BC Interview preparation

Help!

Tell me about yourself

I recently graduated from Le Moyne College with an English degree, alongside minors in art, french, and film (so do not ask me about a movie that just came out unless you want to talk about it all day!) I also just finished up a service year with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in Juneau, Alaska. I spent my time working there as an Outreach and Activities Coordinator for the Juneau Senior Center, where I worked to revitalize the senior center post-covid. This included planning events for seniors, marketing our services and events on social media, local bulletin boards, and by attending outreach events. I also worked with many local organizations such as the Rotary Club to ask for financial contributions or volunteers. After my positive experience there, as well as positive experiences in the past working for my college via the library, I am very interested in more non-profit work, especially in higher education since my time at Le Moyne College was so formative. I’d love to work for another Jesuit institution and replicate my wonderful experience for other students/staff.

Why do you want to work here?

• Jesuit culture

• From my previous jobs, I got a taste of working in higher ed, and of working in event planning. I was very fulfilled in both things, and would like to learn the skills necessary to grow more and progress.

What is your greatest strength?

My ability to build relationships, both with clients, coworkers, and volunteers. This was one of the most important responsibilities of my job at the senior center. In order to create a space that seniors would want to come back to, and for our volunteers and outside partners to want to continue coming back to help us support our mission, it was critical to build a relationship with them

• To accomplish this relationship-building, I strengthened our volunteer network. Before I started working at the center, there was no volunteer network for serving our in-person free senior lunches, we just had volunteers for our meals on wheels delivery program for homebound seniors. This meant that the site supervisor of the center had to provide restaurant-style service to 20 seniors on top of organizing our meals on wheels deliveries going out in the span of an hour or two.

• My boss was incredibly good at this multitasking, but I wanted to make her life easier. I began asking around town (including on Facebook and bulletin boards—quite charming!) to gather volunteer interest. Quickly, many people said they were interested, and I began to create weekly schedules for these volunteers to come in and serve lunches. Over just a few short weeks, I began to really get to know volunteers, as did our seniors who engaged with them in many lively conversations.

• Not only did this new volunteer network create a new, rich social dynamic at lunches for our seniors, but it also spread our organization’s reach, as many volunteers were either seniors themselves, or took care of a senior/knew a senior personally, who could then benefit from our services. The only way I could have acheived thsi consistent network of lovely, generous people is from the relationships I and our seniors built with them, creating a welcoming space that invited them back. It was important that I was an efficient, empathetic communicator that took the time to listen to our volunteers, including any helpful feedback on how we could improve our volunteer system or services.

• I believe that this is the key to providing great customer service as well—not just seeing people as a means to an end, but really understanding where they are coming from and working with them, building those important relationships in the process.

What is your greatest weakness?

In the past, I have found it difficult to deal with more unstructured work environments. This was particularly the case when I started my last job at the senior center. I was the first full-time volunteer that the senior center had, and so they did not really know how to structure my work days in the beginning. At first, I was pretty frustrated because I was used to high-paced jobs in which every minute of work counted. I am also the type of person that does not really like downtime, and I like to be constantly busy. However, eventually, after a few days of spending time at the center with no clear direction, I began to make a list of tasks on a spreadsheet on ways I could be performing outreach in the community, as well as tasks I could work on to improve the center. It was helpful to have a document that outlined specific items that needed to get done, as well as to give myself due dates. I found that this helped me to stay on track instead of drifting from having no concrete deadlines. I also figured that, since I was only working at the center for a year, it could greatly benefit a volunteer that came in after me. Learning how to deal with more downtime will definitely be helpful even in faster-paced roles, as I have learned ways to still remain productive and to recognize downtime as a way to self-organize and look for ways to improve my own work.

How soon could you start?

I am moving to Boston with a friend, but we are still looking for apartments. Ideally, I think I would need at least four weeks to move and find a place. However, my friend currently commutes to Boston from Hopkington, and has offered me a place to stay in the meantime, so I can be flexible if need be.

What does DEI mean to you?

DEI to me is valuing all of the different perspectives that everyone brings to work. There is a reason that so many studies have found that diverse teams work better. But beyond that, it is about making the world a more equitable place by ensuring that all individuals from all backgrounds and differing life experiences are involved and feel a sense of belonging.

