Welcome everyone to Translating VISTA Service to Your Resume and Career.
This webinar will offer several tips and strategies for translating VISTA experience to the post-service job search,
including how to best describe Service Center Resume and how to prepare for and engage in career development,
both during and after service.
I'm your host, Molly Pelzer from the VISTA training unit.
Assisting me today off screen are our partners Amy Cannata from Education Northwest,
and Sam Graziani from JBS International.
You'll see us in the chat, and the Q&A also, to assist you during today's session
and to help get your questions answered.
We're also so delighted to have with us Erin Barnhart, PhD.
Dr. Barnhart is the founder and president of Effective Altruism, LLC,
as well as the director of operations for the American Gap Association.
She serves on the board of directors for the Building Bridges Coalition on the Oregon Committee on Volunteerism.
As an online instructor for the AmeriCorps VISTA Blend, she teaches a section on the Volunteer Mobilization course,
and is an adjunct professor at the University of Oregon and Concordia University Portland.
Not to mention, Erin is also an AmeriCorps NCCC alum.
Today we are also featuring two guest speakers; Jordan Katcher, who is wrapping up her VISTA service,
and Erin Pringle, who is a VISTA alum.
We'll hear more from them a little later.
Today we'll cover how you can prepare for a successful transition out of your VISTA service,
which includes how to capture and share the essence of your service so you can craft a compelling resume.
We'll also hear from current or past VISTAs before sharing resources and answering your questions.
And here are our learning objectives.
After this webinar,
you will be able to effectively highlight the important aspects of your VISTA service on your resume.
You'll also be able to identify key words and language for your resume that resonates with various job fields
and sectors, and you'll also be able to build a portfolio that showcases the experience you've gained
and work you've accomplished during your service.
But before we hand the presentation over to Erin, I'd like to share a tweet sent to @VISTAbuzz just last week.
As you can see, even six years later, the benefits of serving with VISTA continue to manifest.
I wanted to learn more about this comment, so I reached out to this alum,
and learned that after her VISTA service with Adult Literacy Programs,
she went on to graduate school for public health.
Today she's currently employed as a statistician at a large research hospital.
When asked to explain the connection between her VISTA service and the career benefits, she says,
"I have been asked about my VISTA service in every job interview that I've been on.
My opinion is that my graduate degree is what makes me qualified for the research or statistical jobs that I've taken,
but the skills I've gained from VISTA may have set me apart from the other candidates."
So keeping this in mind, I am really excited to welcome Erin and our guest speakers.
So we all discuss the best ways to represent VISTA service while undergoing a career search
and set you apart from other applicants.
Erin?
Thank you so much.
It's such a pleasure to be here this afternoon,
especially to see the quote about how AmeriCorps VISTA service has influenced
and had such an impact on their career search.
It's been 17 years since I was an AmeriCorps member, which is a frightening thought.
But I can honestly say it has had an impact on every step of my career along the way.
Thank you so much, everyone, for having me today.
I'm thrilled to see from the chat that people were enjoying the hold music.
It was very lively and we were having a little dance party here.
But let's get into the content.
We're going to talk about translating service to careers today.
Before I get started, though, I'd like to learn a little bit about the folks on the call.
We have two questions for you on your screen.
The first is where are you in your service?
We'd like to know, are you early in your term of service, are you somewhere in the middle, are you nearing the end,
or are you already an alum.
The second question you'll see is do you know what you want to do post-VISTA,
and let me preface that by saying there is no right answer here.
Don't panic.
The first choice is you know or you're pretty sure what you want to do;
you're currently in the process of considering and exploring what you'd like to do; or you're not sure
and you haven't started yet.
And, again, no right answer there.
Really, what this will give us is a sense for how people are approaching the call today.
Are you here primarily because you're ready to get started today?
Are you starting to think about these things, or is it something that might be a few months down the road,
but you're starting to already think, well, you know, maybe I should start to think about what I want to do next.
Of course, there's lots of options of what you might want to do next, so we're going to talk about that as well.
So we've got a little bit more time on the poll there, then we're going to take a look at some of the results.
It look like it's close.
As soon as our results come in, I'll share some of those.
We're going to hear from two folks on this call later, Jordan and Erin,.
As we mentioned, Jordan is nearing the end of her service, and Erin has completed hers,
so we're going to give you some examples what it can look like, depending on where you are in your own process.
Okay, so we've got some results here.
It looks like the majority of folks are nearing the end of their service.
You're at a really good point to be doing this work.
Those who are early, it's never too early to start, same within the middle, and if you've already completed,
it's never too late.
Do you know what you want to do from VISTA?
Most folks here are currently considering -- yeah, that looks about --
and then a handful of folks do know what they want to do.
Also great.
All right, so now that we know a little bit about you, I'm going to try to give you some tips
and strategies that will be useful for you no matter where you are in the process.
Okay, so we're going to go ahead and go to our next slide here.
We're going to talk a little bit about preparing for the transition.
What can you do today to prepare for your professional next steps?
There's a couple of key things that you can do.
The first is start building a portfolio.
Collect things that you can put in the notebook, things like your writing samples, snapshots
and screen grabs of your social media, examples of materials you've developed for your program.
If you have them, copies of outcomes and evaluations, as well as a listing of the trainings you've completed,
software that you've used.
Collect all of these things in one place.
If you're in your service now, you can start right now.
If you've already completed your terms of service, it's not too late.
Just get back in touch with your host site and ask if they can forward some materials your way.
A second step is what many of you are already doing, which is identify what might be next.
This can be career paths, this can be specific jobs.
It might even be a return to school if you're looking at a degree program of interest.
And there's a couple of different strategies you can use to do this exploration.
One of them is to talk to your peers, your colleagues, and your partners at your organizational site.
Ask them questions like where do they think you would thrive.
These are folks who have seen you in action.
They've seen what you're capable of.
They may have ideas that either have been in the back of your head or something perhaps you hadn't even considered.
So ask them, what do they think you'd be great at.
Also, do some initial searching.
One of my favorite activities is something that, when I used to work with idealist.org, my colleagues there developed,
and it's really simple activity to track interesting job posts.
And all you have to do is go to a job post website of your choice -- I'm going to use the Idealist as an example here
-- and do a search of what jobs are out there.
Anything that's remotely interesting, copy and paste and set to the side.
Don't assess whether you would actually want to do it, and don't assess whether you have the right skills
or experience to do it.
Literally just grab everything of interest.
Because what you're going to do next is once you have a handful of those, you're going to go through them,
and I suspect you're going to find some interesting trends.
You may discover that it's less the what of the work and more the where.
You might have found, hey, I grabbed all smaller nonprofit grassroots groups, maybe that's what I'm looking for.
There's some really interesting things that emerge from this kind of activity, and it's really simple to do.
If you're thinking about going back to school, start researching possible programs, and, again,
ask for those recommendations from friends and colleagues, as well as what my next bullet point is here,
informational interviews.
I could not be a bigger fan of informational interviews.
These are such an invaluable way to learn more about potential career paths, as well as potential degree programs.
I've done them myself.
I've been both the interviewee and the interviewer, and they're just such a great experience.
The vast majority of people you ask for 30 minutes of their time on the phone or over coffee are going to say, yes,
because you're not asking them for a job.
You're not ask them even for a recommendation.
You're asking for advice.
You're approaching someone and saying, "Hey, your work sounds really interesting and I'd love to learn more about it.
Would you be willing to meet me for 30 minutes
or have a 30-minute phone call just so I can learn a bit more about your work, how you got there,
and what I should be looking to do if I want today do similar work."
The people who generally say no are just too busy.
It's not often that they don't say no because they're not willing to share with you why they love their work.
So some of these folks you can literally just Google and find organizations of interest,
and then e-mail the person whose job sounds interesting.
But also don't forget to ask your colleagues, your supervisors, and your peers who they know,
because they may be able to point you in the right direction.
You can also look at sites like LinkedIn and see who is doing work of interest.
Ask them questions about what did they study, what do they read now, what would they recommend you do to prepare.
Ask if they might be willing to share a copy of their resume.
You might be able to use it as a template or give you some insights into what type of work to do.
And the nice thing, again, about these is they often snowball.
You might meet with one person and they they'll say, "You know who else you should talk to,"
and then they'll send you to the next.
So I highly recommend doing informational interviews.
It can seem scary, but it's realy worth it.
