CALPIRG Reviews

Pros

- make a real, immediate difference on a variety of important issues (environmental, consumer protection, etc.) - empower students on a regular basis: you get to work with people who care about these issues and give them the skills to be effective and make a real difference - learn a ton of skills quickly - opportunity for advancement - work with a GREAT team (seriously, the people I started working with right...

Cons

- you don't make a million dollars, but you shouldn't go into the non-profit world expecting that from anywhere - the hours can be tough to get used to, so just prepare yourself

Advice to Management

- a bit more time in the city/on campus before the quarter starts would to help adjust - more info about how to manage one's benefits-- how to request vacation days, how reimbursement works, etc.

Pros

Easy to get hired, rarely boring

Cons

Hard to make the quota, life depends on manager

Advice to Management

Not sure how to fix it. Why send out canvassers at all? Hire more carefully to reduce turnover.

Pros

Learned a lot about face to face and communication skills because the job forces you to go to strangers homes and talk to them. Met a lot of different people and puts you out of your comfort zone by dealing with some hostile people and negative responses.

Cons

Quota system, you get let go if you fail to meet 2 weeks in a row. Definitely tough for people who are a bit more introverted.

Pros

Working with CALPIRG provides plenty of hands on communication experience, as well as many chances to improve organization and teamwork skills. The staff is also very friendly and energetic which make them great to work with. Finally, many of the campaigns that CALPIRG organizes are very successful, which provides comfort knowing that the work you put in is actually making a difference.

Cons

While working on many of the different campaigns, you will encounter a fair amount of rejection, whether it be from people who do not want to sign your petition or people who will completely ignore you etc. This part of the work can be quite daunting, however, if you can find a way to get past that, your work can still be rewarding. Also, this is an unpaid internship.

Advice to Management

It would be nice if some of the volunteer senior officers were paid for all of their efforts, because they put in a very large amount of work and devote much of their free time while still in school.

Pros

I got great experiences to put on my resume. As soon as I showed my competency I was put in charge of everything and anything needed. I went from being recruited to recruiting, training and supervising new interns in a matter of weeks, planning and organizing events, being the spokesperson for our campaign to newspapers, radio, and television, and generally being the organizers right hand (wo)man. These are experiences...

Cons

The organizers were over zealous and at the end of the campaign I felt taken advantage of. We were running a campaign on a college campus and they would obviously judge volunteers and interns who chose not to volunteer every waking second of their lives. I literally heard a volunteer say they had to cancel their shift because they had a big paper they had to write for class and the organizer responded with the words,...

Advice to Management

Realize that the volunteers and unpaid interns are just that, unpaid. Any work they do is a gift to be grateful for. I am so grateful for the trainings and experiences I got from this process but it always felt like I gave an inch and they expected a mile.

Pros

Great, temporary, launching pad if you want to get into grassroots organizing.

Cons

Poor labor practices and terrible pay.

Pros

You are working to make a difference in your local community and there is no feeling more rewarding than that.

Cons

You spend long hours on your feet, going door to door, walking in the sun.

Advice to Management

Aside from having people memorize their scripting, you should have a set training session that teaches each employee the ins and outs of what they are working towards.

Pros

I worked with CALPIRG Students for 3 years as a student intern at UC Davis and 4 years as a full time staffer after college. - Great work atmosphere: People who work with CALPIRG care about making a difference, care about the communities their organizing, and care about their own professional development. I met some of my best friends working with PIRG. Staff directors care about you as a person and an organizer -...

Cons

These jobs are not for those that want a cushy 40 hour week job where they pretend to make a difference, They're for people who want to get down on the ground, working to organize real people with real problems, against real special interests who can drop $10 million to kill an unfavorable bill without a bat of an eye. Like any election campaign, issue campaigns coupled with actually funding a non-profit, takes 60-80...