All right, well hello again everyone.
I'd like to officially welcome you to today's webinar.
Translating VISTA Service to your Resume
and Career.
I'm Calvin Landrum, a training coordinator with
the Corporation for National and Community Service
and I'll be the host for today's webinar.
I'll also be facilitating a live Q&A at the end
of the session.
Joining our production team are Jessica and Endi
from our partners at Education Northwest,
who'll be managing the WebEx technology
and will be helping address questions that you may have
during the session.
You'll probably see them in the chat
or in the Q&A if you post things in there.
Now, leading today's session, we're delighted to have
with us Erin Barnhart, Ph.D.,
she's the founder and president of Effective Altruism
as well as the Oregon community core program director
for NeighborWorks Umpqua.
She serves on the board of directors for council
for certification and volunteer administration
and the advisory council for Fund The People.
She's also a member of the Oregon Committee on
volunteerism, an online instructor with Education Northwest
and an adjunct professor at the University of Oregon.
That is a lot of things, Erin,
I don't know how you have the time.
In previous positions she served as the,
as the graduate program director for IPSL
and the director of Volunteerism Initiative
for Idealist.org.
A former Fulbright Scholar and AmeriCorps NCCC alum
Dr. Barnhart earned her Ph.D. in urban studies
studying international civic engagement.
Ah, what an impressive resume.
Today we'll also hear from a VISTA alum,
guest speaker Anne Otih.
After graduating from the College of William and Mary,
Anne combined her studies in kinesiology,
community development and public health with her passion for
helping others as she served as an AmeriCorps VISTA
in Hartford County, Maryland.
She is now a program associate for VISTA here at
CNCSHQ and I'm very lucky to call her my colleague.
Today we're going to look at how you can prepare for
a successful transition out of your VISTA service.
Part of that includes being prepared
to talk about your VISTA service
and just what you did.
We'll explore some different ways that you
can share your accomplishments to a perspective
employer both in person and through your resume.
Along the way, we'll hear from a VISTA alum
about her personal experience with this process.
Finally we'll close by sharing some additional resources
and end with a question and answer session.
So, before handing the presentation over the Erin,
I'd like to share a tweet sent to AmeriCorps VISTA
last spring.
So as you can see, even six years later,
the benefits of serving with VISTA continue to manifest.
At CNCS we wanted to learn more, so we reached out to this
alum and learned that after her VISTA service with
adult literacy programs, she went to graduate school
for public health.
Today she's currently employed as a statistician
at a very large research hospital.
She says when asked to explain the connection
between her VISTA service and the career benefits
she says, "I've been asked about this in every job
"interview I've been on.
"My opinion is that my graduate degree is what
"makes me qualified for the research and statistical
"jobs I've taken, but the skills that I've gained
"from my VISTA service may have set me apart
"from other candidates."
So keeping this in mind, I'm so so so excited
to introduce Erin and our guest speaker.
They're going to be here today to discuss the best ways
to represent VISTA service while undergoing your
career search and how to set yourself apart from
other applicants.
So Erin, take us away.
Thank you Calvin.
I'm so thrilled to be here today.
I'm a big fan obviously of AmeriCorps and service
and love the opportunity to interact with folks
on this webinar.
So before we dive into the content we want to ask you guys
a few more questions.
First, where are you are your year of service?
Your answer might be I'm early in my term of service,
I'm in the middle, I'm nearing the end,
or you might be an alumni already and you've completed
your service.
We also want to know if you were in an interview today,
for a job for graduate school, whatever it might be,
how comfortable would you be describing
your VISTA service?
Would you be really comfortable,
would you be sort of comfortable,
or would you be really not so comfortable at all?
So we're going to ask you to take that poll.
There's about 30 seconds left, or sorry,
about 30 seconds have gone and we're going to have about
two minutes.
But we're really curious to hear from you,
where are you in your journey?
Have you just begun?
Are you right around in the middle or at the end?
The things we talk about on the webinar today,
we're going to have tips and suggestions that you can do
if today was the first day of your VISTA service
or if you finished months ago.
At the same time, we really want you to leave today's
webinar with some language and suggestions for how to
talk to employers and anyone for whom might be making
a decision about your career path about where you are
with your VISTA service.
So go ahead and fill out that poll.
We're going to see the responses soon here
and get a sense of folks who are on the call today.
Here we go.
So, it looks like most folks are in the middle or
nearing the end of their service
which is pretty right in the sweet spot here
for what we can give you here.
Lots of folks are early in service
and a handful of alumni as well, welcome folks.
And if you were to talk about it today,
you know a good portion of folks feel pretty comfortable,
that's fabulous.
I'm thrilled to hear that.
Most folks though are saying, I'm ya know,
kinda comfortable, could use a few more tips
and then a couple really feeling like they need
some guidance here.
So I really hope that today's webinar's going to provide
everyone here with some great tools and everything
you need in order to succeed.
Okay, so let's dive in!
Preparing for the transition.
First we're going to talk about what you can do today
to prepare for your professional next step.
One thing that you can do at the start is to
start building a portfolio.
Collect things like writing samples, program materials,
social media, outcomes and evaluations,
trainings you've completed, software you've used.
We'll talk a little bit more about your portfolio
in just a few minutes, but you can start to do this today.
At the beginning of your service,
in the middle of your service
and if you've already completed your service,
go back and request copies of these materials from your
host site, chances are they've got it all on hand still.
Another thing you can do is start to identify careers,
jobs and/or degree programs of interest.
There's an activity that some colleagues of mine
in Idealist came up with that I'm really fond of.
And what you do is go to a site like idealist.org
or monster.com, simplyhired, any of the sites
where you're going to find job posts.
And go through and just find any job that sounds remotely
interesting, copy and paste it, set it aside.
Don't assess whether you really want to do it,
or whether you're qualified for it.
Literally just identify what sounds interesting.
Once you have a pretty good collection of jobs that you've
flagged, go back through it
and say okay, what is the common thread here?
You can learn a lot from that process.
It may be you've found mostly small organizations
with small teams that moved quickly.
It may be that you mostly found roles that were running
the program as opposed to a member of the team
doing the direct service work.
So, go back through those jobs posts that you flagged,
and see if you can figure out what are some of the
common denominators that made them of interest to you.
And that might help you figure out what kind of job
you're really seeking.
You can also poll your peers, your colleagues,
your organizational partners.
They're getting to know you pretty well.
Where do they think you would thrive?
What do they want to do with their own career paths?
Where do they want to be five years,
10 years down the road?
And then consider whether or not you might need
or want to go back to school.
You can research possible programs,
ask for recommendations from things like
informational interviews as well as just asking
your colleagues.
Again, informational interviews.
I am a huge fan of informational interviews.
These are such invaluable way to learn more about
specific career paths, to get a sense for what it means
to do a particular job as well as to expand
your personal and professional network.
So, effectively what an informational interview is
is you're going to ask for 30 to 60 minutes of someone's time
to either by phone or in person over coffee or tea,
to ask them questions about their career path.
How did they get to where they are today?
What did they study?
What did they read?
What should you do to prepare for work similar
to theirs?
So ask colleagues, supervisors, peers who they know
in fields or organizations of interest to you.
Also take a look at sites like LinkedIn.
See who might be connected to someone you know.
And see if they can help open a door.
Also don't be afraid to just flat out cold email people.
The worst thing they can do is say no,
but most of the time when people say no it's because
they're just too busy, not because they're uninterested
in talking about their work.
Once you have a chance to talk to someone
ask if they might be willing to share a copy
of their resume.
You never know what folks might be willing to share
and that can help you get a sense of what to do.
And then lastly, request letters of recommendation.
Now I recommend you do this near the end of,
or after your term of service so that you can get a really
detailed letter that's going to really highlight,
and specify what you're great at.
So let's talk a little more about building that portfolio.
Here's a list of the kinds of things you might
collect for your portfolio, keeping in mind that this
can be something you physically create with a binder
or it could be something you host online.
And could use a site like Wordpress, Googlesites, Wix,
Weebly, Squarespace, there's a whole bunch of examples
of how you could host online.