The last one here is requesting letters of recommendation, and I do recommend that you do this near
or after the end of your service.
You want the person writing it to have as much insight into your abilities as possible.
And you also want to do it, if you can, close to when you're finishing so that everything is fresh in their mind.
If you are post-service, though, and you haven't done this, don't worry, just go back and ask them,
and you might even remind them of some of the things you did.
It's also not uncommon for someone writing the letter to ask for a couple of key points that you'd like for them to
highlight, so just be ready for that.
So these are some core things.
We're going to next look at that list of things for a portfolio.
Here are the sorts of things you can include: Again, writing in work samples, program materials, social media,
outcomes and evaluation, training software, and those last three on the end there, accolades, kudos,
thank you letters, and certificates.
Job searching is not the time to be humble.
I know that many of us in the field of service are so used to being focused on our communities we serve that it can
sometimes be uncomfortable to look at ourselves,
but a job search is one of those places where you are absolutely in the right mind to be putting your best foot
forward and, you know, blowing your own horn.
Show them what you can do.
Include those accolades and those kudos.
And all of those certificates that you've received over the course of your life --
and I know that you have -- if you didn't have a plan to frame them and put them on the wall,
this is where they can live.
Give them a home and keep it all in one place,
because this is a notebook that has a snapshot of everything you've done and what you're capable of.
And this is the sort of thing you could potentially share during an interview process and be able to hand over
and say, "Hey, if you'd like to take a look at my work."
The writing work samples a lot of these things if you have a digital copier,
also things that you could potentially share if asked.
Okay, so let's talk a little bit about translating service to career speak.
There are different languages used in different sectors and different fields,
so we're going to talk specifically about how you can best describe what you did as a VISTA.
And our first piece of advice here is prepare a one- to two-sentence description to explain VISTA to an employer.
I guarantee folks on the call here have had to do this over and over again with family and friends, "What is VISTA?
What is VISTA?
What do you doing?"
" Having a concise professional answer to give an employer demonstrates to them that you can very clearly
and succinctly describe what is a very large national program.
One example that we came up with, for example, that you might be able to use is AmeriCorps VISTA members live
and serve in some of our nation's poorest urban and rural areas.
With passion, commitment, hard work, and innovative solutions, VISTA members build capacity by creating
or expanding programs designed to bring individuals and communities out of poverty.
How much more powerful is that than, "Oh, it's just a national service program where I volunteered for a year."
Much more impactful.
So have a one- or two-sentence description ready to share.
You can use it in your application materials.
You can do it as part of your interview, but be ready to explain to them what VISTA is.
All of you on the call here have significant job skills,
you just need to help the employer see that your service wasn't just a nice volunteer thing that you did,
it was an impactful skill-based action-on-the-ground work that is transferable to the work they want you to do.
You'll also want to spend a little time defining capacity building, and here is a hint,
every single field in every single organization needs capacity building.
So we're going to go to the next screen here and you're going to see a definition on your screen there.
As you learned at PSO, VISTA defines capacity building as a set of activities that expands the scale, reach,
efficiency, or effectiveness of programs or organizations.
The tasks and activities related to capacity building include such things as creating, expanding,
or strengthening an organization's systems or processes, as well as the transfer of knowledge, products,
and relationships to the staff and volunteers of the host site.
In laymen's terms, what we're talking about here is developing those internal programs and strategies.
You're making an organization more efficient, more sustainable.
You've probably participated in such things as resource development, volunteer engagement, community outreach,
all of which are about expanding the breadth and the depth of the organization.
And for many of you, you are helping an organization gain an ability to do more with less, leveraging their human,
financial, and other resources to meet their goals.
This is all really powerful stuff,
so be able to talk about this with an employer so that they understand what is this capacity building thing that you
just talked about.
Let's keep going with the translating.
Let's talk about skills in specific, the sorts of things you developed, and we're going to go ahead
and go to the next slide here.
We're going to brainstorm some of these skills and responsibilities in just a moment,
but first I want to talk a little bit about it.
When you look at a resume, what you want to do is be as specific as possible, and we'll talk more about that later.
But you're going to have to list skills, accomplishments, activities, that show what you completed,
what you assisted with, what you created, what responsibilities you held.
A way to think about this is what did you do each day?
What were you responsible for?
What did you need to know or do in order to succeed in your role?
When you're thinking about these skills, there's a couple of different types of categories you can think about.
One of them is technical.
That might be the database development, community outreach, volunteer management, resource development,
program development.
Some of it might be more interpersonal; coalition building, experience working with diverse groups of individuals,
experience working across sectors.
And some of it might be characteristics that are specific to you; mission oriented, critical thinker,
cultural competency, quick learner, motivated, flexible, innovative, dedicated.
These are the kinds of things that you're going to want to list.
So we're going to have you use your chat box, and what I want you to do is brainstorm.
What skills and experiences have you gained during your VISTA service?
So you're going to see an arrow next to the chat panel to display the chat box.
And we're going to go ahead and start plugging those in.
The work the folks are doing at their organization is substantial.
I would be willing to bet you are wearing at least 10 or 11 different hats at any different moment.
And one simple activity -- well I won't say simple.
One activity on its own, volunteer management let's say, can actually involve several of these skills.
It involves cultural competency, relationship development, community outreach, job creation,
management screening, recruitment.
One task that you have on your list of as a VISTA can turn into a list of several different skills and activities.
So I'm seeing some great examples coming up there.
I'm seeing lots of grant writing, event planning, absolutely.
Networking, communication,
never underestimate how much every single organization on the planet needs communication and networking.
Same with partnership developments.
I have net to meet a sector or a type of work where you don't have to develop partnership and coalitions.
Education, community partnerships, working across sectors, teaching, facilitating, training;
these are all absolutely brilliant responses.
I'm going to give you just a few more seconds here.
Erin, it looks like you've hit most of the responses that are coming in.
It's a pretty quick traffic, good movement, but lots of community outreach, non-profit management,
volunteer connection, marketing, grants, et cetera. program development, implementation, recruitment,
lots of the information that you've mentioned already.
Awesome.
Thank you so much, Molly.
Appreciate that summary.
I got so excited reading and realized Molly's doing the summary for me.
I love the energy in this chat.
Thank you folks for participating,
and hopefully you're seeing other things that your peers have written that you can go ahead and write down.
Now one thing I will say, for the record, is this webinar is being recorded, so some of the things we just read off,
you can always just go back if you weren't able to write it fast enough.
But the things that your peers are suggesting, these are all the sorts of things that each of you should consider,
hey, did I do that, and if so, that's a place where I need to list that.
All right, so keep that going, but we're going to move on to the next one.
And we're going the talk about learning terms.
This is all, again, about translation.
So we talked, first, about what are the terms of VISTA and what are the terms of what you've done.
Now let's talk about what are the terms of your desired field or sector.
The first thing you're going to want to do is learn what they are.
Research a specific field, a job of interest, and discover what terms do they use.
Use sites like LinkedIn, the job sites.
We're going to include a list of these as the center of the webinar, but these might be Idealist for nonprofits,
usajobs.gov for government, Monster, Simply Hired, indeed.com for for-profit.
Go through and find the job posts for the type of work you're interested in doing,
and pay attention to what kind of terminology they use.
Again, also look for examples of resumes from people in this field.
What terms do they use?
What's the language that is popular in their field?
And then, again, ask during informational interviews, because, again,
you're talking to folks who are fluent in the language of their field.
And then that last step is to translate what you did in VISTA to the language of that field or sector,
and I have an example here on the screen.
Community outreach in the nonprofit world is remarkably similar to marketing in the for-profit world,
which is remarkably similar to public awareness in the public world.
They can have slightly different elements, audiences, angles to them, but all three of those are about taking an idea,
finding the language that appeals to the audience that you're trying to reach,
communicating that information to that audience, making sure it reaches them, and ideally,
having an action step that they take next.
Whether that means that they show up to your community meetings, whether it means that they buy your product,
or whether it means that they take their kids for vaccinations or to go to a dental clinic.
Each one of these sectors does this type of work, but the language they use to describe it is different.
So discover what that language is and then take a look at the skills and experiences that you brainstormed,
and as you're applying to a specific sector, if it's nonprofit use the language of nonprofits.
If it's for profit, try to translate that language across, same with public, same with educational institutions, and,
again, seek those examples so that you can check out what that looks like.
