Interviewing One Of The Youngest Directors In The YMCA
During our month long internship we were given the task to interview our mentor. This was to give us a chance to get to know a little bit more about what they do and what it's like to have their job. I interviewed my mentor the second week of my internship that way I had time to adjust to and learn about the new setting I was in before the interview. While interviewing my mentor I learned a lot of things about my mentor and her job that I would have known before. It was a great experience for me because now I know more about the YMCA and what it was like for my mentor when she had to work hard and make difficult decisions to reach her goals.
Interviewer Name: Sofianna Sanchez
Mentor Name: Andrea Arroyo Date of Interview: Tuesday, May 16, 2017 |
How do you effectively manage employees?
“I like to think of my strategy as connecting with my staff, not necessarily at a personal level, but finding a fine balance of a professional relationship and also as a mentor/friend relationship. I feel that once they can trust me then it’s easier for them to respect me as well as when I’m assigning tasks or giving them feedback. That’s my approach, to first build a relationship with my staff where they can trust me and know that I’m here to be a team player as well and not just their boss. I’m part of their team just that I’m superior to them. That’s the strategy that I try to use.”
Did you come up with that strategy from your past experiences while working for people?
“I’ve been very fortunate that I’ve had very good leadership in my past so I would say that yes a combination of that as well as a little bit of not having such good leadership as well as learning that that style isn’t really effective on people especially as somebody like me. Yeah so I guess I would say that I’ve learned it from my past supervisors.”
What is the most difficult part of your day? How do you overcome it?
“Well every day is very different at the Y. There’s always something going on, we are a non-profit you’re always going to have different hats to wear. So I think the most difficult part of my day is probably learning to balance all of the stress and meeting all my deadlines on time because even if I do have a schedule and I time myself on things something always comes up that has to get my attention immediately, right there and then so now I’m backtracked an hour from what I had originally anticipated. So just keeping open communication with my other teammates as well as with my direct supervisor and letting them know where I’m at with my schedule. Then just finding a work life balance as well because I care a lot about my job and I care a lot about the employees so there are days where I work really long hours so that’s the stressful part about, wanting to get everything done effectively but also reminding myself that I have a life outside of work.”
What do you consider your greatest achievement in your career?
“In my career here with the Y honestly I would say this position. I started with the Y not that long ago as a front desk part time employee just going through college and doors started to open up really quickly for me I elevated fairly quickly through different positions and now I’m one of the youngest directors in the association so I think that that is a very big accomplishment for myself.”
How did attending college change your perspective about your dream career?
“A lot. When I first started college I originally was a journalism and media studies major and then just being in college taking my undergrad classes it opened up different experiences and I realized that yes, I had a passion for writing and media but it wasn’t necessarily what I wanted to do and then I had a minor in french actually and then I realized that I didn’t want to do french anymore because it was just too difficult I didn’t love it anymore. Then I actually ended up majoring in spanish and I have a minor in counseling and social change and I absolutely love it. I learned a lot about myself and I learned a different perspective in life and about characters, behaviors, and personalities. College did help me I went in thinking one thing that I wasn't going to be doing and then realizing that that wasn’t what I really wanted to do and I found a different path that I like.”
Do you feel like what you majored in really helps you with your job?
“A lot of people say what do you do with a spanish degree? Are you going to be a teacher? That’s the route that most people go with but, here with the association I've been able to do a lot of the translating for a lot of our documents because the associations doesn’t really have a department to lead to do all the translating, so I’ve helped with that. Then specifically being in this region it’s south county, spanish is a high demand here. I want to say more than 50% of our members speak spanish and all of the communication we have to do is in spanish so it has helped me I’ve been able to contribute to a lot of things for the association at the bilingual level.”
What steps did you take to obtain your position as membership director?
“Like I said I started off as front desk staff I eventually became lead staff within our team and I actually went abroad when I was still in college for about 6 months. When I came back I was looking for a full time position and there weren’t any positions available at my location however, there was another lead staff position at a different branch and I applied and I got it. Then I worked there for a few months the location was really far from my home and from school it was all the way in north county. I was there for a very short time but I learned a lot. I’m a very dedicated and determined person so I’m very open to learning new things and I get excited. I’m constantly asking questions and learning new things and just being able to help everybody around. I was offered a position to be a full time supervisor back at my old location and I was very fortunate to have a really strong leadership team there that really helped me and taught me a lot of skills and then I was recommended for this position. I’ve been very fortunate that I’ve had a very good support system also of mentors and people looking out for me as well.”
Do you think it was your passion for this job that helped you level up to where you are now?
“I think so because not a lot of people have the drive to want to do something. I fell in love with the Y, I started and it was just a job for me honestly and slowly I fell in love with the people that come to the Y, I fell in love with my teammates and the environment. Then I started to learn more about the Y, what the Y really does not just here but also with our after school programs and all the youth and family services and having a passion for wanting to have a counseling minor in social change I have a passion for that as well. Once I started looking into what the Y was that’s what gave me the confirmation of yeah this is what you want to do this is where you want to work because it is an organization that has the same values as I do. Once I realized that I think it pushed me more to have a bigger passion and wanting to continue to take more challenges.”
What was one of the most difficult points in your career and how did you get past it?
“Coming into this position and leaving my old position even though this is a bigger opportunity it was hard for me to leave my team back home like I said I was very fortunate to have very good leadership and it was a bigger branch and I was just very close to my team, I loved working with them and I knew that it was a very unique team that it’s hard to find something like that so that was one of the biggest difficulties with my career is wanting to stay there or wanting to come and take a different challenge with a whole new team. Then once I came here it was a really big challenge because like I said it’s a smaller branch so we have to wear a lot more hats than normal. One of our directors was out on maternity leave so two weeks into me transitioning here she was out so then I had to step in and oversee those two departments as well as trying to adjust to my new branch. It was a tough first few months but I managed it.