We're going to take a look at an example now of what one
might look like online.
Endi's going to pull that up for us.
So this is one example of a digital portfolio.
So this is Caitlin White, she's an AmeriCorps VISTA leader
and she created a very straight forward online space
to share a bit about her so you can see that there are
distinct sections here for her resume,
for her AmeriCorps VISTA service and for her work.
It's really straight forward, very clean,
very easy to access, and let's click on that
AmeriCorps VISTA link right in the middle there
and take a look at what kind of content she has here.
So here she has a little bit of information
about what VISTA is, a little bit of information
about what she has done, what she's learned from it,
what her work has been.
So I don't want to spend a ton of time on this one example,
obviously you can Google and see if you can find this
as well, Caitlin White on home.
Let's click on my work over there on the right as well
and just get another look.
So here's some projects that she specifically did
as well as links to the final projects.
Again, really straight forward and really great
way to make clear what work she did,
what her projects were for VISTA, when she did them,
some links to further information.
And for an employer or potential school application,
this is a really great tool to then to get a sense
for what is her work, what has she done
and how might she be a good fit for us,
the person who's hiring or making decision about schools.
So, building a portfolio can be really straight forward
and fortunately there's a terrific guide to creating
your own portfolio that's called VISTA Portfolio
toolkit, turning service into a career.
You're going to find the link to that in the chat window
right now, we're also going to put it on the resources slide
at the end of this presentation.
And again, you're going to be able to get a copy of this
presentation as you see in the chat section there.
They just gave you some details on how to get this recording
as well as a copy of what's going on with this.
So again, things to include writing work samples,
program materials, social media snapshots,
accolades, kudos, thank you letters, any certificates
you've earned.
This is the place to really highlight what you've done
in your VISTA career.
So the next question of course, is when do you share
this information.
So let's spend a little time thinking about it.
And according to the VISTA service portfolio kit,
you might want to consider, first of all, the best time
to share your portfolio is when they ask you about
your previous work, so don't just walk in
and hand it to 'em because then it just becomes something
that they have to deal with.
Wait for a moment when they say, okay, so tell me about
your skills, tell me about your experiences.
And then what you can do is literally just say,
okay, here is an example of a time when I did that skill,
or a time when I was presented with a challenge,
and then you can share that example from the portfolio
to further make your point.
And then give them that time to take a look at it
and consider it before they move on to their next question.
You can also consider handing it to them,
or giving it to them at the end of the interview as well.
So if you're meeting in person, you might bring a paper copy
or you might just bring maybe a printout that has
the link on it so that you can hand that to them.
If you're meeting by phone, you'll want to make sure you
have an electronic copy, again something preferably
you can share with them live like a web site
or even something like Google Docs.
You know, if they ask you to specifically bring examples
of your work, make sure you do, but even if they don't,
have some way to share your portfolio with them.
And then share that another example at the end of the
interview.
Almost every interview I've ever been in they say
hey is there anything else you'd like to share or ask,
so again, see if you can come up with an example
to share with them from that portfolio.
And be ready to leave a copy or the link with them.
So if you have a physical copy, make sure it's all
duplicates of your content.
Make sure you don't give them your original.
'Cause obviously you're going to want to hold on to those.
So let's do another chat question here.
How would you describe VISTA to a potential employer?
And this one's a chat question rather than a poll.
So put this into the chat box, make sure you send it
to all participants because we want everybody
to be able to see it.
And how would you describe VISTA?
How would you describe it to a potential employer?
How would you describe it to a grad school panel?
Someone who's asked you, who can make a decision
about your career path, what is it that you did in VISTA?
What is VISTA?
And as people are typing this in,
I want you to pay close attention to other people's
responses because chances are they're going to give
you a way of describing VISTA that you hadn't thought
about yet.
So I'm seeing a couple already.
An opportunity to apply skills and education,
gain experience and training.
Being a volunteer in service to America,
working with a non-profit in an effort to eliminate
poverty and help those in need.
Akin to domestic Peace Corps, focus on the elimination
of poverty.
A way to gain knowledge and skills via service work.
So they're really coming in now, so pay attention
to how your colleagues here and your peers here
are describing VISTA.
And Calvin, feel free to jump in here if you see
any you want to highlight as well.
I don't want to monopolize all of the talking here. (laughs)
Oh, no worries, no worries.
Oh, there they are, they're coming in now.
First I always let them know VISTA is an acronym
and then define it.
I think that's good, that's a really good jumping off point.
A lot of people hear VISTA,
they don't really know what that means.
You say Volunteers In Service to America,
it sounds very official.
Let's see, a way to service under privileged communities
while gaining skills in and understanding
of non-profit work.
I like it.
What else do we got.
Anti-hunger initiative which allows you to work
and serve your community to build capacity.
I think anti-hunger may be particular to your project,
but if you can relate what you did at VISTA back
to anti-hunger mission, especially if you're applying
to a place that is like an anti-hunger organization,
it's perfect.
These are really great examples.
And again, spend some time, you can always scroll backwards
and copy and paste any that you particularly like.
But I really encourage you to be thinking about this
and I'm going to give you a couple of examples and tools
right now as well on how to describe VISTA.
So what we recommend is coming up with a one to two
sentence description that explains VISTA
to an employer.
We're going to give you an example on the screen here.
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.
So this is one example of how you might describe it.
And we're going to talk to you in a second about
how to talk about capacity building,
because capacity building is one of those terms
that every field needs, every organization is addressing,
and it's the work that you guys are actively doing,
or have actively done as VISTA members.
So this is a real chance to make your case for
how your VISTA service created transferrable skills
that are good for your next employment.
So let's define capacity building on the screen here.
Capacity building is a set of activities that expand
the scale, reach, efficiency or effectiveness of programs
or organizations.
Now this was something that you learned at PSO.
The paths and activities related to capacity building
include things like 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.
Examples of what this looks like,
so putting it into practice is the ability to do more
with less.
It's leveraging the human, financial and other resources
to meet organizational goals.
It's developing internal programs and strategies
that make the organization more efficient,
more sustainable.
And it's participating in resource development
and volunteer engagement again to help make the organization
do more with less, become leaner, become more sustainable,
reach more people, achieve its mission more effectively.
So those are some of the ways in which people engage
in capacity building work and as you can imagine,
you can go to any organization on the planet
and say hey, I can help you do more with less,
I can help you to leverage the talents you have on hand.
And especially non-profit organizations,
I can assist with things like resource development
and fund raising or volunteer mobilization
to engage more members of the community, to bring more
resources to the table.
This is the work you guys are already doing.
Next up, we're going to talk about translating service
to career-speak.
So, specifically, one of the things you should do first
is brain storm a list of the skills you developed,
accomplishments and activities you completed
or with which you assisted, materials you created,
responsibilities you held, et cetera.
Start with things you'd list on your resume.
But also reflect on your service and identify
what were you responsible for?
What did you do every day?
What did you need to know and/or do to succeed
in your role?
What skills did you develop?
And what did you accomplish?
And then once you have this list of things that you did
as a VISTA or you're currently doing as a VISTA,
make sure you also consider technical, interpersonal,
and characteristic skills, so, technical skills might be
things like database development, community outreach,
volunteer management, resource development,
project management.
Interpersonal skills might be things
like coalition building, experience working
with diverse groups of individuals,
experience reaching across and working across sectors.
And characteristic skills might be things like
being mission oriented, being a critical thinker,
having cultural competency, being a quick learner,
motivated, outcome oriented.
Every VISTA I know has developed a strong sense
of how to be flexible and patient.
Those are skills that matter to employers.
Being innovative and dedicated.
So once you have this massive list,
we're going to start to talk about how you make it
career ready.
So again we have another chat question for you guys,
and another opportunity for you to learn from your peers
here in this chat column.
And that is what skills and experience have you gained
during your VISTA service?
And again make sure you put it in the chat box
and send to all participants.
I gotta, maybe I need some
of that patience, yeah.
(Erin laughs)
Managing up.
