Maybe Next Time

Yesterday I attended the Career Fair at the Downtown Campus.

I was diligent in my career fair experience and was not there to mosey. I knew who I wanted to see and what I wanted to say. I had only 4 employers that I was interested for various reasons.

I started with Devereux who was hiring a human resource specialist that I would excel at. I had already created my application online, but the online software did allow me to apply because it said my country code was invalid. Online applications are very impersonal and frustrating, I was happy to hand my information directly over to the Devereux representative ending with a hand shake.

Next I wanted to speak with an organization that I will keep nameless because I have negative things to say about. I saw their job posting on indeed.com and was very excited about the opportunity to apply for such a position. After meeting the organization in person, I have decided that this is not an opportunity I would want and would be a step backwards in my career. Even though the position title is attractive, I am not interested in baby sitting. I want to advocate for students, not be a day care provider. I am grateful for getting the opportunity to see the position in person.

I put my name in with American Red Cross who had no full-time positions open, but was only looking for non-paid volunteers. I was happy to put my name out there and hope that a position with such a large non-profit would eventually come my way.

Lastly, I stopped by with City of Phoenix of course! As a future MPA grad, I was curious what they had to say. They had great representation, but just no positions that were attractive to me at the time. Maybe next time.

Troule Shooting

In most interviews, including the position that I hold right now, there are situational questions where they ask if this was to happen, what is your plan of action. Well today I had one of those days.

With a load of grading that I slowly falling behind on, a experimental day of trading tutors so that they could each experience a different community center to better understand the program from a larger perspective, and a broken down bus that forces everyone to be at least 30 minutes late causing the kids that we are responsible to be left unattended, I almost lost my cool.

So in this situation, I was forced to realize that my grading would simply have to wait another day. The tutors in foreign territory at a new location, would need direction and explanation there fore a person of knowledge and leadership needs to reach them, but the people with that expertise is stuck at the carpool meeting point in a broken down bus. Scrambling we ran (yes physically ran) to our individual cars which are parked at least 15 minutes away from campus. Individuals who did not carpool and drove themselves were called and placed in charged of the tutors coming and kids that were soon to be dismissed from school. The scrambling car owners expecting to carpool, gathered their cars and drove to the carpool meeting spot to pick up the carpoolers.

Everyone arrived on site 25 minutes late and the kids were only with the inexperienced tutors for 10 minutes before the entire staff was on site and ready to work their like it was a normal day. Stay Calm and Carry On.

4 Year Vision

Considering that every step I take, leads me to my next step, I feel it is important to think wisely of what my next step should be. As I have been actively applying for jobs, I find that I am most interested in higher education community outreach or larger non-profits. I am most attracted to such organizations because I know I can do work that will benefit society (serving the other) but also have room to grow within an organization (serving the me). I want to be a program director where I can collaborate and implement my vision on how we can better reach people. I have noticed in jobs that I am applying for that I have many of the skill sets required, I just don’t have the years of experience. My youth grants me many privileges, but hinders me in years of experience. To get a program director position, I need to find a job where I can continue to develop my skills and gain more experience and expertise and then be promoted within. 

In an optimistic world, my 5 year plan is as follows:

Year 1: Land the job in higher education working with students and community. Learn the job.

Year 2: Perform the job to my best abilities and pick up new skill sets as well as build network around me.

Year 3: Rock the job! Blow people out of the water with my skills and connections by providing new visions for the organizations.

Year 4: Be promoted or move on to a more challenging job ensuring that I have left behind a sustainable organization with proper structure to succeed beyond my leadership.

(repeat years 1-4 again)

Hire Me

Thank you ASU career advising. I have used your services now 5 times and I have an appointment to see you tomorrow too. Every time I go, my "find-me-a-job" strategy is improved upon. Below is my improved upon cover letter for a specific job as an Educational Outreach Coordinator. 

With my experience of program development and management, community partnerships with Arizona schools, and my Master’s in Public Administration that I will complete this May, I am the perfect fit for the Educational Outreach Executive Coordinator.

Currently, I work for Arizona State University’s Service Learning program serving as a Site Manager for three after-school programs around the Phoenix Valley that I have designed, developed, and continually oversee. The program and curriculum was developed from the ground up under my leadership focusing on college readiness, life skills, and academic assistance based off the Arizona State educational standards all while providing while providing access and exposure to ASU. I serve as a liaison between the university, neighboring school districts, local community centers, and ASU students and faculty. I have successfully increased and maximized volunteer, student, and community partner involvement each semester through cultivating and managing strategic outreach initiatives that build mutually beneficial relationships that create public value.

I implement and administer qualitative and quantitative measures to determine the level of success in the tutoring and mentoring after-school programs.  These measures include entrance and exit surveys, community partner feedback, school affect scales for the children, and pre and post testing based on the Arizona State Standards.

My Master’s in Public Administration has primed me for understanding the public sector and interacting with many public figures from the state and local government. This professional development experience has provided me knowledge of personnel management, public budgeting, public policy, public media relations, social services, civic participation, organizational development, and program evaluation which enables me to be immediately effective as Educational Outreach Executive Coordinator.

Please review my resume to view my other positions that involves community organizing, program management, and communication skills.

Valuing social impact, I want a career that is meaningful and that provides growth for a community and organization. I look forward to the opportunity to provide community partnership and outreach as Educational Outreach Executive Coordinator.

Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you,

Chelsie Hancock

Course of Action

To deal with the issues that I expressed in my current entry, I wrote a strong email to my team members that I oversee. I would have liked to address the issues in person, but the Spring Break that is forth coming did not allow a day where we could all meet.

In this email, I expressed my disappointment, asked what went wrong, and requested a call to action to remedy the situation. The response from the team mates was overwhelming! They all responded with condolences, explanations, and how they individually and collectively will fix the situation. They all took responsibility and even thanked me for keeping them honest.

I am grateful that I have such a wonderful team that can and will mess up along the way but will continually prove their self worth and commitment to the community they serve.

Respect Paperwork

One thing that the MPA program has taught me is the respect and understanding for the bureaucratic process. Even though we have all witnessed an excessively inefficient government organization, I like to believe that most government organizations are inefficient by design. The bureaucratic process that may hinder speedy service, enhances and protects the democratic process. Ensuring that proper documents are in place to show that an agency is doing what they are set out to do, slows down efficiency, but provides assurance for citizens.

In my job, I have high expectations of the paperwork and filing that must be in place to prove that we are spending appropriately, providing services that we claim we are providing, and maintaining a paper trail of our accomplishments and failures to better make adjustments. Although, this is crystal clear in my head, I am struggling with have the team I manage understand the importance and fulfill their paperwork expectation. I have just found out that very little of our accomplishments are being documented in the structure that was provided. I am blogging to all of you today to stream my thoughts before I act on the situation. I am disappointed in the team for not fulfilling this expectation and I feel the issue is beyond coaching; disciplinary actions may be the appropriate response.

Disciplinary action is not my style. If I respect you and am competent at my job, you will therefore respect me and be competent at your job. I will direct you with advice and suggestions. I will share my experiences and expertise. I will fulfill your expectations of me, and I will apologize when I make mistakes. In this particular case, the team has simply not fulfilled their expectations, even though I have provided the appropriate structure, expressed its importance, and checked in biweekly to see if it was being accomplished.

I must be strategical in my next move... To be continued...