So at this point, I'm actually going to pass the microphone over to our first guest speaker,
and we're going to see her screen here.
This is Jordan.
Jordan Katcher is a previous AmeriCorps state
and national alumna that served on the Mescalero Apache Reservation in New Mexico.
Afterwards, she joined the Tribal Colleges and Universities VISTA program in Bismarck, North Dakota,
and she'll be finishing up her VISTA year of service at the end of this month, so she's literally at the finish line.
So, Jordan, I'm going to hand the mic to you,
and we'd love to hear about your experiences with the preparing for post-VISTA process.
Thank you, Erin.
So hello everybody.
As mentioned, my name is Jordan Katcher, and since April of 2014, I have been serving as a Tribal Colleges
and Universities VISTA, The United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck, North Dakota.
My role involves building capacity for the Land Grant Department,
which remotes food sovereignty both on campus and within the five reservations of North Dakota that govern our college.
So since I have two weeks of service left, I started creating a sustainability folder,
which is similar to a portfolio, for my VISTA replacement, my nonprofit and for might myself.
This folder includes basically completed project, uncompleted projects, partnerships, past events,
community donations and advice from first-hand experience at my site.
A lot goes on during your year of service, and so I've used my quarterly reports, my work calendar, previous e-mails,
and desktop folders to really capture all that took place during this past year.
I can't highlight enough on how crucial looking over e-mails and calendars was to me in the process.
There were numerous partnership meetings and outreach events that I didn't remember until I look back on my calendar.
When I started thinking about where I wanted to go after my VISTA year,
I started examining what aspects of my VISTA service were the parts that I loved the most.
Was it looking through -- so while I started looking through my sustainability binder, I'd ask myself,
was it forming partnerships with local nonprofits?
Was it bringing awareness to social media?
Was it taking part in cultural practices, recruiting volunteers, serving in an academic environment?
And after thinking about it, I realized that basically it was all of those things.
I was very fortunate to serve with an inspiring team of land grant educators that welcomed me with open arms
and allowed me to take part in actually making a real difference on campus,
which was why I decided to apply for the VISTA leader position.
Once I knew that the leader position was something I was really pumped up for,
I examined the position's qualifications and started to look over my past
and current work experience to begin building up a case why I would be qualified candidate for the position.
My experience began a few years before my VISTA service when I was attending the University of Virginia.
I had interned with our Office of the Dean of Students
and managed to create an official concentration of Native American studies for my university.
Then it expanded when I served with AmeriCorps state national Mescalero Reservation in New Mexico, and afterwards,
when I had the opportunity to serve at United Tribe Technical College.
Once I had a solid framework,
I started to dig deeper into what exactly it was that I accomplished during those opportunities, especially as a VISTA.
What skills and educational occasions did I partake in that would qualify me to lead other VISTAs?
And not only just for the approval of those accepting my position but also for myself.
Was this something I was prepared for?
Would it be best for the program to have me as their leader?
And that can sometimes be a difficult question,
but I find it very beneficial to attempt to step outside of my own mindset and see things through other perspectives.
And my sustainability binder really helped with that process.
And the same would be applicable for other job positions as well.
Once you understand what the position entails and you know that it's something that you'd really put your heart into,
you can frame VISTA service around what your employer is looking for, just as long as it's applicable.
Taking on a year of volunteer service is a beautiful thing,
and effectively expressing what you accomplished during those 12 months to a future employer is crucial.
Not only for them to understand what you took part in but to also bring forth a better awareness of
VISTA service in this country.
Before I took part in the interview for the VISTA leader position I made sure to discuss this opportunity with as many
people as I could.
From my mother to my best friends to my coworkers,
I really wanted to work on articulating what made me love this program so much
and organize the thoughts in my head into comprehendible speech.
That way during my interview I could feel my confident in my answers
and also have my list of experiences in front of me for an additional resource.
So after understanding the position, realizing that I wanted it so badly,
and coming up with qualifying examples for my VISTA service,
I felt confident not that I would get the position but that I had put a great amount of time
and energy into this process.
A few weeks after the interview, I was offered the position.
And not only was it an immense honor but I was also fully ready to accept that position.
Now, of course, even if we do take care of all these steps, we won't always be offered the position of our dreams.
My five-minute talk isn't the golden ticket to getting you your dream job but I do hope that it was worth your time to
hear from my own experiences.
And before I go, I'd just like to thank all of you for your VISTA service,
and I wish you all the best of luck on your job searches.
Thank you.
Awesome.
Thank you so much, Jordan.
As you were talking, you gave that example at the start of going back through your calendar,
and I realized that is such an invaluable activity.
I do that myself, because it's so easy to forget what you did a week ago much less three months ago,
and going through your calendar is going to trigger a lot of memories of, even the meetings that you sat in on.
And I know that meetings may be the bane of your existence, but a lot of those meetings,
you were making connections and you were doing a lot of really interesting work.
So thank you so much, Jordan, for sharing your experience,
and we wish you the best as you approach the end of your service.
So we're going to talk now specifically about the resume.
We've talked about the language of the field, we've talked about how to translate.
Now how do we make it presentable in a way that employers will be excited about what we do.
Our first tip is to be specific, share the details, break down your service into those skills, experiences, paths
and responsibilities that we just brainstormed, and we'll show you examples in a few minutes of how to do it well.
But you want to do is give them the nuts and bolts of what you do.
They can't see your work, and if you give them general terms like I helped with this and I did this,
they may not understand it, so be specific, go down to the nitty-gritty of the details.
And, also, just be confident.
Again I, know that this is a field where we're often focused on our communities
and don't want to tout our own successes but this is the place to do it.
Own the work that you did.
If it was something that you weren't the lead on, try not to use the word helped.
I'm not a big fan of the word helped on a resume, because it doesn't tell me to what degree you participated.
Use different language that showed that you were a partner in an effort,
as opposed to someone in the shadows who just lent a hand.
Use strong words.
I coordinate, I created, I designed, I facilitated, I participated with.
Even assisted I like better than help.
It adds an air of weight to it of, no, I was a critical partner here.
And everyone on this call has been a critical partner in really exciting work, so it's time to own that
and really make that happen here.
So don't undersell yourself.
Now of course there are probably people on the call that are like, "I get it,
I'm not that person" but I'm going to say it again.
So you're naming the organizations and the community within you worked.
You're presenting yourself confidently.
Where possible, quantify your successes.
Now this may not always be possible, but if you can, do it.
If you've been a part of a resource development team that raised X amount of dollars, list that on your resume.
If you were able to increase the size of the volunteer program, list that.
Or if it's a volunteer program you inherited but you were responsible for managing X number of volunteers,
numbers speak volumes, and many people are data centric.
They want to see what exactly you did, where you did it, and what results you had in that.
So if you can quantify your successes, your job, it helps people understand the scope
and the scale of your responsibilities.
Another tip that I learned from my former mentor at Idealist is to create a master resume.
What this means is one giant resume that has every single possible thing you've ever done listed in it.
This means it's going to go over the usually accepted one-page limit.
That's fine.
You're not going to turn this in to employer.
This is going to be home for everything you've done.
List out every job, every volunteer role, every educational thing that you've done, and keep it all in one home,
because what you're going to do is you're going to use that master resume
and you're going to specialize it for each different audience or position for which you apply.
You may come up with a list of 15 to 20 bullet points for things you accomplished during your time in VISTA,
and you probably should, because I'm certain all of you have done that much.
But when you apply to a job, you're probably not going to list all 15 or 20.
Instead, you're going to go through the list and find the five or six that are most relevant for that position
and you're going to include those and drop out the rest.
So having that master resume means you have a starting place.
You have the clay for every single resume you're going to craft in the future, but you're able to specialize it.
That is one thing that hiring managers are looking for.
They want to see that you are specifically applying for their job not just a job, so the more specific
and the more tailored you can be, the better your chances for grabbing their attention.
And speaking of tailoring, that's what you want to do.
You need to make the case that you are the right fit for them, and I use the word "fit" intentionally.
My same former mentor used to joke that finding a job was like dating.
It isn't that you're wrong or they're right or that you're a good person and they're a bad organization,
it's whether there's a good fit.
Are you the right person to do the work that they need to be done?
And are they the right organizational home, business, for-profit, nonprofit,
public educational for the type of work you want to do?
So the person who is going to be reading your materials, reading your resume, reading your cover letter,
you need to help them see that you are the right fit.
