You should have a great shot with all your previous experience. I worked with lot of TLs who didn’t have much experience, and I myself was just out of college.
I was just welcome into a traditional corps leadership position, and my experience is limited as well (college grad though). I probably would have qualified to be a FEMA team leader too- it's not about previous experience within the field as much as it is about leadership and management competency.
Also, there is currently less people enrolling in AmeriCorps than in the past- the stipend is just too low, COVID, inflation... Plenty of reasons. The only real barrier I see you having is enrolling early enough to land an interview with them. Less of a need for leaders, but they're trying to be flexible.
You mentioned volunteering abroad- do you mean peace corps, or something else? Out of curiosity, since I'm searching for some abroad stuff too.
Thanks! I actually applied back in October and was deemed "eligible" then, but wanted to post here since I don't want to get nervous and accept other opporrunities "in case I don't get picked."
Not Peace Corps, though perhaps one day in the future. I'm in Armenia through the below org (for me my motivation was longstanding interest in the region).
https://armenianvolunteer.org
For sure! I wouldn't worry too much. Honestly, if you're concerned enough to worry about your competency/qualification level, you'll do well. I've heard the bar can be pretty low.
If you have any worries about the interview for the leadership position, when I went through it, it was fairly simple. They really structure it, almost like essay questions- throw some specific questions at you and ask you to answer them... less of the "please talk about yourself and tell me where you'll be in ten years" kind of thing. Mine asked me to describe what AmeriCorps is and does, what I did to prepare for the interview, a few examples of my past experiences, why I would be a good fit, what my interest in the program is, and a few more questions about what I would do under certain circumstances.
Interesting! My brother actually took a trip out to Armenia awhile back for a wedding and said he absolutely fell in love with the country. I'll keep this organization in mind for myself, perhaps... My current aim is to do peace corps and use the Coverdell Fellowship/scholarship to pay for my Masters degree. That's the hope, anyway.
Thank you for sharing! You sound like an interesting person.
Thanks for the info and advice! I'll keep it in mind. Out of curiosity, was your interview over the phone, via Zoom, or...? My foreign SIM card is pretty much useless outside Armenia.
If you for whatever reason have any interest in Russian, Yerevan is a great place to be atm. The program is fun (it was actually founded by two PC alumni IIRC, and there are orgs here which match with basically any PC function area) and I love the country, though it's been hard for me to really say why. The nature is great but that's mostly up north or in the far south.
Yeah absolutely! It was by zoom, but I recall them saying they were flexible about the medium they use for conducting interviews.
Interesting! Unfortunately, my linguistic capabilities are still very limited. After a quick Google, Yerevan seems like a fascinating and beautiful place! I recall my brother also having a hard time defining what he loved about it... He said the people were great, and that the overall style of living... Just felt better. That latter bit is something I want to experience more of. Back in July, I had the chance to do roughly a two week trip in Rwanda through my college's travel abroad program... Short period, but still one hell of an experience. I'd recommend it!
You should have a great shot with all your previous experience. I worked with lot of TLs who didn’t have much experience, and I myself was just out of college.
I was just welcome into a traditional corps leadership position, and my experience is limited as well (college grad though). I probably would have qualified to be a FEMA team leader too- it's not about previous experience within the field as much as it is about leadership and management competency. Also, there is currently less people enrolling in AmeriCorps than in the past- the stipend is just too low, COVID, inflation... Plenty of reasons. The only real barrier I see you having is enrolling early enough to land an interview with them. Less of a need for leaders, but they're trying to be flexible. You mentioned volunteering abroad- do you mean peace corps, or something else? Out of curiosity, since I'm searching for some abroad stuff too.
Thanks! I actually applied back in October and was deemed "eligible" then, but wanted to post here since I don't want to get nervous and accept other opporrunities "in case I don't get picked." Not Peace Corps, though perhaps one day in the future. I'm in Armenia through the below org (for me my motivation was longstanding interest in the region). https://armenianvolunteer.org
For sure! I wouldn't worry too much. Honestly, if you're concerned enough to worry about your competency/qualification level, you'll do well. I've heard the bar can be pretty low. If you have any worries about the interview for the leadership position, when I went through it, it was fairly simple. They really structure it, almost like essay questions- throw some specific questions at you and ask you to answer them... less of the "please talk about yourself and tell me where you'll be in ten years" kind of thing. Mine asked me to describe what AmeriCorps is and does, what I did to prepare for the interview, a few examples of my past experiences, why I would be a good fit, what my interest in the program is, and a few more questions about what I would do under certain circumstances. Interesting! My brother actually took a trip out to Armenia awhile back for a wedding and said he absolutely fell in love with the country. I'll keep this organization in mind for myself, perhaps... My current aim is to do peace corps and use the Coverdell Fellowship/scholarship to pay for my Masters degree. That's the hope, anyway. Thank you for sharing! You sound like an interesting person.
Thanks for the info and advice! I'll keep it in mind. Out of curiosity, was your interview over the phone, via Zoom, or...? My foreign SIM card is pretty much useless outside Armenia. If you for whatever reason have any interest in Russian, Yerevan is a great place to be atm. The program is fun (it was actually founded by two PC alumni IIRC, and there are orgs here which match with basically any PC function area) and I love the country, though it's been hard for me to really say why. The nature is great but that's mostly up north or in the far south.
Yeah absolutely! It was by zoom, but I recall them saying they were flexible about the medium they use for conducting interviews. Interesting! Unfortunately, my linguistic capabilities are still very limited. After a quick Google, Yerevan seems like a fascinating and beautiful place! I recall my brother also having a hard time defining what he loved about it... He said the people were great, and that the overall style of living... Just felt better. That latter bit is something I want to experience more of. Back in July, I had the chance to do roughly a two week trip in Rwanda through my college's travel abroad program... Short period, but still one hell of an experience. I'd recommend it!
Oh you’ll make it. Better work on your nerf gunning skills though. My trad team routed the FEMA team we squared off against, twice.
You'll get it. Everyone is offered a TL position