Decisions, decisions...

Anyone else starting to think about what you’re going to do after done with your CTC VISTA term of service?  (I’m only about 5 ½ months in…) I’ve been trying to figure it out since day one practically.  Don’t get me wrong; it’s not because I hate what I’m doing and am counting the days until I’m done.  Far from it, in fact!  I love what I’m doing, I love the people I’m working with, I love where I work, the list goes on!   

Part of the reason why I chose to be a member of the AmeriCorps VISTA program for a second year is because I didn’t know what I wanted to do after completing my first year.  Sure, I had a much better idea, but the options were so numerous, and I didn’t feel ready to decide what I wanted to do with the rest of my life career-wise.  So I decided to take another year to try to make up my mind (among other things), but wanted to continue to make a difference while learning something new.  (My first year as a VISTA member was spent managing volunteers, planning events, creating publications, and doing research for the homeless coalition in Indianapolis…COMPLETELY different from what I’m doing now so I can’t even compare the two.)   

Learn new things I have.  I honestly never imagined that I would have any sort of technical position because I didn’t have the background (I graduated with a degree in audiology and speech-language pathology), but here I am testing software and providing technical support, to name a couple things.  And I’m finding out it’s not so bad.  And a few HTML, Dreamweaver, and Photoshop classes later, I’m finding out it’s really pretty neat. 

So where does that leave me?  (This is my fourth time starting this paragraph.)   Although I’m at no professional level or expert, it seems like I have more options.  If I recall correctly, I think it was Jimmy Buffett who said “Indecision may or may not be my problem.”

Comment from danielle martin on February 22, 2007 - 10:33am

Hey Laura,

Ever think of being a VISTA Leader? ;)

No but seriously, I just had an email exchange with Ray who's finishing in June about this same thing. And I've been thinking about how the Project can be better about end of service support (and alumni relations too). There's lots of stuff on the Corporation's website (see http://encorps.nationalserviceresources.org/resources/moving_on/laa_movi...) but it's so generalized, it's a bit frustrating.

But my gut feeling is that most of the CTC VISTAs I've heard that have moved on but are still in the field met their future employers as a VISTA - either folks get a job at the org they served at or met someone in their work that hooked them into a project. So keep your eyes peeled and your networking skills honed now!

-Danielle