And when you can explain what you've done as a VISTA, how that relates to their field,
using the language of their field and you're able to express directly,
this is how what I did at VISTA will matter to your organization
and how I'll be able to move the bar forward with your goals.
It's going to grab their attention and it's going to help you stand out.
So let's look at those examples.
First we're going to look at one that's not very good.
This one says, "I was a volunteer with AmeriCorps VISTA.
I volunteered with Rose City Youth, an organization that runs after-school programs for at-risk youth.
I managed volunteers and helped create new volunteer positions and I helped with fundraising and grant writing."
Okay, I have a sense of what you did.
You told me a little bit about the organization you were with and what they do.
They run after-school programs.
I don't know what VISTA is here, but it says you're a volunteer, so, okay, you must have volunteered.
Now hearing "volunteer," I'm just going to assume maybe that's something you did two hours a week.
I don't know that it's full time.
"Managed volunteers helped create new positions."
Okay, that one is a little more specific.
I have a sense, somewhat, of what you did there.
"Helped with fundraising and grant writing."
I have no idea what you did there.
You might have made one phone call and read a draft of someone else's grant and that's what you did.
So looking at this as a hiring manager, I would think, all right, they have some experience,
but I cannot tell what they were responsible for, what they accomplished, and the breadth and depth, really,
of what this means, and unfortunately,
and I hate to say this as someone who advocates for how powerful volunteerism is,
the word volunteer with a lot of hiring managers just doesn't carry the weight.
They don't understand that AmeriCorps VISTA service is not the two-hour a week showing up when you can,
contributing where you can role.
And, again, I say that acknowledging that's a stereotype.
I know volunteers have very powerful roles.
But that's a not so good example.
Let's try a better take.
This is a better example, and this is the exact same position and the exact same role.
Now it say that is your title was the AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer manager and where you worked was Rose City Youth.
Be specific.
Name the organization where you spent your time and then include AmeriCorps VISTA in your title.
I highly recommend this approach because it will help them understand that you were a member of the team
at Rose City Youth.
AmeriCorps VISTA is a nebulous concept to a lot of people, and they may think, oh,
you guys were all together in one place and you worked for that organization.
That's not how it works, and we all know that, so help them see that through that title.
Now you're getting specific.
The first line here is "Committed one year of full-time national service to non-profit organizations serving at-risk
youth in Portland, Oregon's, Northeast neighborhoods."
So much information in that one line.
One year, full time, what the organization does, the specifics of what it does, awesome.
The second one is "Contributed to significant expansion of organizational capacity via increased volunteer engagement,
fundraisings and grant writing."
There's that capacity building there.
That opens the door for you to talk about that further,
but it also acknowledges that the work that you're doing is central to the health
and sustainability of the organization.
Now let's get into your job, which was the volunteer manager.
"Recruited, screened, and managed volunteers for Rose City Youth for after-school programs."
Okay, you've listed three of the thing that is you did, the first two of which require very specific skill sets.
Recruitment, requires that you know how to talk to the community, reach out to your audience
and successfully engage people.
Screened means you have the important task of determining fit, making sure safety and risk has been assessed.
There's a lot built into each one of those words.
And it also says where those volunteers are working -- in the after-school programs.
The next one is quantified.
"Increased the size of the volunteer program from 25 to 35 active volunteers."
That's ten extra volunteers.
Now on surface you may think, well ten's not that much.
But imagine it in terms of percentages.
You have significantly increased the size of what you they're able to do.
Own that success and list it here.
Designed and lend recruitment and outreach efforts for three new positions; social media coordinator,
book club facilitator, and fundraising assistant.
Again, you've quantified that you created three new positions.
You've listed what they are so that they can see the breadth and depth of your knowledge.
You have an understanding of what needs to go into social media coordination, facilitating a book club,
doing fundraising, because you wrote the position to do that.
And then the last one, "Participated in internal grant writing annual fundraising drive."
So that one is a little vague, because the way I imagine this role,
they probably didn't do a lot necessarily with this, and your experience certainly could be different.
But it doesn't say helped, it said participated.
Participated is a more powerful word, and I can't tell you why, other than that's the way things go with resumes.
So the thing you did the less of you're going to include last, because you're prioritizing here what you did.
I'm really hoping that folks can see that this is the exact same role, but it's much more specific, and the words
and the terms used are much more dynamic.
They are telling the story of what you did, and if I'm your hiring manager, I'm going to take a look at this list,
and I'm going to be able to adequately assess, do you have the experience I'm looking for,
and do you have a skill set that matches well with what I need in this position.
And ultimately, that's what a resume is meant to do.
A resume is not meant to tell them the story of why you want to work there,
it's meant to tell the story of how you are the right person to work there.
So we're going to here now from Erin Pringle.
Erin is an AmeriCorps VISTA alumna.
She served with Campus Compact for New Hampshire from 2007 to 2010,
but she stayed in the CNCS family after her service, and she's now working as a program coordinator for the RSVP
and Foster Grandparents program in Bismarck, North Dakota.
So, Erin, I'm going to pass the mic to you, and we'd love to hear about your experiences in life post-VISTA.
Thank you so much, Erin, and hi everybody.
Thanks so much for allowing me this opportunity to share with you today.
As mentioned, my name is Erin,
and I served as an AmeriCorps VISTA member through Campus Compact for New Hampshire,
and that was from 2007 to 2010.
I served two years at Southern New Hampshire University
and was then invited to be the Campus Compact for New Hampshire VISTA leader for my third VISTA year.
Since completing that service, I took a job as program coordinator with RSVP and Foster Grandparent in Bismarck.
So it's been a really great role for me for the past five years, since I've been able to continue my love of service,
but then also expand my experience working in the CNCS family.
So I really honestly thoroughly enjoyed my three years as a VISTA.
I managed the Community Service Work Study Program that placed college students at nonprofit organizations in the
community to earn their work study funds.
I also developed and managed a computer literacy program for immigrants
and refugees that had been recently resettled within the Manchester community.
I also organized one-time service projects for S&H youth students, faculty, and staff.
My VISTA time, like so many of us, was spent building relationships with other organizations in the community
and developing sustainable programs to address critical community needs that would last beyond my service year.
I was asked to send in monthly progress reports, keeping track of the number of volunteers I recruited,
the number of organizations I built, or strengths and partnerships with, as well as any anecdotal information
or stories to share about my successes and struggles.
I then used that data from my monthly reports to write my semiannual progress reports.
As a VISTA, I attended a presentation very much like this one, and we were told to use numbers
and action words to describe our work during our year of service.
I found that my VISTA defined the description in VAD, as well as my progress reports came,
in handy when I had to sit down and add my VISTA experience to my resume.
I honestly didn't remember every single detail about my service, but I could pull numbers
and accomplishments from my progress reports and use my VAD to help with the responsibilities of my position.
So now, instead of a bullet point saying "managed community work study program," I could say "recruited
and placed 25-plus college work study students at 12 community partner organizations focused on addressing community
needs," which I think was a little bit more compelling.
Once my resume was written, I asked several friends and colleagues to review it.
I wanted to make sure that all spelling and grammar errors were identified
and that the message I was trying to convey was clear and understandable.
Once it was ready, I used my resume to update my LinkedIn page with my VISTA experience.
And this is another great tool that not everyone thinks about.
Organizations can search through LinkedIn profiles to recruit candidates they think would be
a good fit for their open position.
I also sent a message out to my contacts to let them know I was job searching.
I received a couple of job referrals for openings that my friends thought I might be a good fit for.
Now I wish I could say that I was offered and accepted the first job that I applied for, but I can't.
The job searching process can be downright stressful, but I found it helpful to talk out and talk to my friends,
colleagues, fellow VISTAs, anyone, about my career goals and what I wanted out of the job after VISTA.
It was helpful and really great practice for me to talk about how I would answer those questions in an interview.
The practice also helped me see where I had skills that could be transferable to other positions.
For example, I had experience advising students as they planned community service projects.
And while advising isn't exactly like supervising,
I could make the case in an interview that the skills I gained as an advisor are similar to the skills required to
supervise staff.
I found out as I was interviewing that not everyone is familiar with AmeriCorps or VISTA.
So like we were mentioning earlier, we have to take time to think about how we want to describe it to people.
So I ended up coming up with something like "VISTA stands for volunteer and service to America.