Describe a difficult situation with a coworker

• At my last job working at the senior center, we hired a new site supervisor halfway through my service year, as my boss got a promotion. The new supervisor was brand new to working at social services, and working with a senior population. I was very patient as he learned our way of doing things, our database, and got to know the seniors, and I took the time to help him where I could.

• After he finished training and had been working with us for a few months, he began to ask me to do parts of his job, which were outside of my job description. At a social services nonprofit with an extremely small team of only five people, it was common to perform tasks outside of your job, but the supervisor was giving me simple tasks that he did not feel like doing (such as looking up a plumber or delivering meals next door) just because he wanted to sit and talk to our coworker. 

• At first, I just did what he asked despite how busy I was, because even though he was not my boss, I wanted to respect him. However, over time, I began to feel that he was not respecting the work that I had to get done or my time. I learned to stand up for myself and emphasize that the work I was doing was important too. In the past I have been lucky to work with coworkers who already understood this, so it was a valuable experience to learn how to take a more assertive approach and affirm my value on a team.

Describe a time you worked on a team

• The team I worked on at the senior center was extremely small, comprising only five people. To ensure we could provide the best services possible to our clients, it was important to learn each other’s strengths and weaknesses so that we could support or fill in for each other when we were swamped. Everyone on the team was passionate about seniors and wanted to ensure that they had a safe, welcoming place to be in community with other seniors and to enjoy a free lunch each day.

• On our busiest days or on days that we had someone out sick, my boss and I would help out in the kitchen with Meals on Wheels deliveries so that the cook could have time to prepare the congregate lunches.

• Conversely, when I was planning a big event such as our Christmas caroling performance, the kitchen staff would help me prepare special desserts for our seniors, and would help deal with the larger influx of people that came to attend those events.

• Of course, no team is perfect, and we had issues that arose from logistical thinsg going wrong—dishwasher breaking, leak in the ceiling, but we always worked it out since we were united by our common goal of providing care for seniors. Even though we all came from different walks of life, were all different ages, and had different life experiences, because of our shared goal, it was quite easy to work together.

What was a time you receieved feedback/how do you handle it?

I have gotten quite good at receiving criticism from my school experience:

• I took a lot of art classes throughout high school and college, and regular critiques of your work were a integral part of the cirriculum.

• Throughout college in my english classes, as my concentration was for creative writing, we would have regular class-wide critiques of everyone’s writing.

• Especially with something artistic, it can be difficult to hear that others do not like a particular line of dialogue that perhaps you thought was the heart of your work, or that someone did not like a character that you were particularly attached to. However, when those situations arose in class, I learned that no one is critical of your work because of some mal-intent. Rather, they want your work to improve, and you alongside it—they genuinely care. At least, when I am on the other side of it all, the critiquer, I provide honest feedback for this reason.

• By the end of my senior level advanced writing class, I and several classmates would exchange our work outside of class, as we recognized just how important feedback was. A work situation is no different—you want to provide the best service you can, and if anyone has valuable advice on how to improve, I would want to keep the same open-minded attitude to be receptive to it.

How do you balance competing priorities/describe your multitasking/organizational skills?

• Competing priorities:

  • Short term and long term projects—event planning, cleaning up the senior center

  • Immediate tasks: preparing and running daily free senior lunches, contacting and maintaining a volunteer schedule, attending to seniors who have questions about our services, and answering phone calls and emails

• To balance:

  • Create task spreadsheets that can be organized by due date to work on pressing ones first, then chip away at more distant tasks

  • The to-do list feature on outlook was especially helpful for this as well, as I could set up reoccuring tasks, which was helpful for monthly things like radio ads/outreach efforts, weekly volunteer schedules, monthly newsletter postings (and to remember to water our plants!)

How would you help us stay on budget?

As the senior center at my last job had an extremely small budget, I grew skilled at finding ways to be economical.

• As we could not afford any sort of seasonal decorations, I made them myself using our supply of colored paper, and also made flowers to brighten our dining tables and check-in area. We did not have a budget for musicians to play for our events, so I drew from our volunteer base/looked for community connections to see who would be willing to donate an hour to help us put on something nice for seniors.