How long have you been in this position?
“I’m going on 9 months now so I’m still fairly new.”
“I like to think of my strategy as connecting with my staff, not necessarily at a personal level, but finding a fine balance of a professional relationship and also as a mentor/friend relationship. I feel that once they can trust me then it’s easier for them to respect me as well as when I’m assigning tasks or giving them feedback. That’s my approach, to first build a relationship with my staff where they can trust me and know that I’m here to be a team player as well and not just their boss. I’m part of their team just that I’m superior to them. That’s the strategy that I try to use.”
Did you come up with that strategy from your past experiences while working for people?
“I’ve been very fortunate that I’ve had very good leadership in my past so I would say that yes a combination of that as well as a little bit of not having such good leadership as well as learning that that style isn’t really effective on people especially as somebody like me. Yeah so I guess I would say that I’ve learned it from my past supervisors.”
What is the most difficult part of your day? How do you overcome it?
“Well every day is very different at the Y. There’s always something going on, we are a non-profit you’re always going to have different hats to wear. So I think the most difficult part of my day is probably learning to balance all of the stress and meeting all my deadlines on time because even if I do have a schedule and I time myself on things something always comes up that has to get my attention immediately, right there and then so now I’m backtracked an hour from what I had originally anticipated. So just keeping open communication with my other teammates as well as with my direct supervisor and letting them know where I’m at with my schedule. Then just finding a work life balance as well because I care a lot about my job and I care a lot about the employees so there are days where I work really long hours so that’s the stressful part about, wanting to get everything done effectively but also reminding myself that I have a life outside of work.”
What do you consider your greatest achievement in your career?
“In my career here with the Y honestly I would say this position. I started with the Y not that long ago as a front desk part time employee just going through college and doors started to open up really quickly for me I elevated fairly quickly through different positions and now I’m one of the youngest directors in the association so I think that that is a very big accomplishment for myself.”
How did attending college change your perspective about your dream career?
“A lot. When I first started college I originally was a journalism and media studies major and then just being in college taking my undergrad classes it opened up different experiences and I realized that yes, I had a passion for writing and media but it wasn’t necessarily what I wanted to do and then I had a minor in french actually and then I realized that I didn’t want to do french anymore because it was just too difficult I didn’t love it anymore. Then I actually ended up majoring in spanish and I have a minor in counseling and social change and I absolutely love it. I learned a lot about myself and I learned a different perspective in life and about characters, behaviors, and personalities. College did help me I went in thinking one thing that I wasn't going to be doing and then realizing that that wasn’t what I really wanted to do and I found a different path that I like.”
Do you feel like what you majored in really helps you with your job?
“A lot of people say what do you do with a spanish degree? Are you going to be a teacher? That’s the route that most people go with but, here with the association I've been able to do a lot of the translating for a lot of our documents because the associations doesn’t really have a department to lead to do all the translating, so I’ve helped with that. Then specifically being in this region it’s south county, spanish is a high demand here. I want to say more than 50% of our members speak spanish and all of the communication we have to do is in spanish so it has helped me I’ve been able to contribute to a lot of things for the association at the bilingual level.”
What steps did you take to obtain your position as membership director?
“Like I said I started off as front desk staff I eventually became lead staff within our team and I actually went abroad when I was still in college for about 6 months. When I came back I was looking for a full time position and there weren’t any positions available at my location however, there was another lead staff position at a different branch and I applied and I got it. Then I worked there for a few months the location was really far from my home and from school it was all the way in north county. I was there for a very short time but I learned a lot. I’m a very dedicated and determined person so I’m very open to learning new things and I get excited. I’m constantly asking questions and learning new things and just being able to help everybody around. I was offered a position to be a full time supervisor back at my old location and I was very fortunate to have a really strong leadership team there that really helped me and taught me a lot of skills and then I was recommended for this position. I’ve been very fortunate that I’ve had a very good support system also of mentors and people looking out for me as well.”
Do you think it was your passion for this job that helped you level up to where you are now?
“I think so because not a lot of people have the drive to want to do something. I fell in love with the Y, I started and it was just a job for me honestly and slowly I fell in love with the people that come to the Y, I fell in love with my teammates and the environment. Then I started to learn more about the Y, what the Y really does not just here but also with our after school programs and all the youth and family services and having a passion for wanting to have a counseling minor in social change I have a passion for that as well. Once I started looking into what the Y was that’s what gave me the confirmation of yeah this is what you want to do this is where you want to work because it is an organization that has the same values as I do. Once I realized that I think it pushed me more to have a bigger passion and wanting to continue to take more challenges.”
What was one of the most difficult points in your career and how did you get past it?
“Coming into this position and leaving my old position even though this is a bigger opportunity it was hard for me to leave my team back home like I said I was very fortunate to have very good leadership and it was a bigger branch and I was just very close to my team, I loved working with them and I knew that it was a very unique team that it’s hard to find something like that so that was one of the biggest difficulties with my career is wanting to stay there or wanting to come and take a different challenge with a whole new team. Then once I came here it was a really big challenge because like I said it’s a smaller branch so we have to wear a lot more hats than normal. One of our directors was out on maternity leave so two weeks into me transitioning here she was out so then I had to step in and oversee those two departments as well as trying to adjust to my new branch. It was a tough first few months but I managed it.
How long have you been in this position?
“I’m going on 9 months now so I’m still fairly new.”