I was a full-time volunteer, working behind the scenes to develop sustainable programming to
address poverty in the United States."
I would then go on to explain what I did during my year.
I'm sure that you are all doing and accomplishing some extraordinary things during your service year.
Make sure you do yourself a really great favor and truly highlight that on your resume.
Thanks again for all you do to make our country a better place.
Thanks.
Thank you so much, Erin.
A couple of things that you mentioned that I wanted to back up.
We didn't talk much about LinkedIn here, other than using as a research tool,
but I couldn't agree as far as making sure that it's also in tiptop shape the way that your resume is.
It's also an invaluable tool  for those informational interviews,
because if someone is connected to someone you're interested in, they are a door opener for you.
Having said that, I am on LinkedIn
and I am one of those insane people that's happy to take as many people want to connect with me.
So folks on the call, if you want to search for me and connect with me, I'm happy to be part of your network.
So use LinkedIn as a tool.
I also wanted to make a meta comment on something Erin mentioned on the actual job search.
We didn't spend a lot of time on this call about the job search.
That may be something for a future webinar that may be addressed.
But one piece of advice I want to give that I give the students that I've taught in various courses is don't
necessarily be discouraged if you can't find your dream job right away.
Oftentimes we feel ready and we're ready to take on that role,
and it can be a bit of a bummer when we don't get that dream job right away.
And what I'd like to encourage is go for the dream job, why not, you never know,
but also look for the jobs that will help fill some of the gaps in your experience.
I had a student who wanted to work in international development, specifically around youth programs,
and she had a lot of great international experience
and had just completed a degree program in international development.
What she didn't have was specific youth development work.
And when she was looking for a job, she started to get discouraged.
She couldn't find an international development job.
And she and I had a conversation.
And she said, "Well there is this job with the Boys and Girls Club of doing youth development programming.
I'm just worried because it's domestic and not international, will that be stepping away?"
And what I told her was, actually, this will strengthen your resume when you go to the next job.
If you can gain this youth development skill through your domestic Boys and Girls Club job, and then a year
or two from now, maybe three, depending on how long you want to stay, and if you love the work,
you're going to go to an international development.
You're still going to have all the other experience, but now you have this too.
And you can keep a foot in the world that you're really passionate about through volunteering, board service,
potentially doing some pro bono work.
So that was what she ended up doing.
She ended up taking that job.
And when I heard back from her, she said that it was going really well.
So go after the job that is the most enticing to you.
But it is a tough space out there, and you may not get the first job right away,
so also keep your ears open for the ones that will help fill the gaps in your experience.
That's my little meta comment there on the job search.
And most importantly, don't get discouraged.
Every path that you go on is going to lead you to work that's interesting,
and our career paths are fluid dynamic things.
So if the first one you get isn't the perfect one, the next one may.
So let's talk resources.
Thank you, Erin, for sending me down that rabbit hole.
Let's talk resources.
You'll have a copy of this on the VISTA Campus Recording Page, so you'll find this list,
so don't feel like you have to scribble these down.
But there are several resources we want to point you towards to help with your research, as well as your actual search.
This is an excellent place to start,
The first of these, if you're ready to start searching or researching jobs,
0:45:45.000,1193:02:47.295
you can start with sites like the VISTA Job Board.
because these are jobs that have been specifically posted knowing that VISTA folks are taking a look,
and there's some really great dynamic roles available there.
Depending on your sector of interest, there are also a couple of key sites you might want to start with.
If it's nonprofits, you may want to go to idealistcareers.org.
If it's government, you might want to use a site that pulls together all of those various federal
and state jobs like usajobs.gov.
If it's for-profit, there's a bunch of them.
These are just three, Indeed, Simply hired, and Monster.
One thing I wanted to mention about the Idealist career site, you can search for jobs there,
but that particular link is to their space that has blogs and tips on job searching,
and there's a resource there that's called "The Idealist's Guide to Nonprofit Careers for First-Time Job Seekers,"
and that's right on the homepage, and it's going to go in the chat box here in a second.
This is a free downloadable book.
If you want to stay in the nonprofit field, I highly recommend you take a look at this,
even if you're not a fist-time job seeker.
You can skip over the stuff that you already know.
There are tools and tips in here on how to write your resume, how to do an interview,
how to do the search, how to network.
It also has that activity I mentioned before, the one about finding jobs of interest.
And even, frankly, if you're going to go into another sector, I think you'll find tips of interest,
so I highly recommend that you check that out.
If you're thinking about higher education, Idealist also hosts a series of grad fairs, and I singled them out,
because I know that many of the folks on the call here are interested in careers that are focused in some way on the
public or environmental good.
Their grad fairs, they host all around the country,
and these are grad programs that are specifically focused on everything from social work to international fairs to
environmental sciences.
So take a look and see if that might be nearby and of interest.
Also check out a site like Princeton Review.
It's basically a directory of colleges and majors, programs that they've also ranked
and assessed with using various metrics, so that's a great research tool.
So let's talk VISTA specific.
The first resource there is called "Preparing for Life After VISTA."
This is an excellent resource that you can read.
It's specifically designed for you guys.
So I really recommend that you check that out, read it through, check out some of the resources there.
After you've successfully completed your VISTA service, you are eligible for noncompetitive eligibility,
or NCE status when applying for federal positions.
This special status streamlines the federal hiring process, and while it doesn't guarantee you a federal position,
it does allow you to be considered for federal employment without going through the standard recruitment process,
which, of course, is a plus for both you and the hiring agency.
If federal employment is of interest to you,
you can learn more about it by going to the NCE page -- you see it on your screen there -- that's on the VISTA campus.
Employers of National Service was launched in September 2014 by President Obama,
and this initiative recognizes the skills gained by those who serve in AmeriCorps, as well as Peace Corps, because,
according to President Obama, citizens who perform national service are special and you want them on your team.
I could not agree more, and not only because I'm biased and an alum of national service myself.
So check out the employers of National Service webpage for a list of participating companies where you'll have an
advantage, an edge in the process.
And then lastly, check out the network of AmeriCorps alums.
They have great resources there.
They host training for webinars themselves,
and you can connect with fellow alumni who can potentially point you in a direction of where were their successes.
Where would they recommend that you take a look?
So before we move on to the next step and questions,
I want to share another example of someone who has made this transition,
as well as a gorgeous picture of Northern California woods.
And this is specifically relevant to NCE status.
A current VISTA was serving with the California Conversation Corps.
She's getting ready to transition to a paid position with the National Park Service once she
successfully completes her service.
As a VISTA member, her NCE status allowed her to get hired more quickly, which, again,
is a clear advantage over other applicants.
So she's going from California Conversation Corps to Sequoia National Park, and, again, the skills
and experiences she gained with the CCC are directly relevant, but also, through this NCE status,
she had an edge in the application process.
So if you know anyone who wants to work with the National Park Service,
you should know they just posted some positions on the VISTA campus job board and you can put that NCE status to work,
so something to consider.
All right, so next steps.
If you are still in service, start building that portfolio now.
Never too late.
Start researching jobs and degrees of interest.
Take some time to really think about it.
Do some reflection.
Do some searching.
Let your fingers do the walking and see what you come up with.
And then informational interviews with an exclamation point, highly, highly recommend.
So valuable.
If you're close to finishing, which I know is most of the folks on the call, all of the above,
plus start asking for those letters of recommendation.
Give folks at least a couple weeks to get those done.
They seem like they shouldn't take that long, since it's just one page.
But as someone who has written a lot of them, they take a while.
So give them a couple weeks notice that you'd love a letter from them,
and then gently remind them as you get closer to the end of your service.
And then if you're already an alum, it is not too late to start now.
Start building the portfolio, work backwards, go to your calendar, use some of the tips recommended by Erin
and Jordan, and put together a resume that really reflects what you did as a VISTA
and how it connects to the work you want to do next.
And with that, we are just about at the top of the hour, and it's time to open for questions.
So I'm going to pass the microphone back to Molly who will facilitate this process for us.
Wow, thank you so much Erin, and many thanks also to Jordan and our other wonderful Erin that joined us today.
While we get ready for the Q&A session, you should see an evaluation poll on the right side of your screen.
There are ten questions, and we need you to scroll down to see them all, so just don't answer the top two
or three that you might see.
Please take a minute to answer the questions in the poll.
Your input really does help us improve future webinars, so take a moment and then when you're all done, click "Submit."