I like managing up, I love that we did an entire webinar
on managing up, I hope you watched that.
If you didn't go back and look for that on the webinars
page VISTA Campus.
That was a really great webinar.
Someone else said managing up.
Story telling in digital format.
That's great, I love that because it's also,
that's getting more and more important as we,
people say oh we're entering the digital age
we're in the digital age, we're there.
Everything is online and I think that's a really
important skill to have, being able to tell the story
of reorganization, tell and show the work that you're doing
online and in a digital format.
It says I've gained lost knowledge, mentorship,
marketing with a marketing budget of zero dollars,
Andrea, you're hired!
(laughter)
That's really great.
Someone says, well what is managing up?
Managing up in a nutshell would be working with your
supervisor to, let's see, to,
I guess the way of advocating for yourself
to say this is a need I need met in my relationship
with work and my relationship with my personal life.
You know, I'm trying to balance work,
it's sort of how you interact with your manager
and set your boundaries and make sure your needs get met.
And it's a way of interacting and having the language
to say hey, I need you to meet with me every week because
that's what I need.
For my professional development, for me to get things done,
I need some input and feedback and sort of managing
those conversations and things.
Again we have a lot of people who learned lots of patience.
(laughs)
Teamwork, being able to push through the no,
I like that one.
Yeah, there's some awesome responses here.
And again, pay attention to what your colleagues here
are writing 'cause chances are all of you are doing
all of these things and you may just not have had it
on your radar of, oh yeah, I'm totally doing that too.
So make sure you're copying and pasting
or just logging somewhere in your brain, yeah, I need
to put that on my list as well.
Yeah, Donna says, working around high barriers
set in my organization.
That can be said so many different ways just depending
on what you are doing.
I'm able to navigate complex systems,
I'm able to
find gaps in systems
and make my way through there,
I dunno.
That's a really good skill to have I think.
Mmhmm.
Especially if you're going to work
with the government, there's a lot of barriers
and lots of walls put up so,
yeah, cool, great answers guys.
Yeah, seriously, thank you so much guys.
So, once you have this massive list
which you guys have already begun,
you're going to start to do that active translating
service to career-speak.
So the first thing to do is learn the terms
of your desired field or sector.
Every field or sector has a language of its own.
So, what terms are common in their job posts?
Use sites like LinkedIn, Idealist, usajobs.gov,
monster.com, simplyhired, whatever site you want to look for.
And we're going to have some of those links at the end
of the webinar.
And go through and read the job posts
and see what kind of language they use.
What are the acronyms to know?
What are the verb they use quite often to describe
the work that they're doing?
Also look for examples from resumes from people
in the field.
What terms do they use?
And again, that's something you can ask from people
during informational interviews.
Also in those informational interviews,
literally ask them what is the language of this field?
What do I need to know?
How do I best talk about my work so that people
in this field will understand the work that I'm doing?
And then once you've learned the language of that field,
then you're ready to translate your VISTA service
to that sector or field language.
So how might you describe your skills, experiences,
responsibilities to a non-profit employer versus
a for-profit employer?
Public or educational.
And I'll give you an example.
The exact same skill or activity translated to each sector.
What we call community outreach in the non-profit sector
is marketing in the for-profit sector.
And what we call marketing in the for-profit sector
is often called public awareness in the public sector.
It's the exact same thing, it's communicating
with members of the public, taking a very specific message,
and action steps in getting them into the hands of people
who care about your organization, your product, your service
but the language is different depending on the field,
so learning how to take that language and talk about it
in a, sorry, learning how to take that term or that activity
and talk about it in the language of the field
is going to tell them that you know how to transfer your skill.
You know how to take your talent, your skill,
your responsibility and turn it into something that matters
to them, the employer.
Okay, so at this point, I want to pass the microphone over
so to speak and introduce you to Anne Otih.
Anne served as a VISTA in 2015, wrapping up service
in 2016 and she now works for the Corporation
for National and Community service as a
criminal history adjudicator.
Anne, we'd love if you'd tell us a bit more about
your service and how you talked about and described it
in your past as well as any tips you might have.
- Thanks Erin, I'm so happy to be here.
I served as a healthy habits VISTA, working to expand
opportunities for underserved youth who live in a food
desert by developing a community garden and healthy habits
curriculum in Harper county, Maryland.
On a day to day basis, I did a little bit of everything,
grant writing, volunteer recruitment, landscape design,
and speaking to and engaging community leaders
and share holders.
When coming up with ways to talk about your service,
it's important to note that while these tasks being broad,
it can actually work to your advantage.
Like Erin mentioned, you can translate what you did
in VISTA with synonyms to match the new language
of whatever jobs you're applying to.
For example volunteer recruitment encompasses a lot
of different tasks.
Depending on the context of your service,
it can mean relationship management,
stake holder engagement,
or even projects by supervision.
If you're working on grant writing, you could market that
as technical and business writing, financial management,
resource development or it could even be stretched
to mean accounting to some degree.
Having synonyms for the tasks that you do
will help you demonstrate your versatility when speaking
about your service.
When looking at job postings and seeing what is required,
you can figure out how to mold your service around
the posting instead of trying to find a position
that matches your experience exactly.
Another way to gain a vocabulary for speaking
about your service is to look back at reports
that you or others have compiled and to refer to your VAD.
Monthly reports can provide you with both
qualitative and quantitative data.
Essentially numbers and anecdotes that are rooted
in facts that you have gathered.
Just like you all, I did so much during my service
with past reports, I can see actual data and stats
of who was talked to, what grants I had written,
how much money was raised, and I was able to remember
what I had actually worked on.
What really helped me in speaking about my service
and served as the guiding document was the narrative
section in the monthly report that spoke to sustainability,
challenges, collaboration and success.
If you can't track things quantitatively,
start your own narrative section to keep track.
Think of specific organizational strategies that you have
or are working to put in place to ensure the sustainability
of your project.
Think about your efforts building and improving
partner relationships for your site or organization.
Were any of the partnerships established as a result
of the project?
This will help you speak to collaboration.
Think about the struggles you faced and how you were able
to manage and overcome them.
Have a specific anecdote?
Then you've got yourself the answer to the dreaded,
what has been your biggest challenge interview question.
Finally, think about your successes.
What are you proud of having accomplished?
For me, I had a middle school gardening committee
who helped to provide insight in our garden steering
committee.
There was one afternoon where I had all the middle schoolers
look through a seed catalog to have them vote on
what fruits and vegetables they wanted to grow
in the teaching garden.
The top three were wine grapes, ghost peppers
and shocking to me, Brussels sprouts.
So I asked the middle schooler why Brussels sprouts?
And he replied that he had never had Brussels sprouts
or broccoli before and he wanted to see if they had tasted
as bad as everyone on TV said.
And I knew then that my project was more than just
a garden and an outdoor learning lab.
The community was going to have an opportunity
to access fruits and vegetables that they previously
never had access to.
So if you're able to write anecdotes and formulate answers
to these questions, you will have impressive ways
to talk about your service.
Your VAD is another good source of information.
I was very lucky that my project provided me with a
detailed VAD.
After getting information together and making a resume,
which I'll talk about later, I researched interview
questions to make sure that I got practice in.
I wanted to be able to give well thought out answers.
I reviewed the qualitative narratives in my reports
so I knew I could make the case for the skills
and experience I gained, and I thought up anecdotes
for potential questions relating to challenges,
success, sustainability and collaboration.
One thing I learned during this process is that
not everyone knows about VISTA or AmeriCorps,
especially in the private sector.
So I had to come up with a quick elevator speech
of course.
For example, AmeriCorps Volunteers in Service to America
are full time volunteers who develop sustainable programs
to address poverty in the United States.
For my project, I worked to expand opportunities
for under served youth who lived in a food desert
to access healthy foods by developing a community
garden and healthy habits curriculum.
So I'm sure you are all doing and have accomplished
incredible things.
If I could give any advice in sharing your service,
it would be to use your VAD and reports.
They will help in formulating interview answers.
