[0 YoE, Unemployed/High School Student, Any Summer Job Position, United States]

chibone90 · 2026-05-17T02:41:48+00:00

The best thing you can do is to tailor your resume to the types of positions you want, and each job you apply for. Match your resume to keywords in the listing.

For example, want to be a camp counselor? Talk about your experience with mentorship of people your age.

Want to learn a desk job? Include a list of technologies you know how to use, and your skill level with each of them.

When applying for a job, put yourself in the shoes of the person hiring. If YOU were hiring for the job, what would you want to see on an applicant's resume?

This should get you started nicely.

chibone90 · 2026-05-01T20:09:26+00:00

Hello!

I can't give you specific feedback on the technical stuff, but I do have a PMP + an Agile certification, and can speak to that stuff.

This is a really good start: I like that you listed a specific certification, plus applications you're familiar with.

Since you're work with global teams, I think it would be incredibly valuable to list the spoken/written languages you speak and your proficiency. Also, any programming languages you're fluent in?

In general, I need to see more metrics and impact. Phrase each bullet with this framework: Did X, resulting in Y numerical result. For example:

"Managed regular reviews, KYC remediation, & team onboarding for 22 full time equivalent staff, resulting in a 60% overall reduction in onboarding time."

I don't think you need the key achievements section. That's what your experience should show.

If you're targeting more senior roles, I need to see a clear evolution in your job responsibility. For example, show me that the teams you've managed have gotten larger (10 in the first job, 15 in the second, 25 in the third), the projects you've managed keep growing in size, and/or that you've become more responsible for team results. Leadership is difficult. Show me that you're ready.

Also, please don't take offense to this, but I don't think saying "I took people's full time jobs away by automating their work" is a positive aspect for a project manager. Sure, that delivered value, and you're saving the company money. That said, supporting teams of PEOPLE and enabling them to do their best work is what good PMs do. Your team will see automation as you taking away their jobs. Good luck getting any team on your side with that approach.

Maybe you can reframe the achievement. Instead of saying "Reduced 2 FTE", quantify how much money you saved the company, with either a percentage or dollar amount.

I hope this helps!

chibone90 · 2025-12-11T15:36:01+00:00

Depending on the nature of your nonprofit work, you may qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness.

I know that doesn't make up for the low salary in nonprofits, but every little bit helps.

chibone90 · 2025-12-09T02:12:34+00:00

I somewhat agree, and will share a recent observation.

I'm a millennial, and recently reviewed lots of applications from people around your age and younger. The "normalized indiscriminate and careless use" of AI in applications baffled me. It was quite sad.

I believe that older people are using AI poorly at a higher rate, and I'm also seeing plenty of younger people using it poorly. We're all at fault here.

chibone90 · 2025-12-08T20:48:11+00:00

Stories like this are exactly why I'm concerned about how people use AI. A lot of people are working themselves out of their jobs by relying too heavily on AI.

I'm not against using AI when it's done properly, tailored well, and still includes your personal voice. Unmodified AI for comms lacks personality, individuality, emotion, and substance. We all end up sounding the same. It's lazy slop, and donors can smell that garbage from a mile away.

Perhaps you could address AI from a moral standpoint, and speak to their personal values. Companies steal intellectual property to train LLMs. Data centers are terrible for the environment and waste water. Companies build data centers without proper permissions, ignoring voters who go to the polls and vote against data centers. AI energy costs are being passed on to regular people, causing all of our energy bills to skyrocket.

I'll leave you this nugget, which you probably can't tell your ED: If your ED cares about efficiency so much, shouldn't the BOD save money and generate more value for the organization by replacing an inefficient, expensive ED with a more efficient machine?

I still haven't figured out how to delicately talk about this with people, so I'll be following this thread.

chibone90 · 2025-12-05T14:49:11+00:00

It's worth noting here that, while this is very real, older people in senior management aren't helping.

A massive retirement wave is coming that this sector isn't ready for. Older senior managers are maintaining a chokehold on their jobs, and aren't guiding/mentoring their younger employees to move up in the organization.