So we've definitely given you a lot to think about.
We've seen the chatter in the chat box and some questions coming in,
and now we're going to address some of what we've seen.
You can ask a question using the Q&A panel located on the right side of your screen, and also I'll ask our operator,
Sybil, to come back on and remind us how to ask questions via the phone.
Sybil, are you there?
Sorry, I was on mute.
My apologies.
If you would like to ask a question, please press "*" then "1" on your touchtone phone.
If for any reason you would like to withdraw your question, you may press "*" then "2."
Once again, to ask a question, please press "*1" and record your name when prompted.
One moment, I'll check for the first question.
Great.
Thanks, Sybil.
And while you're checking on those, we'll go ahead
and start responding to some of the questions that have come through in the queue.
But before we do that, I'd just like to mention NCE status, the non-competitive eligibility.
It is only applicable to federal positions, and you can search for federal positions on usajobs.gov,
which we've mentioned.
For those of you who are a little frustrated and unsure about when to begin the job search,
because your NCE status isn't available until the last day of your service when you complete it, go ahead
and reach out to the hiring managers, all federal agencies, you know,
work with their hiring process just a little bit differently.
We do have many success stories, where VISTAs who are currently serving are able to say they have their NCE status
and it will be fully enacted at the end of their term, et cetera.
So as long as you'll communicate those changes
and when the NCE status will come into play you should be able to get a clear answer from the hiring manager about
whether or not it's a good time for you to apply.
So let's go back to the Q&A.
It looks like we have, let's see, a question from Belinda, and Erin B, this one I think is going to you.
How does Belinda make it seem like she is not a jack of all trades and a master of none.
She has done so much, but she feels like there really hasn't been very much depth to her experience,
although she adds that she has participated in two VISTA Blend online courses.
Well first of all, I wonder if this is the Belinda in my class.
If it is, hi, Belinda.
Well hi anyway, but especially if you're in my class, I have favoritism there.
I understand your question entirely, and that's a tricky thing.
I think some of it is to just own it but frame it in a way that's proactive.
Say that you have experience in a breadth and depth of roles, and what that demonstrates is your flexibility
and ability to shape shift to various roles.
So I would really highlight the fact that the breadth of your experience means that you're able to adapt.
It means that you're flexible.
It means that you learn quickly.
It means that you're able to take on various roles, learn them fast, and then move forward.
So the way I would recommend saying that on your resume is to explicitly list the several different bullet points that
aren't necessarily all connected.
So you may have five or six bullet points there, each one of which is something different entirely.
What that will demonstrate when someone reads it is, wow, this person has done a lot of stuff.
And hopefully that will peak their interest enough, that if
and when you get to the interview stage what you can say is -- first of all, don't downplay yourself.
but do say, "The reason I wanted to list all those things on my resume is that I've worked in
quite a few different areas, and what I've found is that this demonstrates to me that
I'm really great at learning quickly and I'm able to pick up the ball and run with it very fast.
I've had a taste of these various roles/"
You might even be able to specialize in that moment and say what I really love to do is X,
especially if the role itself, the job you're applying for, let's say it's a volunteer coordination role,
you might say here are the ten different things I've done,
but I really wanted to focus on volunteer coordination because that's where I feel like my skills
really came into focus.
So I would say own it.
That's not a bad thing.
And especially in a modern marketplace where jacks of all trades are actually a really high priority.
That's what people want.
It's great to have specialized skills, and I say this as someone whose knowledge area is very narrow,
because I'm really focused on volunteer engagement.
That's a good thing for me sometimes, but my colleagues who are also broader, they often have an advantage,
and especially if you're earlier in your career when you're looking to develop in one direction or another.
So I would say that's an asset, and just frame it as such.
Don't apologize for it.
Don't downplay it.
They won't necessarily know that you don't have a lot of experience in something until you make it to the interview
stage, and then you can frame it as here's what I've done thus far,
and here's why I believe I'm ready for the next step.
I hope that helps.
Great.
Thank you so much, Erin.
Katie has a question, and she would like to how far back should her resume go?
Katie is two years out of college, and should she include internships and jobs that she's had before
and during college?
That's a great question, Katie.
I would say include them only if they're relevant.
I think a lot of people look at a resume and sort of the pre-college they just assume you're a student at that point,
unless the job you were doing is something that gives some relevance to your skills or your experiences.
So internships, absolutely I would list, because though were a focused time of learning and doing,
especially if they were related to the work that you want to do next.
For me, for example, I always held a job when I was in college.
But my job when I was an undergrad was mostly working at a Laundromat, and granted that showed that I was employed,
but it didn't necessarily speak to the skills of what I wanted to do next.
Not that it doesn't take skills to run a Laundromat.
Trust me, it does.
So I would say focus on the relevance more than the length.
And if it means that you have a shorter resume, then just bulk out the actual bullet points under each one.
Maybe you only have two or three headings on the page but they each have seven or eight bullet points under them.
That's perfectly acceptable.
What most hiring managers are looking for is relevance.
They want to see that you're ready for their particular role,
and I would say that trumps the length of experience as far as how long you've been employed.
Jordan and Erin, any time I'm answering these, if you have anything to add, please feel free to chime in as well.
And we're certainly going to direct some questions your way.
Great.
So I would like to check in with Sybil.
Do we have any questions coming in via the phone?
We do.
The first one comes from Tamera Wilson.
Your line is open.
Can you check the mute on your --
Hi.
Yes, I apologize.
I was on mute.
I am wondering when the webinar is available on VISTA's website,
is the typed translation going to be available as well?
The webinar, the slides will be available on the VISTA campus, as well as the resources
and information that we've discussed.
I don't believe that we typically add the chat, but we do sometimes go through the chat
and pull out the important tips and resources to share.
Hey, Molly, I wonder -- this is Scott, just to kind of add to your answer,
which is certainly correct -- if the questioner is referring to the live closed captioning.
When we post the video, it will be posted with closed captions so you can kind of view the text as well,
the spoken audio in text format.
Thank you very much.
Thanks, Scott.
Are we ready for the next question?
Sure.
Okay.
The next question comes from Shelby Ramsey.
Your line is open.
Hello.
I was just wondering if you could go a little bit over the informal interview, like, about the questioning.
I think I'm saying it right.
Sure.
The informational views?
Yes.
Information views, yes.
Sure.
So the process I would recommend is take a look at -- always start with where you know someone,
so take a look at something like LinkedIn,
or if there is a an organization in your community that's of interest to you
or if you know someone serves on the board or volunteers something where, that's always a great way to start.
And you can ask the person you know first.
And say, "Hey, I noticed that you were connected to Jim over at Boys and Girls Club.
I'd love to talk to him sometime, because his role as executive director over there is something I'm curious about,
if that might be a good fit for me some day.
Would you be willing to introduce me?"
Having the door open for you is the best, but it's also not the only way.
Let's say you Google searched
and you found that there was someone who was executive director of a small youth development organization across the
country, but what they did and their organization's focus was something that really appealed to you, in that case,
I would say send an e-mail and introduce yourself, say, "Hi, my name is Shelby.
I'm an AmeriCorps VISTA member.
I'm in the process of preparing for my career, and I learned more about your work recently.
I'd really love to have a conversation with you sometime" -- since this case I said across the country,
by phone -- I wonder if you might have 30 minutes to tell me about your work and how you came to your current role."
And you just shoot off an e-mail.
And you may not hear for a while.
You may not hear at all.
Don't be discouraged.
But a lot of times what you might hear back is someone saying, "Hey, Shelby, thanks for your e-mail.
I'd be happy to chat a bit about what we do here.
What's your schedule like on Thursday?"
Approaching the actual call or coffee date,
what I would recommend is come up with a couple of key questions you want to ask.
These can be things like tell me a little bit about what your day-to-day looks like, what did you study in school,
what do you read on a regular basis, what advice might you have for someone who wants to do similar work?
And then have these questions written out so that if there's a lull in the conversation you can pick them up.
I've had informational interviews that I said, "hello,"
and then we were off on a role because it was a really natural conversation.
And I've had some where it was a little awkward and stilted,
so having my questions really gave me a way to fill the silence, and also get the information I was looking for.
I would say make it a half hour, an hour at the most.
If they go longer, that's because they've decided to, but when you're asking for their time,
ask for 30 minutes to an hour.