Definitely prepare for interviews and finally,
find a way to describe VISTA and you're project
that is natural to you.
I hope all of these steps will help you better share
your national service.
Back to you Erin.
Thank you so much, and I love that story about
the Brussels sprouts as well.
I had the same thought as a kid that man,
you always hear their terrible, but yeah,
once you're an adult, they're actually quite fabulous.
But I love also that it was just that eye opening moment
of oh right, here's what the project is about,
here's what I can do next.
So thank you so much, it's always so great to hear
from people who are actively in their service
or just completed it because it really resonates
with the folks who are out there still in the field.
So as Anne mentioned, the next thing we're going to talk about
here is resume.
How to craft a compelling resume.
So there are some general tips that we want to share
and then we're going to give you some examples
of a not so great one and a better one.
First and foremost, be specific.
Share details.
Break your service down into the skills, experiences,
tasks and responsibilities that you did every day.
Name the organizations and the communities in and
with which you worked.
Give it specific details to make it real to the person
reading it.
Don't undersell yourself, be confident.
You know, in our culture, we're often taught not to brag,
you know, don't be boastful, don't be full of yourself,
but when you're applying for a job,
this is the moment to make yourself shine.
Especially folks who've been doing charitable work
would sometimes feel like well, it wasn't about me,
it was about our community.
That's true and that's what motivates our work,
but in this moment, this is the place to be confident.
You know, talk about what it was that you did,
why you are the right person for this role.
Wherever possible quantify your achievements and successes.
And I'll give you an example when we show you the example
of a good resume, but give numbers to what you've done.
How many people did you serve?
How many programs did you launch?
How many volunteer positions did you manage?
Add numbers, and especially if you can show an increase,
even if it's from, if you went from two to four people
that you're managing, that's a 200% increase.
I hope I did that math right.
Make sure you can quantify because that really resonates
with a lot of people.
Create a master resume.
This is something a mentor of mine suggested
and it was such an excellent idea
and that's basically create one giant resume
that has absolutely everything you've ever done in it.
All of your experiences, all of your schooling,
all of your certifications, your achievements,
your volunteer work, all of it in one space.
And then each time you apply for a new job,
go to that master resume which is likely going to be
several pages and cherry pick which things matter
most to this employer.
They may not need to know what classes you took in college.
They may not need to know about your part time job
that you had here or there.
But, there may be very specific experiences you have
that are really going to resonate with them.
So creating a resume that is tailored to each position,
to each audience, is going to make a difference
because to them, they're going to see a resume that's been
thoughtfully crafted and they're going to see the things
that matter most to them really highlighted.
And then tailor that resume so that you can best make the
case for why you are a great fit for what they need.
It's a common mistake in resume writing that we think,
oh, they just want to know everything I've ever done.
What they really want to know is are you the right person
to hire for this specific position,
for our specific organization?
So make sure you tailor it and make the case for why
you are the right fit.
So let's take a look at an example from a resume,
and this is a not so good example.
We have professional experience,
AmeriCorps VISTA, I was a volunteer in Portland, Oregon.
I volunteered with Rose City Youth, an organization
that runs after-school programs.
I managed volunteers and helped create new volunteer
positions and I helped with fundraising and grant writing.
Okay, this isn't terrible, but it's not great.
It's pretty vague.
It's pretty general.
If I don't know what VISTA is, I'm going to look at this
and say oh, this is a volunteer role.
Now if I don't understand that VISTA is full time
national service, I might think oh,
this is something you did an hour a week in your off time
and was just something that was sort of
off the side of your desk.
It's also not targeted for any specific field or job.
I'm not sure what position you're applying for here,
but I'm not exactly sure how this is going to be helpful
to me.
Also the language, the verbs used here are pretty vague
and sort of downplay the work that you did.
I helped create, I helped with this, uses the word helped
a lot.
Helped is a tricky word.
You can certainly use it and in fact, I think we even do
in our better example, but when we used it too often
it makes it sound like we didn't have a leadership position.
And folks on this call, I know that you guys are serving
in leadership positions, so we want to make sure that
we give more details.
So let's look at a better example.
How do we make this a stronger resume?
Exact same position, now we're going to give some real
specific details.
I worked with Rose City Youth as an AmeriCorps VISTA
volunteer manager.
That's my title.
Rose City Youth is who I worked with.
I didn't technically work with AmeriCorps VISTA,
I was an AmeriCorps VISTA.
I committed one year of full time national service
to a nonprofit organization serving at-risk youth
in Portland, Oregon's Northeast neighborhoods.
Specifics tells you a little bit about what VISTA is,
it's one year of full time national service.
I contributed to the significant expansion of organizational
capacity via increased volunteer engagement, fundraising
and grant writing.
I recruited, screened and managed volunteers for
after school programs.
So it's no longer a vague I managed volunteers,
instead it's here's what I did, I recruited them,
I screened them, I managed them.
And it was specifically for after school programs.
Here's an example of quantifying.
I increased the size of the volunteer program from
25 to 35 active volunteers.
In your head you may think that's only 10 people,
is that worth highlighting?
It absolutely is.
I designed and led recruitment outreach efforts
for three new volunteer positions.
Another example of quantifying.
I created these three positions, and then listing what
they are showing that I brought on board
a social media coordinator, a book club facilitator
and a fundraising assistant.
And then participating in internal grant writing
and annual fundraising drive.
So, the reason this is better is it gives you
a little bit of detail about what VISTA is,
make sure that they know it's a full time national
service program.
Gives a brief description of what VISTA is,
it gives a name to your work and it translates
and targets specifically towards this job that you're
applying for that you are the right person,
you are the right fit and that you can bring results.
So I'm going to turn it back over to Anne
and Anne's going to talk a little bit more
about resume building and how to pull that information
from your VISTA service to resume building.
Thanks Erin.
As I mentioned before, your monthly reports are a
great source of data.
You can get specifics like the amount of monetary
an in-kind resources you procured in the form of grants
and donations, the number of volunteers you recruited
and managed and other performance measures based on
your VAD.
When it came to writing my resume I could use all of
this data and VAD language.
The first thing I did was just make bullets.
From my VAD I could take an objective like steward
and apply for grants and translate with what I was
able to accomplish.
Researched and applied for grants culminating with
the procurement of over $35,000 in funding
and $10,000 in in-kind donations for the garden project;
managed budgets and maintained financial records.
So I essentially had 15 or so bullets
and translated or resume speak my master resume
like Erin was talking about.
And after I found jobs to apply for,
based on the description, I would pick and choose
which bullets to use.
For jobs that I applied to that were resource development
oriented, I made sure to emphasize and use the bullets
that were related to grant writing,
financial management, building partnerships and
stake holder engagement.
For jobs that were more project management
and program development oriented I focused on my
volunteer recruitment, how I planned, tracked,
and supervised activities of over a hundred volunteers.
And bullets that dealt with the development
of the garden and the curriculum.
If the job description mentioned requiring a lot of research
or analytical skills, I made sure to add points
that demonstrated the research I did and decision making.
For example I researched grants and funding opportunities,
I researched and developed youth gardening
and healthy habits curriculum.
For descriptions that mentioned collaboration
I made sure to stress the number of partnerships
I built and how I involved community members
and local leaders in the project.
I always keep my first bullet, which is planned
and oversaw a community garden initiative
serving over 1,000 Boys and Girls Club youth
and community members in a designated food desert.
Essentially it's a broad summary of my project.
After creating my resume, I had some of my colleagues
and family members review it.
They were able to give me beneficial feedback
from an outsider's perspective with ways to further
tweak the language.
So to summarize, when writing your resume
and tailoring it for a specific position
make sure you use your VAD and reports.
I know making the reports are hard,
but they really do help you compile the data
and bullet points.
Thoroughly read the position description.
What buzz words do they use?
These buzz words will guide you in choosing
which bullets from your master resume you can add.
And use your network.
I was able to have family and friends review my resume
and even help me prepare for interviews.
I hope these tips along with my tips for translating
talking about your service will help you all in your
job search.
Thank you all for the amazing work you're doing
across the nation.
