Hi Adriana,

Thanks for writing to us. It is great you have gained so much valuable experience through your volunteer and advocacy work. I have sent your question to our career coach but in the meantime want to direct you to the resume section of our website: https://www.cancerandcareers.org/en/looking-for-work/resume-cover-letter

Also, I want to remind you that many people volunteer for causes for a variety of reasons and cancer impacts many people. Many volunteer for cancer organizations who are not diagnosed. You can be careful with your wording to not disclose (i.e. not writing something like "Survivor Speaker" but instead writing something like "Motivational Speaker" or "Team Leader", "Fundraising Captain" etc.).

I hope this helps!

Best,
Maddy Meislin
Senior Manager of Programs
Cancer and Careers

Amazing feed back!! Thank you. I have sent my resume in for review and hopefully see a coach in the near future! I am 3 years out and I feel with help here I know I can obtain a job.

These is what I have so far!

“ Advocate/Social Media Manager- volunteer work, helped create impactful post, marketing material via CanvaApp, photos/videos of breast cancer women/survivors/thrivers, and previvors by the Founder of the Portrait Project. Interacted via social media, email, and zoom platforms with followers, non-profits, businesses, sponsors to enhance the organizations online presence. Additionally, attended fundraisers, community, app launch, events, helped set up and personally interact with founders, presidents, and board members or non-profits. Through monthly Zoom meetings, I collaborated with the teams, to prepare and execute monthly social media strategies. My dedication and passion for social media engagement would make me a valuable seeking to strength their online and in the community. ”

Any feedback (while I wait to meet with a coach) is greatly appreciated it please!!

I will be applying for jobs in the meantime, so I am editing my resume as I learn and discover ways to make changes.

Also, is there a way I can help here on Cancer and Careers ? Volunteer work or jobs? Honestly I am new to this life and definitely will be using with site for my needs. I have signed up for flex jobs with the discount codes since I am looking for remote work only.

Thank you in advance

Adriana

Hi Adriana,

I am so glad you are feeling hopeful - as you should! You have already beat me to recommending that you submit your resume to our Resume Review Service, it is a great idea to get feedback from a professional career coach. It looks to me like you have GREAT experience that would be valuable to a potential employer, and the language you wrote did not ring any bells of accidental disclosure. I will leave it to Julie Jansen, the professional career coach who will review your resume, for any further feedback on the specific details.

It sounds like you are taking all the right steps towards a successful job search! FlexJobs is an excellent site for looking for remote work. I also recommend you download or order our Job Search Toolkit, as it features tons of advice on resumes, cover letters, applying for jobs, etc: https://www.cancerandcareers.org/publication_orders/new. 

Thank you for your interest in getting more involved with Cancer and Careers! The best way to do so is to sign up to be an Ambassador/Advocate. This page includes what being an Ambassador/Advocate looks like and a sign-up form: https://www.cancerandcareers.org/en/take-action/advocate-become-an-ambassador. We appreciate your support!

A career coach will be in touch within the next few days. In the meantime, please feel free to ask any additional questions.

Best,
Maddy Meislin
Senior Manager of Programs
Cancer and Careers

Hi Adriana,

Maddy asked me to weigh in here. Hopefully you read my recommendations about how to add volunteer service in my review of your resume which I sent last Saturday. I like your description of the volunteer work that you sent to Maddy. I have a few suggestions: 

I would format your Advocate/Social Media Manager volunteer work the same way I suggested that you format your work experience. So, it would be:

Organization name      Years 

Brief description of the organization's mission

Title

Brief summary of your responsibilities

Bulleted achievements

And, first person tense is not used on resumes.

I echo Maddy in saying that while it is true that many of us volunteer for causes that are near and dear to our hearts, it isn't an automatic assumption that you have personal experience with the cause. 

Please let me know how else I can be helpful to you through your journey. You are very marketable and it would benefit you to focus on specific types of jobs that interest you so that you can get comfortable talking about your transferable skills.

Take care,

Julie