And then afterwards, I would say send them a note saying, "Thank you so much, again.
It was such a pleasure to chat with you.
I really value your insights and appreciate it."
So it's basically a -- you're literally interviewing them but you're doing in an informal conversational way.
Also, check out that Idealist Guide that I mentioned on the Idealist Careers page,
because there is a section in there just on informational interviews, and they'll have even some more tips
and questions in there to get you started.
But most importantly, just go ahead
and especially sending an e-mail if you're someone like me who isn't always wild about cold calling someone.
Cold e-mailing is much more comfortable and there is no harm in it.
You're sending a note, and if they never answer, then that's the way that was.
But it's quite possible it can turn into a really valuable connection
and potentially a colleague that you will stay in touch with over the course of your career.
Okay, thank you.
My pleasure.
The next question -- I'm sorry, did you want to go to the web chat.
We'll take one more via the phone, Sybil.
Okay.
The next one comes from Peggy Gary.
Your line is open.
Can you check the mute on your line.
Would you like to go to the next question?
Yes.
So is there anyone else on the phone?
We do have a few more questions in queue.
Okay, we'll take one more from the phone, and then we'll go back to the Web.
No problem.
One moment.
I'm sorry, that question comes -- and I'm sorry, that question comes from Priscilla Meyers.
Your line is open.
Yes, I just had a question.
When you were talking about building your portfolio you were talking about materials and social media.
Can you explain that a little bit more.
Sure.
I'll answer briefly, and then I would love for Erin or Jordan, if you want to expand on what I suggest.
As far as the materials, it may be, for example,
I keep use the volunteering example because I teach the Volunteer Mobilization Blend course.
But this can be translated to any others.
It may be that you helped design the handbook for volunteers, and if that's the case,
you would want to put a copy of that in your portfolio.
It may be that you helped write a message that was posted out on the Web to recruit for volunteers.
You could do a screen shot of where that's posted on a message board somewhere.
It may be that if you helped with social media, you may take a screen shot of what that looked like on the page
or on the Web recruiting for that position, or thanking your volunteers, or saying,
"Wow, we had 500 people show up last weekend, thank you everyone."
That could be a tweet, that you take a picture of the page and if you're not familiar with screenshots,
just going to click Google search for how to do a screenshot on your computer,
and it effectively looks like a JPEG, a document that shows that what it looked like on the Web.
In your portfolio, a paper version, you can print those out and just pop them into the notebook,
and a digital version, you can just keep them all together as a PDF, or even just as one big folder.
And what that demonstrates is that you're able to communicate and use a bunch of different tools.
And I mentioned social media specifically because that's a pretty popular tool
and a lot of organizations want to see that you use that.
If, in your role, you didn't use social media, don't worry about it.
Okay.
It's only if it's relevant.
What you want to include is examples of what you did.
Erin and Jordan, anything you would add to that?
Yeah, this is Jordan.
In thinking about how you want to present yourself within a portfolio, for myself on social media,
I designed an extension Facebook page for the nonprofit that I was serving with.
And I kind of did a couple different experiments with what I posted and when I posted.
And since we created a page we could see how many views we had, keep track of the comments
and kind of the interaction between each of the posts.
And so I do a traditional Recipe Thursdays campaign.
So every Thursday I'll post a traditional Native American meal so that the audience members can talk about their food
systems and whatnot.
But something like that has really gained a lot more attention that than we thought it would, so incorporating that,
whether it's like screenshotting it,
or just referencing how many people you're able to engage with through social media is a really great resource.
Okay.
Okay, that helps a lot.
Thank you.
Oh, good.
Thank you.
So our next question is from Amery, and it sounds like Amery is interested in going into higher education,
teaching and research or PhD program.
So what suggestions do you have for translating your VISTA skill service into academia?
Ooh, good question.
So there's a couple of different steps or ways you can approach that.
As far as the application process, when you're applying to programs, I can speak from experience,
having just left a role where I was working as the director of a Masters program.
Those who came in with national service caught my eye, especially because they had on-the-ground experience,
and increasingly, academic programs, they want smart people.
They want people who are ready to study and learn and write well,
but they also want people who can tie it to on-the-ground experience,
especially for programs that are going to directly translate into work on the other side that is publicly focused.
So I would say, as you're applying to programs, really highlight the same skills just as if it were a job.
Explain to them why all of this on-the-ground experience gave you the context and the understanding
and the knowledge that will translate into a successful academic career.
That's increasingly popular.
Community-based research, for example, is a big buzz world in the academic world, and it's an exciting trend,
if you ask me, because what it means is doing research that studies what's happening on the ground,
as well as what's meant to go back to what's happening on the ground.
It's not meant to be research that just sits on a shelf, it's meant to be utilized by people in the community.
So I would say highlight your skills and experiences as you're applying.
As far as how to translate it into an academic career,
my favorite professors are the ones who had experience on the ground,
and especially those who continued to interact with organizations on the ground.
The ones who were actually doing the work while they're teaching you how to do the work were always my favorites.
So I would say, again, that's a real asset in your corner, and if you want to develop your career in academia,
I would say continue to bring up your VISTA experience as an example of when you did what you want to teach;
that it backs up, it gives credibility to the lessons that you want to teach your students.
And, again, it provides that knowledge, and most importantly, I would say the context.
You can learn about social work.
You can learn about literacy in a vacuum or you can learn about it
and also have experience working with it on the ground and what it looks like for practitioners
and for individuals and for clients.
And all of that can inform your understanding of the topic.
So it's a huge asset.
I would say this is a really natural transition.
And I would love for anyone on the phone who has been tinkering with this idea,
I would love to see even more folks in academia coming from a national service background because of that invaluable
skill set they have.
Great.
Thank you so much, Erin, always good advice,
and I completely agree with you that the national service background is definitely a unique perspective.
The next question is from Tiara,
and this is actually a question that is probably best answered by myself as a CNCS representative.
And she's concerned about the work policy with VISTA.
As we all know, you're not allowed to have outside employment because you make a commitment to serve as a VISTA member.
And it sounds like she's a little frustrated because the summer months are really a good time when folks are hiring
and looking for people, and Tiara asks,
"What am I supposed to do if a job I really want wants to hire me but there would be an overlap in my service?"
And first of all, thank you so much for asking that question,
and I think that there are probably a fair number of VISTAs that struggle, again,
with this little bit of overlap between looking for employment and their VISTA service.
The important thing to keep in mind is that, thinking back to your time at PSO and when you were coming on to VISTAs,
is that you made a commitment to serve for 365 days, supporting the community, supporting those individuals,
the volunteer programs, your non-profit partners, et cetera, and it's very important to finish that commitment.
We understand that it can be a struggle at times, but we would hope that everyone would complete their service.
And one thing to make sure that you do, if you do find that there's a potential overlap,
is to be up front with the potential employer and let them know that you are part of the AmeriCorps VISTA program.
Explain AmeriCorps VISTA to them.
Make them understand capacity building and all this great asset that you are building and developing and growing.
And let them know that you are committed until April 21st or May 6th.
But after that date you'll be ready to hit the ground running because you're a sharp individual,
you can really take on a lot of new projects
and get things going very quickly because that's what some of the skills the VISTA members have.
So I'm sorry I don't have a better answer for you at this time.
But I think just communicating with the potential employer is probably the best thing to do.
Let's see, so Katie has a pretty simple question.
Is it necessary to stick to the one-page rule with regards to resumes?
Great question, Katie.
It's definitely preferred,
and I think what it comes down to is did the information that pushed it over into two pages,
did it have to be included.
We certainly, and many times, think of, well I better include everything I possibly can,
because I want to show you I've done as much as possible.
But I can usually tell, looking at a resume, when it includes things that don't need to be there.
So I would say always shoot for one page.
One page is preferred.
If your relevant experience for that particular job is such that it pushes into two, then go for it.
I would say never three unless you're in a field that that's the norm.
For example, academic CVs typically go longer.
So for the folks who are thinking academic, yours will probably go longer,
and that's okay because it's the norm for that field.
But for most nonprofit, for-profit public jobs, they really are looking for a concise snapshot of what you've done,
and it's also, frankly, sometimes it's a weeding out factor.
If they're getting lots and lots of applications, and they may say, okay,
well this person couldn't get it down to one page, I just can't even be bothered.
I'm just going to go with the one pagers.
So don't give them a reason to weed you out.