Good luck on your job search.
Thank you so much again Anne.
Again, it's just so invaluable to hear your specific
examples of how you've done this.
And obviously landed this great position
that really uses your talents and skills.
So thank you so much.
Before we move on to resources, next steps
and then a questions period,
I want to spend just a few minutes really briefly
on cover letters and interviews.
Now cover letters are, some people think of them
as oh this is the chance to just,
this is what goes with the resume
and introduces who I am.
And that is true, it is a space to introduce yourself,
but it's also a space to make the case, briefly for why
you are the right hire for them.
So to help make that case, plan to briefly introduce
what your VISTA program was and what your role was
within it in addition to any other experiences you bring
to the position.
And again, remember that active language we used
for your resume and use similar strategies here.
Also be sure to highlight your most relevant skills
and strengths as they relate to the specific position
for which you are applying.
Again, it's sort of that cherry picking of going through
the master resume and making sure that you pick
and highlight the skills and experiences that are going to
matter most to the person reading this letter.
And that's the person hiring or making the decision
about the graduate school or other opportunity.
Now one of the biggest mistakes I see with cover letters,
and I've read a lot of them in my time,
is applicants using what is really limited space
to explain first and foremost why they want the job
and why it would be a good fit for their personal
and professional goals and aspirations.
Now this is certainly important,
you want someone who wants the job
and who has, it fits into their life style
and what they want to do next.
You have to remember the reader is most interested
in learning how you're going to be a good fit for them.
How are you going to fit for their organization's
goals and aspirations?
So may sure that the tone and the content of your letter
makes this case first and foremost.
First and foremost, how do I fit for you,
secondary how do you fit for me.
And again, I want to reiterate Anne's suggestion
of have other people read it.
We can spend a lot of time with something we've written,
we think we've nailed it, we've got it perfect,
but the fact of the matter is someone else is going to
read this who isn't inside your head and they may,
having other people read it, friends and colleagues,
they may see something or have questions that you can
clear up before you submit it to the person who's
making the decision.
In terms of interviews, I recommend,
similar to we talked about with the portfolio,
have those few examples of relevant experiences
in advance and Anne talked about this as well.
You know, picking stories from your VISTA experience
and other professional experiences that are most relevant
for the position at hand and then practice how
you might tell those stories briefly and professionally.
Again, Anne had that great example of being ready
for the what challenges, or can you give us an example
of a time when you had experienced a challenge.
That's a standard interview question.
It comes up all the time and you can practice for it
by looking your VISTA service and saying,
okay, I've got an example ready.
Also, pick a few talking points.
How to explain VISTA, how to explain your role within it.
And practice them in advance so that you can answer
questions succinctly and with confidence.
And practice really does make perfect.
So practice these with yourself,
practice them in front of a mirror,
practice them with a friend or a colleague who's willing
to throw a few questions your way
and see how you answer them.
So we're going to talk briefly now about resources
and we want to make sure, of course you're going to
have copies of this presentation after the fact,
so don't feel like you have to scribble these links
down quickly, but we've talked about many different
resources today so we've provided a list here.
Again, this is going to be on the VISTA campus reporting
page for this webinar as well.
If you're ready to start searching for potential jobs
or doing that research that we talked about to identify
what your interests are, you can start with sites
like the VISTA job board.
Depending on the sector of interest,
you might also want to explore sites like
idealistcareers, usajobs.gov if you're interested
in public sector work.
And if you're interested in for profit work,
or nonprofits as well, opposed to these places,
there's sites like indeed.com, simplyhired.com,
monster.com.
Also where you're living, you need to take a look
and spend some time researching what are the local job
boards.
So for example in Portland, Oregon there are two sites
that folks use, one is a network called CNRG, synergy
that people post nonprofit jobs on.
Tier opportunities, trainings et cetera too.
And another is called maxlist.
And that's just a space where people post jobs
specifically for nonprofit, public and for profit careers
mostly around communications and fundraising.
Almost every community I've ever lived in has local
boards, networks, sites like this.
So do a little research to find what is the local site
for where you want to ultimately stay,
at least with your first career.
Some guides to explore,
we've got the VISTA service portfolio kit link here.
That's the one that we talked about earlier
that has examples of how to build your portfolio.
Another resource I especially recommend if you're
planning to work in the nonprofit sector is
idealist.org's free downloadable, the idealists guide
to nonprofit careers for first time job seekers.
And we have the link on the screen here.
If for some reason you click on that and it doesn't work,
sometimes they shift things around on their site.
Just Google the name of the guide.
The idealist's guide to nonprofit careers.
It's a terrific downloadable pdf that has information
on everything from resume writing and informational
interviews to how to approach a job interview,
to how to research activities like the one I described
earlier.
And then also, if you're considering a next step to
education, check out the list of grad fairs hosted
by idealist, those are often programs specifically
focused on careers that benefit the public.
From international affairs to social work
to environmental science.
You might also explore listings on sites like
Princeton review where you can research by
specific program types and schools.
And then lastly I want to draw your attention to previous
webinars hosted by VISTA all of which you can access
online.
And VISTA has hosted several webinars on topics related
to today's discussion including how to apply for federal
jobs, how to use your education award
and how to prepare for life post VISTA.
So make sure you access all of those resources that we
have on the VISTA campus and on VISTA's site
so that you can listen to past webinars and find
other resources that might be useful to you.
So before we get to questions,
I want to talk about next steps.
And based on how you answered your poll question
earlier today, if you're still in your year of service,
you're close to finishing, or you're still,
if you are still in service right now, start building
your portfolio.
Start collecting the examples of your work electronically,
paper, whatever you need to do and hold on to those
so that you are developing your portfolio as you go.
Start to research jobs and college degrees of interest.
Start to figure out what might I want to do next?
Spend some time brainstorming.
Do those informational interviews.
Have conversations and start to figure out what might
a next step in my career look like.
If you are close to finishing, do all of the above
plus start to request those letters of recommendation.
Start to collect those and have those ready
so that as you apply for things, you have them available.
If you have folks in your life who say,
hey, I don't want to write one in advance,
but if and when you need one just let me know,
still make sure you're asking now so that you're
establishing that link so that when you've applied
for something you can go back to them and say,
hey remember when I said I need a letter of recommendation,
now's the moment.
And then for the folks on the call who are already
a VISTA alum, do all of the above.
It is not too late to start now.
Build your portfolio, go back to your organization
and ask for examples of the work that you did,
research those jobs and degrees of interest.
Do those informational interviews.
Honestly, I still do informational interviews.
That's a life long skill.
And then request those letters of recommendation.
So now that I appear to be losing my voice,
I'm going to (laughs) pass it back to Calvin
and we'll talk about the next step on this webinar.
All right, thank you so much Erin,
that was a wonderful presentation.
Really appreciate all the good advice and tips and tricks
that you shared with everybody.
Before we get to our Q&A we want to know what you guys
thought.
On the right side of your screen you're going to find
a quick poll where you can share your feedback
about this webinar.
So please take a moment to answer those questions.
It really helps us a lot, we listen to you.
We want to make these as good for you as we possibly can,
want to make sure that we're giving you the content
that you want, so please let us know what you'd like to see,
how we did on this one and what could be done better
and also what you liked.
And we'll continue to do that.
Cool, yeah, so, take a second to fill out that poll.
So we've given you a lot to think about.
We've given you a lot to think about now it's time for
your questions.
We've been queuing up some questions in the Q&A panel
to be answered in just a moment,
but I'll also ask our operator to let you know
how to ask questions by phone.
Maybe?
Our operator? She there, operator?
We will now begin the question and answer
session.
If you would like to ask a question, please press star one.
Please unmute your phone and record your name clearly
when prompted.
Your name is required to introduce your question.
To withdraw your request, press star two.
One moment please for your first question.
All right, thank you.
So while we are waiting on,
are waiting on questions to come in via phone,
I will go to the Q&A box that we have.
So let's see, Erin and Anne, I may be calling on you guys
to give some good answers to these.
