4ward Sciences Consultant: Martha Houseworth

I grew up in a small town in NJ at the shore, both parents present, with an older brother and eventually, a much younger sister. Before my sister was born (I was eleven-and-a-half when she arrived) I survived being a Brownie, hated being a Girl Scout, and took piano lessons. I wasn't good at playing the piano, but preferred taking lessons over going to Girl Scout meetings. I loved reading, painting, sewing, and swimming in the ocean (and I still do). I loved ice skating on the local pond and sleigh-riding with my dad. I also loved ballet dancing, but my recitals brought my parents to tears (of laughter) and I was finished wasting their money by the time I finished first grade. Apparently I had a habit of breaking out into my own choreography and neither of them thought I had much of a future in that arena. My instructor, Eileen, had been a Rockette and drove a lavender Cadillac convertible and I thought she was very cool.

When I turned twelve I began baby sitting and probably sat for every kid under 9 in my neighborhood. When I turned sixteen I landed a big time summer job, waitressing in a diner called Loraine's, on the Manasquan Circle, and at a grand old hotel called The Warren, located in Spring Lake (the tips at the diner were much better). By my junior year in high school I started working after school and on the weekends in a pharmacy. I always knew I was going to college, but didn't understand what college had to offer until, when I was still 16, my best friend (I still speak to her every other week) and I visited my cousin who was a freshman at the University of Vermont. I quickly figured out that college was going to much better than going to high school and the guys were more charming and better looking too. I wasn't going to get into the UVM (my dad said it was just as well because it was outside of his budget) so when my guidance counselor asked me what I wanted to do, and I said "I've wanted to be a Genetic Counselor since seventh grade," he recommended Davis and Elkins College in Elkins, WV or Michigan State. My father tried bribery to get me to go to Douglas or Rutgers (the budget thing again); however, I wanted an adventure and didn't believe I'd find it close to home and in New Brunswick, NJ.

I chose WV for all the wrong reasons, which I won't go into, but it turned out to be the right choice for me as I loved my time there and still have several good friends from those crazy days. After a year and half studying the sciences I concluded I wasn't cut out for life in a laboratory and really enjoyed history, religion, sociology, psychology, and communications. I threw in a few business and computer sciences courses and cobbled together a BS degree. In January of my senior year I had a very nice internship in Westinghouse Elevator's personnel department in Morristown, NJ, which my dear Uncle Ron had arranged for me. There I learned that I wanted nothing to do with Human Resources.

After graduation it wasn't a good time for finding jobs. That first summer and fall I was a receptionist at a WMCA and worked in a private jewelry store while looking for a PR job. My Uncle Burt, who was a marketing guru, told me that he thought I would hate doing what Public Relations people had to do, so, since I didn't really know what that was, I decided maybe I should take up my Communication professor's offer to find me a teaching assistantship (TA) for graduate school. I chose DeKalb, IL over Cambridge, for even worse reasons than those that took me to WV, but I think it was the right choice for me. Illinois and the University of Northern Illinois was quite a culture shock after four years in Elkins and a lifetime in NJ, so I continue to believe I would have been more overwhelmed in the UK.

I was a second round TA pick (I later found out I made the cut simply because I had great GRE scores) and the assistantship paid almost nothing (it barely covered my share of the rent – $185/month – food and utilities) and as it turned out, I was the only one in the whole department, including the teaching staff, that had ever lived east of the Mississippi River. I arrived with all my worldly possessions crammed into a red Fiat 124 five-speed sport coupe, which had cost me $800 and whose best feature was its 5-speaker radio system. I was an exotic creature to the other TAs, what with my jersey accent and sense of style. I felt like an octopus trying to fly (that is a stolen metaphor that I just love), but I met – and still know – some of the kindest, smartest, funniest people I had ever met in my life, while I was there. Jill, my roomy, is still my friend.

For the next year I taught Speech 100, two times a day, three days a week, and at the end of 14 months I submitted my Senior Thesis (which was well received) and survived my written and oral exams. My response to one question caused a disagreement between the members of my finals board. When I left the oral-exam room I was in shock – I'd actually succeeded in pleasing them. My fellow TAs were also amazed. I could tell they were as afraid for me as I was for myself because it was so quiet in the TA room where they were all waiting to hear the outcome. After a lot of cheering we all celebrated my success at Maria's, a Mexican restaurant in town. Dinner at Maria's cost $5 for an enchilada stack and a pitcher of sangria. Since then, I have looked in vain for anything that could compare with Maria's enchiladas and sangria; I would gladly pay $50 for just one more.

I returned to NJ, and to working in the same private jewelry store (the recession that sent me to Graduate school was still going strong). Eventually I found a job in Jackson, NJ where I was responsible for scripting, filming, and editing videos for a material handling equipment manufacturing company, and doing inventory on computer system parts (work was work) and this I considered my lucky break. My neighbor had offered me the job while I was running a family yard sale, proving that my Uncle Burt was right when he said, "it's not what you know it's who you know." The job paid twice as much as the NIU teaching assistantship and I hung in there for almost two years. Life was pretty good. Back then, living on the Jersey shore was not a hardship even under the worst economic conditions – it was a happening place in the 80's because Springsteen had put Asbury Park, NJ on the map... and Philadelphia and New York City were only a sixty minute ride away.

Finally, my ship came in and I sailed to Crofton, MD to write a software user manual and to do the marketing materials for a software package. It paid $5K more than the video making gig in Jackson. I got the job because the person that had recommended me had told them that my brother worked for Bruce Springsteen (sometimes it is a matter of who who-you-know knows). Having access to concert tickets really opened the doors. During my first year in the Washington DC area I made a career decision to learn how to write proposals (seemed more exciting than manuals and offered more exposure – obviously I made the decision for the wrong reasons, but it turned out to be a good decision for me).

My proposal career started as a Coordinator under the tutelage of Mrs. Levin. She would beat up the proposal team and send us back to the drawing board without mercy – but we learned to be disciplined in our approach and very attentive to the details. Eventually I got a chance to manage as well as write – and to this day I do it pretty much just like Ms. Levin taught me. I got exposure to a broad range of customer's, RFPs, and subject matters. Years later, after I had left that company and Ms. Levin, I ran into her and was able to personally thank her for teaching me so much.

During the ‘90s family demands and a need for a change in scenery took me north to Wayne, PA for 5+ years. I loved the area in and around Philadelphia, the people I worked with gave me yet another perspective of working and what makes life worth living (I still visit whenever I can). Then my ship arrived again and I returned to MD, where I have lived for the past 12 years and currently reside, just a bit south of Annapolis, with a teeny, tiny water view of the South River (my Uncle Burt's second bit of advice – location, location, location). In 1999 I decided I missed the proposal game and (probably not for a very good reason) that I would try being a consultant. I have been a proposal consultant for the past 10 years and as it turns out, it was a very good decision for me.

 

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