But if the absolutely totally relevant to this job experience pushes you into two,
then I think it's sometimes a safe bet.
But I really do recommend sticking with the one-page rule.
It's also really good practice for you to have to be concise.
Having said that, I would say never go below 12 point.
They know when you're done it, and it's not much fun to read.
But having said that, feel free to play with the margins a little bit.
I certainly do.
Especially the top and the bottom and the sides, you know, just stretch them just a little,
but not where it's bleeding off the page, because they'll notice that too.
But you get a little wiggle room when you move it around,
and especially a little tip that I love to use is the spaces between sections,
you can knock those down to eight point, seven point, six point,
and it shrinks that white space there that you don't need to keep included.
So try to keep it to one if you can, and just be creative making it look as concise as possible.
Thanks, Erin.
Our next question comes from Forest,
and Forest would like to know if you have a recommendation for --
or when do you recommend asking for recommendation letters?
Should you ask before you need them and keep them for future job opportunities
or just ask specifically for specific job opportunities?
I would say both.
I would actually ask for one just to have it in your file.
Again, towards the end of your service is that sort of sweet spot, if that's where you are.
Again, if you're not, that's okay.
If you're not close to your end of your service, I would wait.
If you're already finished, I would say just go ahead and do it now.
But the closest to the end of your service the better because they'll have such a complete picture of what you did.
And I would say, even if you don't have a job you're applying for yet, even if you're going to school next,
ask for a letter just that you can keep on file, because it's going to be much more relevant,
because they will have just spent so much time with you.
So ask for a copy, keep it on file.
Ask for their permission if you can use it for future opportunities.
I seriously doubt anyone will say no.
That's why they wrote it for you.
So you could feasibly use one a year later.
Now having said that, a year later someone might raise their eyebrows and say, wow, this is an old letter.
So keep it in your file.
Keep it as part of your portfolio.
It can live in your portfolio forever.
But I would also go back to them.
And one of the nice things if they wrote one for you soon after that knew you,
if you come back to them five I years later, and say "Hey, I could use a new letter of recommendation from you.
Here's the one you wrote me five years ago," and include a copy, that's going to help remind them of what they wrote.
And they may very well end up writing something really similar and then dating it the new date.
Bonus.
And they may write something else entirely, that's also fine.
But ask for one at the end of your service no matter what.
Keep it in your portfolio.
You can use it for at least up to a year afterwards.
And then go back to them and include that with them so it's easier for them to refresh it.
All right, Sybil, do we have any more questions queued via the phone?
We do.
The next question comes from Shanice Turner.
Your line is open.
Thank you.
My question is about the portfolio.
What kind of information or steps do you put into your portfolio?
I love letters of recommendation.
I'm collecting some right now, and I'm wondering what other material can I build it?
And can you send us a link virtually of how we build a virtual one and a physical portfolio too?
That's a great question.
I don't know the link offhand.
We have the list on the webinar here that you can pull that off the VISTA webinar page
so you can see the list of things to include.
I would also just do a Google search and/or reach out to your fellow alums.
Go through the AmeriCorps Alum Network maybe and say, "Hey, folks out there with portfolios,
would you be willing to share what it looks like," so you can use it as a template.
Jordan and Erin, what are some of the specifics, again, that you included in your own?
I had to create -- this is Erin.
I had to create a sustainability binder for the end of my service, so I kept a copy of that.
I kept a copy of some research that I had to do, like a survey I wrote, and the responses
and the analyticals afterwards.
So a lot of just -- I guess the work that I did.
I don't know if Jordan had --
That's pretty similar.
I also included, like, all the donations that I had received during the year, important partnerships,
mainly just like the big success stories for that year,
just to kind of showcase what you've done during your year of service.
I also kept my semiannual reports, because like I said in my little speeches,
a really good illustration of what you've done during your service,
and it really helps as a reference point if you want to go back and look at your progress throughout your year.
Yeah, great suggestions, guys.
And you actually just reminded me.
If there is a data point that you want to share but writing a statistic on a page is kind of boring, Word, Pages,
whatever program you're using, it's pretty easy to create pie charts and bar graphs
and all sorts of visuals that make it a little more interesting.
I have some of the worst visual design skills on the planet, and I had help even to make this PowerPoint look gorgeous.
But I can pull together a pretty simple pie chart and bar graph, and that way they can glance at a page.
And so for example if it was donations raised, you can create a page that has a nice visual,
and then an explanation under it of what that meant, and that way it's a more dynamic way to look at.
But as far as examples, I would say the actual binder, it doesn't necessarily have to be a flow to it.
You might just use dividers that show what each section is, and it might be examples of writing,
and it might be outcomes and evaluation that you can do.
And then as far as the digital ones, you can put them all in one PDF,
or you can even just create a folder that is "My Professional Portfolio" that has example of all the
things that you do.
I hope that helps.
Thank you.
Sybil, we can take one more question via the phone, and then I might try to get one or two more questions back.
Okay.
Did you want me to check that line that is?
Okay.
And it stopped, so I can't see it anymore.
Okay, that's fine.
The next question comes from Peggy Gary.
Your line is open.
Hello.
This is Peggy Gary, can you hear me now?
We can.
Oh, okay, great.
Great.
I'm sorry, I was having technical difficulties on my end, and my question was is that will we be able to go back
and review this webinar?
Yes.
As we could do in the past.
Okay.
Absolutely.
And you'll be able to view this webinar, probably in about a week,
as well as many of the other webinars that we've offered.
And we'll make sure to list the resources and include any additional handouts or information.
Oh, great.
This has been most helpful for me, and I'm sure everyone else.
Thank you.
Thanks, Peggy.
That's really good to hear.
Thanks, Peggy.
So we're almost at the end of our time.
I'm going to do one more question,
because I think it's an important one about cover letters that we didn't talk about too much yet.
And Cecile say,
"I have found in any cover letters I want to talk about the added benefit of hiring a national service alumni since
that seems to be a current trend.
I'm not sure how to word that.
Do you have any advice?"
Ooh, that's a really good question.
Yeah.
And the wording would be important, because we certainly don't want the person reading it to think,
look I'm going to tell you how to do your job, this is the right thing to do, even though I agree with you.
That's a great question.
I would frame it -- so just a macro comment about cover letters first.
One of the biggest mistakes I see with cover letters is people writing about why they want the job instead of why
they're the right fit for the job, which is great to read, you know,
hey this is why this job would be perfect for me and I love it and I really want to do it.
But the fact of the matter is, if I am the hiring manager, I don't know you.
And that's nice, but I can't get anything from that.
And, in fact, I actually could see that as a red flag that if it's all about you, then it's not about me,
the organization, and that's really ultimately what the goal here is, is my organization needs someone,
not why you want to be here.
So my first piece of advice with any cover letter is always write it from that perspective of fit,
explaining who you are and why you're a good fit should be the lens through which you're writing.
And I think that might help inform how to talk about why it's important to hire national service folks
and why there's a real benefit, there.
And what you can fame it as, you can potentially frame it as my national service experience gave me the opportunity to
gain diverse skill sets working with communities within which I'd never been before.
I learned X skill.
I experienced Y, giving those examples and saying,
"It has been my experience that this national service prepared me for a job in this role,
and I've heard from other national service folks, or from other hires,
that they have also found this to be a real benefit.
If you can find any data, I wouldn't go too data heavy, just because, again, that's not a place for a cover letter.
But I would say just try to focus it on in terms of fit and your personal experience,
and you could throw in just one little blip of, you know, this number of folks are hired, it might be helpful.
But I would say the real focus of the cover letter I would say should be on you and how you fit.
I know it's a bit of a convoluted answer.
You're welcome to e-mail me on linked in and I will try to give you a better one.
I know we're a little low on time.
But that would be my approach.
Thank you so much, Erin.
And another great piece of a resource for that is also the Employers of National Service website.
There's some really great language that you can pull from on there.
But thank you all so much for joining us today, but before you leave, I'd like to let you know about our next webinar.
It will be dedicated to capacity building and project sustainability,
"Beyond Your Service: Year Project Sustainability Strategies."
You can check the Webinars for VISTA page on the VISTA Campus to register for this and other upcoming webinars,
and you can also view past webinars on there as well.
So thank you all so much for participating, and thank you to Erin, Erin, and Jordan,
as well as the entire webinar team.
Thank you so much for your service, and enjoy the rest of your day.