So our first question comes from,
running into the top of my list, sorry, my thing
is being funky and won't let me scroll up.
There we go.
It's from Calvin Owls, Calvin says,
"In addition to informational interviews would it be
advised to ask to job shadow people for a day?
How do you go about asking for this experience without
sounding pushy?"
Well, I'd start by saying I think that is a very good idea.
That is how, ya know, doing an informational interview
is going to give you sort of high level, you know,
you can ask someone what you do on a day to day basis,
but until you see it yourself, you don't really know.
And I am not also not convinced that it would ever sound
pushy to ask someone hey, can I just check out what
you're doing?
I'm really curious about your career path,
I'd like to know sort of what you work on day to day
to see if it's something that I'd be interested in.
People would probably generally be responsive to that
I would think.
And I think you'd know.
You'd be able to pick up on it if someone was not
into that idea.
(audio glitches)
Yeah, and I might just add to that,
if you make that suggestion and you can tell by their
body language or their response that they're sort of
hemming and hawing like, uhhh, maybe dial it back and say
maybe not for the day, how about just for a couple of hours?
Or would it be possible to come in for just the afternoon?
'Cause folks may feel like if I have you for the whole day,
that means a whole day that I'm connecting with you
rather than doing my work, and that might feel like they
can't invest the time.
So start with the big ask and say hey, is it possible
to job shadow for a day and if their response is negative
or seems vague, then you can say or just a shorter
period of time, I'd really love to see what it's like
to work at your organization.
So, just have a couple of options in mind
and try to read their body language and their response
and see what's going to work for them.
Right, or if you have a manager that you know
is working on a big project, maybe saying hey, I'd love
to help you out with this, do you have any smaller tasks
that I can do that I can just sort of be a part of,
on this task?
Is there a meeting that I can sit in on just so I can
kind of check out what's going on and really get a deeper
understanding of your position, of where you're at,
and sort of the people and things that you deal with
on a daily basis.
All right, our next question comes from,
I guess we're all losing our voice today.
Our next question comes from Charmaine Smith.
Said, "Would you send a portfolio along with your resume
"when seeking a position?"
And then the second part says, "Do government jobs
"allow this as part of the application material?"
Go ahead.
Yeah, I actually probably would not.
Unless it's digital and you can just throw a link to it
in your cover letter or in your resume somewhere
where you can say for additional information
about my background please check out this site,
but as far as uploading materials
or sending along documents, I would not.
Most people who are hiring for positions,
they're already overwhelmed with paperwork
and you don't want to give them a reason to think,
uh, that's too much, I can't read that, I don't want to
be bothered.
I would save it for, you know, use your cover letter
as the primary space where you're really making the case
for the interview and then share it at the interview stage.
That would be my advice.
Totally.
And for government positions there is not the option
to add your portfolio.
I mean, well, I guess you kind of do.
So when you apply you attach, there's a box for you
to attach your resume, attach your cover letter,
and then you can attach additional items.
So if you do have a portfolio that is maybe not a website,
you know like it's a physical pdf or something,
that could be printed, then yeah, I mean sure why not
add that to the application.
But also to Erin's point you maybe don't want to
overload people in the beginning so that they're not
immediately just looking at it and saying oh this is
too much information, I don't have time to look at this,
and then kind of dismiss and go on to the next person.
All right, so our next question comes from Ashley.
Ashley Pinimonte who says,
"Do you have some examples of how to translate service
"title, example Outreach VISTA to professional title,
"example Communications and Outreach Coordinator?"
You just did it.
You just did it, throw this on your resume.
So if you look back in the chat there were some really
great suggestions and I was kind of reading along
as you guys were posting and saying oh my title's really
really long, do you think that's okay to put on my resume?
I think someone was a, what did they say,
Veterans and Military Families Resource and Design
Coordinator.
I mean, if that's your title, that's what you did.
And I think that gives a lot of insight into your
background and your experience and what you did.
Even just in that title without having to read
the bullet points on your resume I know a lot about you
already just from that title.
Sure it could be shortened to someone said,
just resource and design coordinator,
or veteran and military families coordinator.
You know, you can take out some words if you don't
feel comfortable sharing the entire thing.
But I would definitely go back and look at the chat
where everyone is kind of posting these really great
ideas saying you know I think if you put veterans
in your title, people will generally I think respond
well to that, people who are working with veterans
and military families.
You know if you look at your VAD it generally will have
a title so it'll say you know, community services
director VISTA or coordinator VISTA or volunteer outreach
coordinator VISTA.
So take a look at your VAD and see what kind of language
that it uses to describe your position.
That's another good way of doing that.
All right so our next question is from Heather who says,
"Any suggestions on when to begin applying for jobs
"in relation to when the service term will be ending?"
This is a question that we get quite a bit.
Everyone always wants to know ya know, so when should I
start applying for jobs?
I know for me, I would say you know, if you're applying
to be a federal employee, like if you are interested
in federal employment, you should realize that that
process does take a long time.
So I would say, you know, maybe three months before
just to really start looking, start getting that cover
letter together, start writing those resume bullet points
and start summing up your service about three months
before.
You can even start submitting applications.
A lot of hiring agencies in the federal government
know what VISTA is or know what AmeriCorps service is
and understand that you would have a year term,
you know, understand that there's an end date to your
service.
You know, so that really works to your advantage.
Maybe if you're going in public sector,
I will admit I've never worked in public sector,
I've only been a federal employee, so I don't know how
that hiring process works.
I imagine from everything that I've heard,
I imagine it to be a little quicker sometimes
where it can be a little speedier because there are less
hoops to jump through, so maybe even a little later
in your service.
But I'd say like sort of the final like two, three months
of your service is when you want to start dusting off
that resume, start getting it together,
start whipping up those bullet points,
practicing your interviewing questions and things like that.
And really getting that job search started.
All right, let's see, Operator, do we have anyone
on the phone?
First question from the phone line.
Daton Ty, your line is open.
Hello?
Daton Ty your line is open.
Uh, maybe we lost 'em.
One moment for your next question.
All right.
Service, how do you,
Daton Ty, your line is open.
Hello, how's it going?
(laughs)
Uh oh, it's getting a little tricky on the phone.
All right, maybe we go to the next question on the phone.
I am showing no further questions at this time.
All right, cool.
Sorry whoever was on the phone.
I kinda caught a snippet of it, I don't know if you want
to hit us up in the chat or hit us up in the Q&A,
we'll try to find your question and answer it for you.
Sorry about that.
All right, well, let's go back to our Q&A.
I see someone said, our next question is,
one second so I can pull these up.
How long, oh Erin, I think this is a good question
for you maybe.
It says, "How long are letters of recommendation good for?"
Like I guess the question is how long could you use
a recommendation letter?
That's a good question.
You know, I would say they're good for at least like
a year (clears throat)
Excuse me, a year or two especially if they're dated.
So, if I see, ya know it's 2017 now, if I see a letter
coming in that's dated 2016, I'm not going to blink at that.
If it says 14 or 15 I might be like, well, that's kinda
old, ya know, do they have someone more recent
who can speak to their abilities?
So I would say you know sort of just a quick rule of thumb
would be a year or two old should be just fine.
Older than that, you might go back and ask for another one.
Or just because over the course of two years,
chances are you may have a more recent letter
of recommendation or more recent reference that you might
want to use instead.
So, one to two, two to three years at the most, I would say
if there's a date on it.
If there's not a date on it, then I would say you can
continue to use it 'cause it speaks about your abilities
at that role.
(audio glitch)
As long as it's still relevant, I would say go ahead
and keep using it.
Yeah, totally, I agree and I think
often times as you get later in your career,
things kind of drop off of your resume so I would be aware
of the fact that if you're using a letter of recommendation
that's for a position that's no longer on your resume,
that could get a little hairy.
And along with that we have another question
from Brianna that says, "When asking for a letter
"of recommendation is it necessary to specify whether
"it's for a school or a job application?"
I don't think so.
I think most of the time you're just asking for a general
letter that speaks to your talents and abilities.
You know, certainly it's important to note that
the application process is different in different places.