• Because of these experiences, I am always on the lookout for ways to save money while not sacrificing the quality of an event.

What do you know about the Jesuit nature of BC?

• I attended a Jesuit college (Le Moyne) and just finished a year of service with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, so I am very familliar with the Jesuit values and the campus culture that comes with being associated with the Jesuits. 

• From my experience, I know that the Jesuits really value being “Men and Women for Others.” I love the culture surrounding prioritizing using your knowledge, skills, and life experience gathered at a place like BC to improve your community, and performing justice-based service, a value that was especially prominent among the JVC volunteers in their social services positions wokring with underserved vulernable populations.

• It is easy to see just how deeply entrenched Jesuit values are in BC just by the sheer number of BC alumni who choose to do service years like JVC or just by choosing a career that helps better their communities.

Where do you see youself in five years? How do you plan on getting there?

I would like to be in a position in which my work is valued, and I can be a helpful resource for othe rmembers of my team. I would also like to have completed or be pursuing a masters degree on the side. My main goal is to always be learning and progressing.

What is your biggest accomplishment?

Seward’s Day Pancake Breakfast Fundraiser:

• This event was previosuly a bi-annual event, but our organization had not done it since before covid, so many members of the community had forgotten about it, and many members of our staff had forgotten how to run it. 

• As the Outreach and Activities Coordinator, it was my job to revitalize the event. With the help of my supervisor and the executive director of CCS, I created a planning spreadsheet of all the different tasks we needed to accomplish—marketing the event, arranging food donations, coordinating a volunteer schedule, tracking our spending and our donations, cleaning our space, etc.

• It was my first time planning such a large event and I loved the feeling when all of the moving pieces came together, and I saw how much people loved the event.

• We had around 100 people show up, including both Alaska state senators, which for a small community, ensured that a large portion of our community got to learn about our services, volunteer opportunities, and of course, the opportunity to support our mission financially.

• Right before I left my position, I helped my executive director and supervisor set up another planning sheet for the same event for this October, to ensure that the event continues consistently in the fufture.

What is your greatest failure?

Photo Deletion, Steamboat

• At one of my summer jobs in between college semesters, I worked as a photographer on a steamboat. We took photos of guests before they went on the boat to enjoy a sightseeing tour, then we printed and packaged the photos to sell to them while they were on the boat. I quickly became promoted to a lead, meaning I was responsible for editing all of the photos and managing each of the teams on the boats. The position could be quite stressful, as you had to ensure that the photos were printed packaged, and offered to guests before they left the ship, which was difficult when there were a few hundred guests on board and cruise times could be as short as an hour.

• One particularly busy day, I went to edit an SD card of photos, and realized I had accidentally formatted the card, erasing every photo. My mind started to panic when I realized that half of the guests on board would not receive photos. Luckily, my boss happened to be on the ship with me, and was extremely calm and understanding. She stated that if people really wanted to purchase a photo, they would be happy to retake them. Everything turned out to be fine, and many of our guests loved having photos where the backdrop was the boat instead  of the dock. I leaned a valuable lesson about taking my time, even when it seems as if there is no time for that, as some mistakes are irreversible. I never made that mistake again, and alaways made sure I provided quality service rather than impossibly quick service.

Tell me about a time you disagreed with your manager or team?

• In brainstorming for activity ideas early on in my service year at the senior center, I had seen something on Facebook about a Senior Prom, in which everyone got to dress up and socialize in a nicely decorated space. I was very excited about the idea, and talked to my supervisor about it, but she kindly told me that it was not realistic for our senior community, as she sensed many would not be interested in such an event. I was still getting to know our senior community at this point, so I was not at a point to curate my ideas to their unique personalities/interests.

• However, in talking this idea through, I realized that I really needed to listen to seniors and ask or infer what kinds of events they would be interested in based on their personalities and hobbies. Through this disagreement, my boss and I worked out getting regular musicians to come in and play music for seniors during lunches. In this way, I was able to cater to many of our seniors’ love of music, but also respect that not everyone wanted a “dance” sort of environment, and could have their own lunchtime conversations while listening to nice music.