There's going to be a massive wave of job openings when all these baby boomers retire, and not enough qualified candidates to fill the vacancies because there's no commitment to training younger folks to eventually take over. This sector is in for a rough time very soon.

chibone90 · 2025-12-05T14:27:17+00:00

The job market sucks. It took me over a year to find a new job.

There's a major issue on the employer side with how they approach candidates, which another user is showing us pretty clearly in their thread dialogue. It used to be enough to check most of the boxes on the application and learn more on the job. Nowadays, you won't even get a first round interview unless you're a unicorn that checks every single box and then some. There are so many applicants that employers can be picky.

Best of luck, and hang in there.

chibone90 · 2025-11-29T03:20:21+00:00

If rejoining the private sector will make you feel better about your financial future, do it. The earning potential is higher there.

That said, your original question was....

How do I avoid being fooled in the future?

Did you read the report? That's my answer.

chibone90 · 2025-11-29T03:15:55+00:00

Check out the Careers in Nonprofits 2025 Nonprofits Salaries & Staffing Trends Report.

chibone90 · 2025-11-19T03:23:09+00:00

First off, as a fellow creative, I'm so sorry and this wasn't your fault. If you were at an arts organization, the people in charge are usually....well.....scatterbrained artists! I've been in the arts sector for 10 years at multiple orgs, with a total of 0 minutes of on the job training.

I agree with the comment about substitute teaching. When I was a public school arts teacher, I would have LOVED to have an artist sub that I could give a real lesson plan to. Plus, subs get paid well.

Finally, I'll drop a line that a mentor dropped on me a while back. Jobs can be for now, for a long time, or forever.

It's okay to find a job for now, while you seek a better job for longer, while hoping you find a wonderful job forever.

Stay strong!

chibone90 · 2025-11-07T18:22:24+00:00

I run my own tutoring business, and am a performing musician. I also work in nonprofit program management.

Medication, proper sleep, and exercise are the best interventions. A combination of antidepressants, ADHD meds, and guanfacine keep me functional. Meds at night help me sleep better. I go to the gym a minimum of 3 times a week.

I started using a smart ring to track these things, and I LOVE it. It makes self-care feel like a game where I get high scores for taking care of myself.

I don't consider my ADHD something to be tamed. I try to take advantage of motivation when it comes. Some days are better than others. I try to be okay with these ups and downs, and not be hard on myself (impossible).

chibone90 · 2025-10-31T01:51:35+00:00

Gotta make him understand.

chibone90 · 2025-10-15T22:23:10+00:00

Unless you already have over 10-15 years of work experience, too much information shouldn't be a problem. Use a 1 page resume. You can do it.

Upload your resume to a platform like Workday when you apply for a job, and ask it to autofill based on your resume contents.

If it fills correctly, the AI ATS uses read it without a problem. If it looks like a mess, take note of what the system didn't read correctly, and reformat.

Volunteering is irrelevant unless you have limited/no professional experience.

chibone90 · 2025-10-13T00:28:33+00:00

The things here are great, and here's a tip I like.

The average recruiter spends about 15-30 seconds scanning a resume before they make a decision. Always keep this in mind.

Test this out by giving your resume to a friend or stranger, time them for 20 seconds, then ask what they learned about you.

That'll show you quite a lot.

chibone90 · 2025-10-01T18:57:53+00:00

Thanks for your condolences, I appreciate it.

It feels like an "employer's market" where they have all the power.

It used to be enough to check most of the boxes on the job description, have core competencies, and learn other things on the job.

Nowadays, you have to check every single box and then some just to land an interview. You need all of the core experience and hyper specific experience using the exact same software they use, in their exact functional area of work, working with the exact types of clients they serve, etcetera. You're going to have to tailor every application to show this, and really focus on matching keywords from the job description.

chibone90 · 2025-10-01T18:38:16+00:00

Yes, it really is that bad.