As a teacher, as a professor, I've had students
ask me for letters of recommendation.
Sometimes they need a physical letter,
sometimes they send me a link that I have to fill out
a brief survey, sometimes it's something online
or it's a phone conversation.
So just recognize that each, whether it's a job
or a school, it may have a different process
for gathering that letter of recommendation,
but if you're literally just asking for a letter,
I think what you're asking them for is a general
letter that speaks to your talents and abilities
that you can share with anyone who's making a decision
about your next step.
Yeah, totally.
All right, so we have a question from Kaylene.
Kaylene says, "How do virtual job fairs work?"
Let's see, Erin do you have any experience with
virtual job fairs?
I have experience doing a virtual grad fair,
so I imagine it may work similarly,
but I am not sure.
Yeah, I've never done a virtual job fair.
I've done a virtual graduate school fair.
And I suspect it's similar to the one that you've done.
So if you want to talk a little bit about your experience,
I'm sure it's probably pretty similar.
Yeah, totally.
So essentially you kind of like log in.
There are a bunch of perspective employers sort of in this
digital meeting room, just like sort of digital meeting
space.
And for the grad fair you know, you logged in,
you were able to see all the different schools that
were there and you get in line essentially to speak
to someone one on one.
You know, so you get in line, and then you get connected
with a representative from that school.
And you can ask them questions, one on one, back to back
and they'll live chat you and talk to you and try
to get you to go to their grad school.
I imagine that the job fair would work very similarly,
that you have the ability to send your resume over
to whoever the employer is.
The technology on these virtual grad fairs and job fairs
is actually really amazing.
And really, and really conducive to the work that you're
trying to do, or the goal there which is to get a job.
You know, you're able to send a resume,
tech so people share information, gather your contact info
and things like that.
Let's see, next question says, "How do you recommend
"translating VISTA leader service on a resume?"
Good question Matt.
Hmm, you know I think I would just approach it
the same way, just clearly lay out how VISTA leader
is a different role than VISTA member and just make it
very clear that this is a leadership position.
Really highlight what makes it a different position,
what makes your role unique.
I mean, I think that would be my approach.
Anne, do you have any suggestions or anything you
would add to that?
Really echoing off what you said,
looking at what specific skills you're doing.
As a VISTA leader you're managing lots of VISTAs so
you could translate that and focus on the management
skills that you've gained and that you were able
to show throughout your year.
Yeah, and that's exactly what I was going to say.
You know you have the opportunity there to really spin
that service as a management role.
You know you were managing.
A lot of times VISTA leaders are,
they're writing position descriptions,
they are doing recruitment, they are training people,
they are placing them and recommending them for placement
in different positions.
I mean that is management of people,
management of personnel, management of resources.
You know there's a really good opportunity there
for you to be able to do that.
I mean, and for VISTAs too, I mean for you all,
for people who aren't leaders, you know if you are managing
people,
Say that you were managing people, don't be shy about that.
Just make sure that you have the language to back that up
so if you are asked about it you have answers.
But if you are doing the act of managing,
you are managing something.
Just sort of that plain and simple.
But I think even more so as a VISTA leader
you are given additional responsibilities,
you do actually have people who are sort of either
reporting to you or coming to you for advice
or for different things
throughout your year of service.
So again, yeah, you have a really great opportunity there
to spin that as a management position and to say it like
I did this, I had to do, ya know, maybe you did,
maybe you helped organize, ya know, a large training
for all of your VISTAs.
You know, you say I've done logistics and coordination.
I've had to book speakers, I've worked with Per Diem
and you know, within the confines of predetermined rates
I've had a budget and had to plan an event around that.
You know, there's so many things that you can say
about that, just about that experience that I think
would lend itself to looking really great on your resume.
All right, I'll go back to the phone and see if
we have any other questions on the phone.
As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question
please press star one and please record your name clearly
when prompted.
One moment please for your next question.
All right, thanks.
Our next question says, a little unrelated, but we'll
answer it.
And if you get a job within, oh well I guess it's not
unrelated, it goes back to what I was just talking about.
If you get a job in month 10 of your VISTA service
would you still be eligible to receive
your education award?
I'm really sorry, the answer is no, you do have to
complete your full term of service in order to receive
your education award.
That's your full 365 days.
So do keep that in mind when you do start applying
for things, it comes down, if you are offered a position
maybe in month 11 in month 10 and a half
of your VISTA service, it really comes down to you
to advocate for yourself and to negotiate to say,
hey, I've got this commitment that I've already taken on,
I've got two months of this left, would you wait
for me to start at the end of this commitment?
I mean, I think you're able to spin that to say,
look I've taken on this commitment,
this is showing you that I follow through with the things
that I say that I'm going to do.
I really don't want to give this up,
there are really important benefits to this for me
that I need and that I've worked really hard for.
I'd really like to see this through the end.
I'm working on some projects right now that I can't
put down, but once I do, I'm ready to move on
and be the best employee for your organization.
You know, you can say, the things that I'm working on now
are going to make me a better employee for you.
So hire me, just give me a little bit so I can
finish out this commitment and devote myself entirely
to my new position.
But if you are in month 10
and you end your VISTA service early you are not eligible
to receive your education award.
And I am showing no questions from
the phone lines.
All right, thank you.
Oh, Erin, I think this question's for you.
In my case, I'm serving my fourth and last year
as a VISTA training coordinator for child sexual abuse
initiative should I break my accomplishments
down per year or should I include them all in one?
You know, if it's all the same position
I would approach it the same way we do when we've been
at a job for four years.
Which is if it's the same title, same position,
then leave it all under one bullet point,
or one category and just bullet point out the various
accomplishments and that's going to be able to show
over the course of four years what you've really
accomplished.
If, however, over those four years, you've been in different
roles, different positions, then I would separate them out
so that you can show the uniqueness of each one
and how you built upon each one for the next position.
So I would treat it just like you would a job.
Any time you change titles, change roles,
you're going to give it a new sense of space so that you
can show what those responsibilities were
and how you built on the previous one.
That's a good answer.
Chadrick says, when is the job fair?
Job fair is June 7th, the link that I posted in the chat.
It's run by AmeriCorps alums so click on that link
and I'm sure that'll have the date, registration
and phone and all the things that you need.
Let's see, Joshua Davis says if there, let's see,
if there has been media featuring projects that you
worked on, should that be included in your portfolio
or your resume or not at all?
So it sounds like maybe you're saying if there has been
maybe a TV segment, maybe a news segment featuring projects
that you worked on, should that be included in your
portfolio or your resume.
That sounds like portfolio to me.
That sounds like something that you'd link to,
you know you can imbed a video on your portfolio web site
to say oh this is my project that I did.
I don't think there's really a space for that sort of media
on a resume.
No one's going to click on that in your resume,
no one's going to be able to watch that.
If there's a news article there, no one's going to
look at that on your resume.
That is the place, that's the whole purpose of your
portfolio is to showcase all the things that you've done
in kind of like real tangible ways.
Like news articles, you know, showcasing websites
that you built for your project,
marketing campaigns that you worked on,
all those extra things.
And I will add also depending on what job
you're applying to, let's say they're looking for
someone who has community outreach skills,
or something that just has to do with outreach.
You could feature a bullet that talks about how
the projects that you've done in the past
were featured in local media.
Yeah, totally.
Let's see, I don't want to really open this can of worms,
but I will address your question Stephanie.
If congress passes the budget, AmeriCorps is cut,
how will that affect VISTA's who's year is not yet
completed?
The answer is that we don't know because we haven't
gotten there yet.
If it does come to that, we will be sure that you're
the first to know how any budget changes affect
your service.
Michelle Dennis, I really like this question
because this is tied in with a question that we
answered previously.
She says in all caps, what if the new position
is with the same company?
She says I've applied and interviewed for a new position
at my site, should I still ask if I can start
after my service date to receive the award?
The answer is 100% yes.
That is, I mean, they should, they know that you're
doing a year of service.
