CTP Skill Center

I had a blast in Employment Services today. I realized I needed to switch over my email to be more professional and regained access to my oldest email and realized how many benefits google has implemented. The most convenient is the ability to trash the entire inbox and unsubscribe from emails without having to go through every single email. I also really enjoyed the random interview questions to give us more natural rhythm instead of sounding like AI bots. The shift today was just very beautiful and felt like employees getting to know each other without too much!

I was late today due to a misunderstanding, but we worked it out and it’s ok. I mostly worked on interview questions and answers, both written and oral. The oral interview practice was with unconventional questions and unscripted answers, which was actually surprisingly fun. See y’all in SJS!

Employment services were fun today. We talked about handling work place arguments smartly that protects our jobs. Then we worked on document lab where I tried to wrangle some of my interview answers into STARS with real examples instead of academic treatises. And make it fit what I’d say instead of the medium of writing, where you can be more formal and wordy.

Then we got to do some weird out of the box questions like “What song do you feel confident about singing at karaoke” and “What kind of crayon are you?” Of course they’re not normal interview questions that we’re likely to see but it was good way to break down barriers, feel more natural, spontaneous, and not rely on canned responses that we had scripted out. Plus it made the group a lot more fun as we all got to hear and react to everyone’s fun and different answers. And brought us closer together.

This is the last class before a week off. And Also the last class that Sam, Alex, and Tiye are in before they move onto SJS. It’s bittersweet, as time often brings. But it puts things into perspective: It’s been a fun month and the future is only looking brighter and brighter.

Now that we’ve graduated from PRO training, I have more time to focus on job search. I’m looking to multi-track my efforts, working primarily on getting my first Salesforce Admin experience. As well, I will try to look for local or remote work that doesn’t require future certification. I’m excited about it.

Today, I worked on my “Salesforce” resume to get some more grammatical errors cleared and the language more tight and consistent. I have also found an opportunity in Berkeley that is unrelated to Salesforce, so I worked on the sample cover letter format so I will be ready to apply for that job.

Earlier today, we did a scenario covering workplace conflict. The project management/software engineering one was an interesting look at how things can go wrong in the PM field when people don’t communicate in a professional way.

Finally, we did some fun Q&A questions to stay off the Interview script we have been working on. It was way more fun to conduct our final Friday of ES class. I’m looking forward to SJS on Monday and following up on the next steps in my career journey.

September 25, 2026: I had a fun time with Carrie’s non-traditional interview questions today! There were some very interesting questions that tested my interview confidence, such as “Tell me a joke”, or “If you could confidently sing any song during a karaoke, which song would it be?”

September 21-25, 2026: This week was quite the week for me, especially since it was the wrap-up week for September! I did some challenges with Google Docs and Google Sheets, had a nice celebration with the students who graduated at the end of this month, and some fun interview questions with Carrie.

9 25 2026

First, we started with a Google document on workplace situations and how they could be improved. Then, for the next hour, we worked independently on the profile-like questions and answers, or I specifically worked on the cover letter and linked it to my job log. It felt good doing the interview questions unscripted, and we had more confidence in making it sound like people rather than robots. Also, this week I got to work on how to use the phones through Microsip and finished my outside study time for the week.

Another wonderful week- minus getting sick mid-week. I stayed up at night taking care of my kittens who were stressed about their Spay the Bay aftermath, and one was denying the e-cone doing more work to take it off her head than to wait it out. . . sooo I became stressed and unwell with inconsistent sleep.

However, class was wonderful. I think I was excited about this week but also dreaded this week coming. In my first and second month we had some awesome graduates moving on to SJS and I was heartbroken each time (I’m an awkward, introverted extrovert- humans are awesome but I get really anxious and worried). Now, it’s my turn to move forward and I’m going to miss everyone until they make it to SJS so I understand the value of networking. Apologies if this is not very focused or clear it was just a wonderful week.

This week I feel like I mostly finished strong in PRO Admin and Customer Service training.

My accountability assignment due today was the Remote Customer Service phone call experiment. Black Bear Diner was the best of the three customer service responses; the CSR knew the exact price and contents of the Prime Rib Special I had called about. She was friendly and may have convinced me to try the Black Bear Diner at some point.

Other activities we did today included the end-of-month typing test, and my score was ridiculously speedy given all the typing practice I’ve done for three months. As well, we sent the end-of-month reflection for Rose, Bud, Thorn to talk about the progress I have made in class and hope to have made moving forward. Finally, we did a short written exercise for Sunshine Express comments and complaints on Google Docs.

Yesterday was probably the best mock interview I have had in this program. I felt prepared for the “panel interview” even though I didn’t see it coming. Also, the first interview was a repeat experience with the same volunteer from a prior round. It was still a very helpful and promising experience.

Monday and Tuesday now seems like a blur, but since we got through some way or another, I’m looking forward to end of class Core Celebration. Congratulations to all the Graduates and see you in SJS!

This week, I watched another corny customer service training video, did another independent challenge, practiced phone scenarios, wrote my final Rose/Bud/Thorn email, presented my article on exoskeletons, worked on written customer service responses, finished my final Skillsoft courses, and of course, finished my Core Portfolio presentation (which we’re about to watch!)

9 24 2026

Today, during the first hour of class, CTT students presented their tech articles. After returning from break, we worked independently on a Google Docs assignment with written responses to scenarios.