This was the networking event I attended and in the image is Alitha Martinez.

The first networking event I attended was Meet The Pros with the host being Alitha Martinez a DC comic artist. The networking event was a networking get-together on the City Tech Campus. The interviewer was a professor at City Tech. He would ask Alitha Marinez different questions about her career and how she started. She would respond with detailed answers to the questions and it was like a Q&A event. During the event, many topics were covered such as how she started as a comic artist, where she was from, her salary, how she met her mentors, and the people or the company that she has worked for. 

Alitha Martinez is from Flordia where she grew up. There aren’t a lot of creative or design schools where Mrs. Martinez grew up in Flordia. Her parents did not understand her purse of being an artist or just in the creative field. Her parents did not believe she could make a living and a career being a comic artist. Even her teachers did not believe in her and said that a comic artist isn’t for women but more for men. She moved to New York City to start her journey as a comic artist. When to SVA but dropped out because she was not learning anything that could help her be a comic artist. The roommate at SVA did not believe in her nor did they want to see her see their work. So she drop out of SVA and started learning on her own and sending out her portfolio. She met one of the greatest comic artists during Comic-Con when she met him and showed her work to him. There she got a job at one of the biggest comic studios.   

The event was very interactive between Mrs. Martinez and the attendees which were the majority of students and some instructors. There were about 30 students that filled up the entire classroom and it was a packed event. 

One of the questions from a professor was how was she getting paid. Was she getting paid by commission or salary? Her answer was that she wish she was getting paid by salary but that was not the case. She was getting paid by commission for each comic book she completed. She always looking for new opportunities and challenges. 

One of the other questions I believed was how many hours she spend working per work or per day. I think her answer was something along the line of a lot of hours and nights. She always working and she supposes to be working that night as well on a DC comic book.  

What I learned from the host was that it takes time to develop one’s skills professional and it does not happen overnight. It is okay to not know how things are done or work. She mentions when she was starting out she was not that great but she was consistent with her work and she kept on working work. Over time she learned from her mistakes and has improved her skills.