Hello everyone! You’re probably wondering where and why I disappeared and stopped blogging. I’ve got a big update and I’ll relay the exciting news to you!
First off, where did you go?
I decided to take a break for three months due to a deluge of work and new Praxis program obligations. My workplace at the time increased my hours, which I was grateful for since I needed the pay, and the placement process of Praxis changed with new requirements.
I decided that a break from blogging and juggling too many things at once was much needed for a healthy headspace.
What did you do during this time?
Previously, placement (the phase in the Praxis program where participants start looking for a job to apprentice at) required just one weekly video pitch and presentation slides that would be sent by a Praxis advisor, to prospective employers.
Now, placement has upped the ante and introduced Crash, a new company launched by Praxis to help job seekers, both within and outside of the Praxis network find jobs.
What is Crash?
Basically, Crash is Praxis-lite and it’s like LinkedIn on steroids, except more fun and interactive for both the job seeker and recruiter.
Since I was in placement, I created a Crash profile, which includes an “about me” video introduction, a portfolio proving competency in skills relating to the roles that I’m interested in, and tech stack of various tools.
You can view my Crash profile as an example, here.
How does Crash help you with your job hunt?
Crash approaches the job hunt drastically different compared to the traditional way of “spraying and praying,” mass sending resumes to employers and hoping for the best.
Instead, their mission is to make the job hunt fun and tailored to your prospective employers. Crash profiles are also a way to stand out from the crowd and with proof that you can back up claims about ideal work qualities that an employer seeks.
For example, many job seekers claim they take the initiative but employers feel uncertain because of the lack of evidence. So now prospective employers can see solid proof of a future employee’s skills and value they bring to the table.
Crash is definitely a win in increasing your chances of getting hired. Think of Crash as the dating service of the hiring industry.
What exactly did you do with Crash during placement?
Instead of one weekly video pitch of why company “X” should hire me, the Praxis placement process now requires five video pitches per week, then posting them to my Crash profile (please note that these pitches can only be seen by a private link).
Then, I sent out cold emails, with my pitch, to the respective employer/business partner. For companies that are business partners with Praxis, my advisors emailed them instead.
Additionally, each week I also received feedback from my advisor with suggestions of how to revise each pitch if it needed any changes. So in addition to finding five new companies to target each week, I also had to revise one to five videos.
Each of these five pitches targets a different company, usually startups, and the pitches look similar to this.
If you weren’t aware, the Praxis program is similar to having a part-time job and each participant is expected to carve out ten to fifteen hours a week to complete weekly tasks.
Did you get hired after creating a Crash profile?
Yes, I actually did!
It all started when the Crash and Praxis teams posted my Crash profile on LinkedIn, Twitter, and reached out via email to their various connections. After I had gone public, I received an outpour of companies wanting to interview me.
At one point I had SEVEN interviews in one week! And about thirteen companies who scheduled interviews with me.
This was all the result of launching my Crash profile.
One of the companies called Zcash Foundation requested an interview with me in late July, then a follow-up interview two weeks later. During the first interview, my interviewer gave me an assignment; create a database for event planning then present it to her in the follow-up interview.
Keep in mind I had no prior experience nor familiarity with building databases or planning events like conferences. But I was eager to show my worth and learned a new tool along the way. I used Airtable to build my database, which was tremendously helpful since they provided templates to work from, thus saving a lot of time and energy.
The follow-up interview rolls around and I will admit I was slightly nervous presenting my database because I was uncertain if it was good enough or if it wasn’t what the interviewer wanted. But I presented with confidence and explained why I added certain details such as colored tabs to help stay organized.
After I had presented, the interviewer tells me that my database was completely different from how they plan events. Uh-oh. But I persevered and charged on with the rest of the interview.
Then the interviewer asked me if I would like to join the team and wanted to hire me. On the spot.
What. Did I hear her correctly? During this time I had gone through dozens of interviews and was constantly getting rejected, and I was starting to feel hopeless.
But now, almost seemingly out of nowhere I got hired on the spot, in a role that I genuinely wanted to launch my career in, and with a super rad crypto-related non-profit.
I was absolutely thrilled and over the moon when I landed a role as an operations associate for Zcash Foundation!
And I have many thanks to give to the interviewer who is now my boss; I thank her for seeing potential in me and extending this generous offer.
So what’s next?
I’ll continue updating my progress as an operations associate for Zcash Foundation. Additionally, I’ll be posting more frequently and adding some of my Crash pitches to my portfolio.
Here’s to many more exciting adventures!