Like they hired you to do this year of service
so they should 100% be willing to work with you
on your start and end dates because they also know
that if you don't complete your service then you
don't get the benefits that you're entitled to.
I think that would be really unfair of them to say
no, you have to start in month 11 of your service
and forfeit these benefits if you want this job.
That'd be really really unfair of them to say.
So I would definitely ask them.
And just say hey, like yeah, of course I want this position,
I love this organization, I love this company,
but I need to finish out what I'm doing and then,
Ya know it sounds like if they're going to hire you,
there could even not be a break,
you know you wouldn't even have a break in pay,
it's just I finish on Tuesday, I can start this job
on Wednesday I will see you guys tomorrow in my new role.
But definitely they should, you should definitely ask them.
And there really shouldn't even be a question.
Like they should just know that you're going to start
after your, after your VISTA position is over.
Let's see Aaron Barta says,
Hello Dwayne Brown, he just said hello in the chat.
Hey Dwayne.
Aaron Barta says it used to be that your resume
had to fit on a single page which is changing.
If you're a recent grad with little professional
experience but much educational experience
how long should your resume be?
This is a good question and I'm going to ask Erin this one.
(laughs)
You know, it is changing, but I think
most employers still prefer the one page,
so I would try as much as possible to make it a
one really solid, strategic, lean page.
If it bubbles over onto the second, that's okay,
especially but it just really the question is
does it need to be there?
So if you're throwing everything in because
you think it needs to be longer,
then chances are someone's going to glance through
and say, okay, I didn't need to know most of that.
But if you need to include your educational experience
because it's really relevant to the job you're
applying for, then make sure it's in there.
So I think the two page resume is more acceptable,
but there is an expectation that you've bumped
to two pages either because you have too much
experience to fit on one, or because the experience
that you've bumped over to two pages for is so relevant
to the job that it had to be included.
Yeah, I mean, I know like my resume is now
two pages, bordering on three if I don't format it
properly.
Really gotta get my formatting just right so that it all
kinda fits onto two pages.
But yeah, I mean, I'm up to two, but there are things
that are relevant to, and every position that I've had
that are relevant to things that I would be applying for.
Josh, I like this question.
Josh Davis says, "Is it still common for perspective
"employers to ask for access to your social media accounts?
"Is there a guide to scrubbing social media accounts
"to make them more employer friendly?"
Question mark.
I am not under the impression that it was ever common
for people to just ask for access to your social media
accounts.
I was always under the impression that they just
did it anyway.
That once you submitted your name and where you're from,
or an email address it's very easy to find you on the
internet.
And I hope that we all know that at this point,
that nothing is sacred, nothing is safe once it's out
on the internet.
I don't know of a guide.
I'm sure that it exists, I'm sure that someone has
written this.
I think it would be really cool Josh if you did it,
and then shared it with the rest of this community.
But if that's too much to ask, I understand.
We actually just, on the last webinar that we did,
which was, oh man, last month,
and it was all about networking.
There was some really great tips on there about LinkedIn.
A lot of people now use LinkedIn as their,
that's their main work social network and that's the whole
point of it.
And we were getting a lot of comments from folks
saying yeah, you know on Facebook I have everything
just set to be completely private.
There's no, there's hardly any pictures of me,
there are, there's no mention of my job and where I work.
And they've really kind of taken that whole thing
to heart, kinda scrubbing friend lists and saying
this is really only just for people that I want to hang out
with or people that I am very close to.
Yeah, I'm sure there's a guide out there.
I mean, I can speak for myself, and I guess I'll ask
Anne too, I mean, as far as social media goes
and making things more employer friendly.
I mean, I don't have listed that I work for AmeriCorps VISTA
because I just like to keep those things separated,
my job and my personal life sort of to some extent.
And it is very private, there's not a lot of personal
info on there about me.
I don't let people just tag me in random stuff.
I don't even post that much honestly.
So like that's, I mean, that's diffuse enough there.
I don't know, Anne, what do you think about this one?
I'm the same.
I definitely don't have where I work on my Facebook
or Instagram.
I do have a LinkedIn but as far as Facebook and Instagram
and other person social media, I try to keep it private.
I also try not to get super controversial or political
on my personal accounts as well.
And this is Erin and the one thing I would add
is if you do, so I know a lot of people are using
Facebook and other things as activism tools,
if you are going to be in that space, just really pay attention
to your privacy settings.
And be really aware of which groups you're in,
which ones are public versus which ones are secret
or closed groups so that meaning only members of the group
can see it.
You know, just be really aware of what people can see,
especially Facebook for example, you can go in
and actually use the tool where it says see what others see.
You know, so pay attention to your privacy settings,
pay attention to who can see what.
And the only example I can think of where someone might
say I want to see examples of your social media explicitly
is if you're applying for a social media position.
In which case, be ready in advance with examples
of where you've done that, not in your personal life,
but in a professional role, either as a volunteer,
as a VISTA or in a paid position.
So that you have examples that you can point them
toward that aren't your personal space.
Yeah, totally, I agree with you.
I think that's really good advice.
My advice to most people is just keep 'em separated.
And yeah, and just, ya know, make a like make a,
draw a pretty clear distinction especially on the internet
of like what you share and what's work and what's
not work.
But, Josh said I'll do some research and update you.
Yeah, shoot us an email with whatever you find
and we'd love to share it out broadly if it's something
good, find something good.
Thanks Josh.
Yeah, so we're about, looks like we're
out of questions in the Q&A, I'm going to go to the phone
one last time to see if anyone's there.
As a reminder if you'd like to ask a question
please press star one.
One moment please for your next question.
All right thanks.
Yeah, so I think we were able to get to all the questions
in the Q&A.
Let's see, let's make sure I'm not missing anything.
Scrolling through,
yeah, I think we got to all of them.
Oh, let's see we got one more.
Let's see, Amanda Wink says I would like to continue
to work in the nonprofit sector, but I'm having problems
finding positions.
Where can I look for these positions.
There are lots of great resources on the internet.
There's idealist, there are, someone mentioned
sort of nonprofit Facebook groups.
There's like you know on Craigslist you can look under
nonprofit jobs on Craigslist.
There's there AmeriCorps alums job board,
there's VISTA job boards,
there are, I dunno, what else,
there's a lot of resources out there.
Erin, can you think of any other ones?
Yeah, again just make sure you find the local
sites as well.
Use your network, talk to people, hey who do you know
who's hiring, here's what I'm looking for.
Can you keep me posted when you see something?
And also on sites like idealist, look for remote positions.
There's lots of places that are willing to hire
and have positions available that aren't local to your
community, especially if you're in a smaller community.
That can be a great way to find nonprofit work that
isn't necessarily right in your back yard.
Totally.
Yeah, and it's really important to use those networks.
If you're currently working at a nonprofit,
chances are they know other people in that realm in your
area, so that's going to be a really good connection for you
to have.
Woo, all right, well, that being said,
I do want to say thank you, thank you so much to everyone
for all of the really really wonderful questions.
It looks like we, I think we got a lot out of that.
This chat, you guys have been really really impressive
in the chat on this webinar.
There's been so many great suggestions.
I'm watching Tachar you are crushing it in there,
you're just typing away, giving people all kinds of advice.
Thank you so much and thanks everyone for being so active
and really helping each other out.
At one point I saw two people just kinda going back
forth giving advice, sharing resources.
And that's what we like to see and that's why we
like to do these for you all.
So before we depart I want to share some information
on an upcoming webinar that we have.
(clears throat) Sorry.
Next webinar that we have coming up is creating
group volunteer opportunities that engage and inspire.
That's going to be on June 29th, 2016, not 2016, 2017,
we're living in the past here!
It's 2017.
Check the webinar's page on the VISTA campus under
connect and learn to sign up.
And also be looking out for an email for the registration
link and all that good stuff.
Let's see, any final words, Anne or Erin?
Not that I can think of.
Good luck everyone.
Yeah, good luck, thank you guys so much
for your service, for everything you're doing around
the country and I really look forward to hearing and seeing
what you guys do next.
So good luck and keep up the great work.
All right, we'll see you next time.
