CTP Skill Center

Today we worked on finding volunteer opportunities to help build our resumes. I found this interesting to do. I was able to locate a volunteer position as a mentor helping teens. I applied, and hopefully they will get back to me. Next, we worked on our resumes and cover letters. We also worked on interview questions. We started with an icebreaker question. That always helps to ease our nerves……Lastly, we complete our Pro assessments and blogs. I’m glad that today was Friday. This week was quite busy for me to juggle work and school. But it was productive. Thank you, CTP. You guys are awesome!

We reviewed a presentation on the value of volunteering for non-profits and especially how that can provide insight in the roles and also expand one’s network. We learned 80% of jobs are not posted online so networking is critical. We researched volunteer positions that appealed to us. We reviewed resumes and answered several interview questions using the STAR method.

Today we learned about how only 20% of jobs are posted on the internet. Volunteering is such a helpful and positive thing to do to improve our chances for employment. We worked on our resumes. I need to streamline mine. We finished by practicing interview questions. Thank you, Carrie!

I started by researching the different volunteer opportunities involving IT. Then we took a break. Then I took a break. After the break, I worked on updating my resume. Then I took a second break. Then I did some interview questions; one of the questions was, “What can you do for companies that other candidates can’t?”

Well, we started off talking about how our mock interviews went yesterday. Then we moved on to talk about how volunteering can help you get a job faster. Then we looked for something that we could maybe volunteer for. Then we worked on our resume for some time, that’s when I remember I forgot to clock in on HomeBase. Then we worked on our interview questions. Then, at the end of the day, we did the “what I did today” post and self-assessment and clocked out of HomeBase.

Went over mock interviews from yesterday. Still need to put STARS into practice. Overall, it’s been a great week.

We did an in-class assignment to look up volunteer work in my field of IT. It is actually surprising how many volunteer jobs there are. It makes me a little excited to find something, maybe. Then we worked on our resume. Then we had interview questions, one of which was what mistake you made.

We had a mock interview with Delta Dental for tech positions, interestingly enough. I might apply. I need to elaborate more on some of my answers. I also worked on my Skillsoft a little.

The mock interview, I think, went well. I was stumped by a few questions but managed to give a response. My typing speed increased by 1 wpm. The flyer assignment from yesterday added a few improvements thanks to the guidance of Marc.

Delta Dental’s delivery manager in tech, Sujatha Sridhar, after our mock interview, offered very positive feedback and echoed Carrie’s advice for me to lead with nonprofit experience then prior work experience in my resume. She thought my strengths in leadership and ability to form, develop and foster relationships was very valuable to Delta Dental’s networking group and to its communications team. She recommended relating the work I’ve done to the open position and quantifying contributions I’ve made, i.e. I built a network of… teams, community contacts, executives, and programs I’ve led in health care and when managing communications for Wells Fargo generated revenues of $X. I really appreciated her engaged interviewing style and commitment to CTP’s mock interview program.