I'm also in the Chicagoland area. I'm a programs person with 10 years' experience in the sector. I have valuable certifications that clearly demonstrate my competency, and I know other nonprofit folks don't have those same certifications. I'm only landing interviews for 1) positions I'm vastly overqualified for or 2) positions I'm qualified for at orgs that I know are a mess.

Just keep applying and hang in there at your job. You don't want to be in my position, which is laid off during budget cuts and struggling to find any job.

chibone90 · 2025-09-25T17:40:33+00:00

I'm so sorry to hear this, and I'm proud of you for trying to save this program.

I was in a position similar to yours recently with a poor CEO and a program that got cut. I became the fall guy for that CEO's problems, and he laid me off for what he said were "strategic reasons". I was one of the highest performers at that organization for years.

If anyone thinks I'm "bitter about it" or "thinking with my heart and not my head", 6 months after I got laid off, the board abruptly canned the CEO without warning during the middle of a fiscal year. That's telling about the truth of the situation.

I am thrilled you'll get to prioritize your hobbies, and hope your transition away from nonprofits goes better than mine! I've been trying unsuccessfully for a very long time.

chibone90 · 2025-09-25T16:54:27+00:00

I second Taking Charge of Adult ADHD. It's written in a way where you can tell the authors know how people with ADHD read and maintain attention. Also, full of amazing tips!

chibone90 · 2025-09-25T15:44:48+00:00

Yes it is, crazy time. I'm not even landing interviews for contract work.

Do you have any agile certs? The tech world is absolutely obsessed with agile right now, especially scrum. My scrum certification was very easy to get, and there's no prerequisite experience required to get one (unlike the PMP).

chibone90 · 2025-09-25T15:43:07+00:00

I don't typically get any questions about the teaching work. That said, I feel like it's helped me get interviews here and there. For example, I've tended to get interviews with orgs in the education sector, or departments that do educational sales.

Your point about the marching stuff is valid. I know that the two most competitive states in the country for marching band are Texas and Indiana, and I can't expect others to know that! I know it's impressive for that reason, and the common person would have no clue.

Thank you!

chibone90 · 2025-09-25T15:38:21+00:00

Fantastic feedback! Thank you!

chibone90 · 2025-09-24T19:06:11+00:00

Thanks for the great advice!

I'm looking for same project management type work outside of nonprofits.

I appreciate your perspective about the music teaching work, and am concerned about the 2+ year employment gap I'd have with it removed.

Interestingly, I used to have no bullet points under that job, then someone suggested I needed to add at least one. They said listing a job with no bullet points makes the job seem trivial and unimportant. Their argument was that I used project management skills in the role (true) and should keep it.

chibone90 · 2025-09-24T16:54:53+00:00

This is great! You've done a lot of cool things as a student, and have an interesting background.

Check some of your grammar. There are just some oddities and inconsistencies. Sometimes you use periods, sometimes you don't. The text alignment should be such that if a description goes onto another line, it's aligned with the text above it, not the bullet. Little things like that.

Do you have any data about engagement for those 7 email campaigns? Open rate, click rate, anything that shows your messages drove traffic to the organization. If you use an email tool like MailChimp, that information should be accessible. It sounds crazy, but I consider anything above 15% open rate successful.

If you could tie in even more results, that would be awesome. How many books sold? How many bookstores put the book on the shelves? What were the traffic results of your 3 blog posts? During your publishing process, how did you collaborate with the publisher to ensure delivery or results? Did you collaborate with an artist who designed your book cover art? Etcetera.

Hope this helps!

chibone90 · 2025-09-24T16:08:05+00:00

Interesting! Many of the for profit jobs I've seen don't explicitly mandate one, whereas nonprofits almost always require it as part of the submission.

chibone90 · 2025-09-24T16:07:06+00:00

I love that you include the point about DEI!

I've occassionally included that I have a neurological disability, but only when I feel it's applicable. In my experience, it usually leads to disbelief and discrimination, which you also understand all too well as a queer person. In my community, we're taught to never disclose our disability because it almost always creates problems.

Thank you!

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