City Year FAQ

Pros

Team culture, purposeful work, inclusive, many growth opportunities, great benefits for corps members (access to public transit, therapy, healthcare, etc)

Cons

Low pay and long work hours

Pros

americorps program so you get the education award, medical insurance

Cons

stipend, poor management, turn over in leadership, unclear about what is expected

Advice to Management

Hire qualified managers

Pros

Working closely with kids Forming bonds with other corps members

Cons

San Jose housing prices are outrageous and living off of $800 a month is unrealistic. We had 6 people in a 2 bedroom apartment and still barely scraped by. Work/life balance is impossible because of the hours. Mon-Fri from 7:30 am to 6:30 pm.

Pros

-Great work/life balance -Great benefits, 401(k) matched up to 4%, maternity leave, decent health care coverage -Flexible around work environments, carters to both remote or office -Provide spaces to talk about hard-hitting issues ranging from racism, privilege, among other topics -Work culture

Cons

-Upward mobility is limited -No real increases in salary; keeps up with inflation -No equity around shared work; larger affiliates in bigger cities vs smaller affiliates in smaller cities -Sustainable growth

Pros

Well-meaning people, good support if you know where to look and have a good team, opportunities for growth and leader ship, and of course amazing opportunity to develop relationships with students makes it very fulfilling in that way, good benefits and good education/nonprofit/social work skill building, L.A.’s teams are diverse and have many from the city in the teams which helps form a deeper sense of connection to the community and students you serve, challenging in a way that will inevitably grow you

Cons

Type of experience is Very dependent on the team you’re placed in (mine and many others I knew of were beyond great and a good team dynamic is what I depended on sometimes immensely to get through the most difficult aspects of this post grad experience, but those who didn’t struggled much more). wish it was used more as a gap year for highschoolers because it’s hard to independently sustain a living on what your stipend pay offers (at least in LA) with little opportunity to get a supportive and sustainable part-time job given the level of daily emotional and time investment, something a recent college grad would need to do if they weren’t placed in their own hometown. Definitely a VOLUNTEERING position not work, albeit a great resume booster once looking for a real job. not as easy for or helpful for those not pursuing a career in the education/nonprofit/social work area and without an exit strategy you can feel a bit sucked into those career paths by the end/after

Advice to Management

Be firmer about work life balance, fewer surveys more responsiveness. Good end of year close-out programming though