Working students build interview skills at free resume bootcamp

• Free workshops deliver career development: Total Spark partners with local nonprofits like Goodwill to provide young job seekers with resume workshops, mentorship and free career resources directly in their communities.
• Community events tackle youth job market barriers: With 73% of working students desiring extra support, accessible local workshops help youth overcome hiring hurdles, scheduling conflicts and limited guidance.
• Executive coaching turns life experience into interview confidence: Students practice mock interviews with corporate leaders, learning to translate personal achievements, such as team leadership and schedule management, into valuable workplace strengths.

For La’Niyah Mondie, a high school senior hoping to build a career in marketing, getting a job has been difficult. Unreliable transportation, employers who don’t reply and the paperwork hurdles that come with being a teenager looking for work have all gotten in the way. Seeking free job resources to move her search forward, Mondie decided to attend a Total Spark and Goodwill Resume Bootcamp at a Total Wireless store in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood.

Mondie was one of a group of high school and college students who spent the afternoon learning how to turn their everyday experiences into skills that employers value. The event was presented by Total Spark, Total Wireless’s community grant program for working students. Total Spark partners with local nonprofits across the country—including Goodwill in Chicago, the LA Conservation Corps, Dallas’ Wilkinson Center and Temple University’s Lenfest Center for Community Workforce Partnerships—to host in-person events at Total Wireless stores, providing working students with career workshops, mentorship and job resources.

“Today’s job market isn’t kind to youth,” says Diana Muñoz, director of youth engagement at Goodwill of Greater Milwaukee and Chicago. “During the school year, students struggle to find employers that will work with their school schedule, and many times, [they have] to decide between having a job or going to school.”

This squeeze is even tighter for those who manage to find jobs while attending school. “Time is the biggest luxury for working students,” says Anna Lee, partnerships lead at Empower Work, an employment-focused nonprofit that collaborated with Total Spark and Goodwill to create the bootcamp. “They are often juggling work, family responsibilities, bills and everything we all experience, but compounded.”

A Total Wireless survey found that 73% of working students wish they had additional support to help them pursue a career. That’s where the bootcamp comes in. During the event, students learned why a resume matters, critiqued good and bad examples of resumes as a group, and rehearsed interviews with Total Wireless executives.

Nicole Maldonado, a mission learning consultant at Goodwill who led the Chicago bootcamp, says neighborhood presence is key. “Having these events in our communities makes them easily accessible for our participants and their families to join,” she says. “Events like this definitely boost our students’ confidence.”

For aspiring working students like La’Niyah Mondie, the day’s event delivered that exact confidence boost. She had a one-on-one mock interview session with James Lee, senior director of channel field sales at Total Wireless. Lee coached her on communicating her strengths during an interview, advising Mondie to answer questions with specific stories from her own life, such as leading her basketball team through a rough patch and balancing school with sports training twice a day. “Now, I feel more confident when I’m talking to others,” Mondie says. 

Before the session ended, Lee left her with one last piece of advice: “Don’t sell yourself short, ever,” he said. “Go into that interview knowing, ‘I got this.’”

Total Wireless’s Total Spark supports working students balancing jobs, education, and family with training, mentorship and career development opportunities that helps turn ambition into advancement. The program is part of Verizon Value Cares, the responsible business platform across Verizon’s prepaid brands, built on the belief that our customers have big ambitions and deserve someone in their corner.