has never been written? Your life, the challenges you overcome, the experiences you live, all shape your perspective, and sometimes sharing that perspective with others to help them see things from a different angle is an incredibly valuable resource.”
- “Do the most you can with what you have. A lot of times it’s not about having the flashiest resources; it’s about what you can do with them.”
- “Challenges push us to develop certain skills to overcome them. Think about all the things you’ve already overcome and what you learned from them. Use those learnings and remember if you did it once, you can do it again.”
