Trueline Spotlight: Dreaming Bigger in Texas
The same motivation that carried Sandra Buritica from New York City to her current home in Texas brought her from a ruthless law firm to Trueline: She wanted something better for herself and her family.
Sandra, who earned her B.A. in criminal justice from Colorado Technical University in 2016, had been working as director of sales marketing at the law firm and had witnessed some behavior from attorneys that made her uncomfortable.
“Then they did something pretty unethical to cheat me out of a major bonus that I had coming, and I was already unhappy with the other unethical behavior that I was seeing,” she says. “So, I started looking at different places, and this time, instead of trying to focus on what the salary was, I focused instead on what the culture of the company was. I wanted a company that was ethical, that I felt valued their employees and where I felt I would be comfortable and proud to work there.”
Sandra soon found herself with multiple job offers. But she picked Trueline because she had a gut feeling it would be a better fit, and she would be seen as more than just a number.
“I wanted a company that was ethical, that I felt valued their employees and where I felt I would be comfortable and proud to work there.”
“I took a huge pay cut to come here, but to me it was worth it, because everyone that I spoke to loved working here,” says Sandra, now a sales development coordinator at Trueline. “I loved everything that I read online about the company and its values. And when I met Haj through the video interview, it just seemed like a place where everyone fit really well, and that connection was important and developed through all these things like Coffee Buds and little meetings and things like that.”
Backyards are Bigger in Texas
As for the move to her adopted home state, Sandra is similarly happy with her choice. She had been living contentedly in New York City, but the birth of her son about 11 years ago served as a wake-up call. She didn’t want him to grow up in a cramped apartment with no backyard, like she did. So, she researched affordable, fast-growing communities around the country and settled on the Round Rock area. Then she made the leap.
“I changed my whole life,” she recalls. “And I love it here. I ended up building my life here in Texas and started working from home the week I got here… Texas was huge for me.”
The shift to working from home also enabled Sandra to homeschool her two kids. Her son, age 11, is already doing high school-level work, and she’s recently started educating her 3-year-old daughter, who has been wielding writing implements like a pro.
“I see her, every time I’m doing home school with him, she’s there,” she laughs. “And she’s writing, which, they don’t typically develop the hand muscles to write until like age 6, to hold a pencil well. But she’s already doing it, so I’m like, yeah, you’re ready.”
Sandra has her son homeschool his little sister as part of his daily chores for 15 minutes, three times a day. He also participates in activities twice a week with a group of other homeschoolers. And now that summer is here, Sandra is looking forward to a bevy of summer enrichment events at the local wildflower center, which educates kids about different plants and hosts a nighttime luminary show.
The great outdoors plays a major role in Sandra’s life with her kids. They do a lot of hiking together, they go to different parks in the area and she loves taking the children on two-day road trips exploring different parts of Texas, checking out small towns and nature preserves across the state.
“I love it, I love the outdoors, and just the quality of life compared to New York is just so much better,” she says.
A Natural Gift for Sales
Which is not to say that Sandra lacks for fond memories of New York. She came to America from Colombia with her parents when she was a child, arriving on Christmas Day in 1985. She traces her love of Christmas to that experience—seeing the city for the first time with Fifth Avenue all lit up, the giant Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center and so forth.
Growing up, Sandra would take the train into Manhattan all the time, especially during the holiday season. She loved running up and down Fifth Avenue, with the Disney Store, the Warner Bros. outpost and FAO Schwartz all on the same long block.
She also loved the library. Her mother’s first job in America was cleaning the offices of a law firm. Sandra’s mom would bring her daughter along and let her pick out books from the library next door. Sandra would then sit in the law library of the firm while her mom cleaned, holding court with the attorneys, who brought snacks and kept her entertained with conversations about law.
“That’s really what got me interested in law, is just being exposed to that so early on,” Sandra says. “And I thought I was going to be a lawyer, but then I realized, once I was nearing the end of my bachelor’s, as I was getting closer to going to law school, I was like, ‘Hmm, I don’t think this is for me.’”
Instead, she found she had a natural affinity for sales that she credits to her father. He was a B2B advertising salesman when she was growing up, and he would often bring her along to work.
“I think I just naturally picked up that ability to talk to people from being around him while he was doing that,” Sandra says. “And it kind of shaped me.”
In fact, she would go on to sell insurance for roughly two decades before joining the aforementioned law firm. She had a certain knack for the business; for example, she would take baskets of muffins to different car dealerships, and then the auto salespeople would call her when it was time to sign their customers up for insurance.
Punching Out and Punching Up
While she was working in the insurance industry, Sandra also found time to see the world. She loves being in the water and on the beach, so she gravitated toward the Caribbean.
“I spent a lot of my twenties visiting little islands in the Caribbean,” she says. “St. Thomas is one of my favorite places to go.”
She loves Magens Bay in St. Thomas. With pristine stretches of sand surrounded by mountains, monkeys populating the surrounding forest and several giant pigs presiding over the beach, who wouldn’t want to return? More recently, she’s brought the kids on cruises to the Bahamas.
Today, Sandra is tackling new frontiers. After her workdays end, she’s taken up boxing, working out with a personal trainer four to five times per week at a local gym. And she and her children have recently moved into a four-bedroom apartment in a manicured local community complete with a pool, game house and fire pit.
“I think my son’s going to love that,” Sandra predicted as she geared up for the move. “I told him we’ll have sleepovers, and we’ll just grill burgers by the pool. So, I’m looking forward to doing that this summer and just spending time with the kids.”
BONUS FACTS:
Did you know? She’s a master Reiki practitioner. Sandra became an energy healer more as a hobby than for financial gain, and she’s now passing what she’s learned on to her children.
Who’d play you? Shakira.
Bucket list: London and Italy with the kids.
Greatest achievement: Being able to homeschool the kids. “It was daunting in the beginning, but when I realized that it doesn’t have to look how regular school looks, it kind of opened up everything for me,” she says.
