Thinking about cold calling for a job and questions about resume- help?

[GreenGranolaMama]

DH and I are moving and I am thinking about going back to work. I went to school for public health and am thinking about dropping my resume and portfolio off at the community action center where we are moving to- I would really love to get into the WIC program. I spoke with a friend who also has a bachelors in public health who works for WIC in another part of our state and she says she got her job by cold calling- I guess they don't advertise when they have  job openings, so she lucked out and got the job. 

Should I call first and try and speak with the program director or should I just drop my materials off? 

I am also wondering if it would be worthwhile to talk about my personal experience/ personal research done while staying at home with my son on my resume/ cover letter. I am interested in becoming a nutrition and breastfeeding consultant, so do you think it would be advantageous to list my experience with breastfeeding my son and my nutritional knowledge (we are lacto ovo vegetarians) on my resume or cover letter? 

[laurabfig]

I think you should totally call and just try to talk to someone, then you can drop your resume off to a specific person.  And it sounds to me like your situation is one in which it is completely appropriate to put your personal experience and research on the resume, b/c it directly relates to how competent you will be at your job there.

Good luck!

[Super~Single~Mama]

I wouldn't put breastfeeding on your resume, nor would I specifically put they type of diet that your prescribe to - whether you get hired will depend on who interviews you.  If they ask questions about breastfeeding in an interview or conversation, thats when you should bring up your experiences (listing the experience you had bf'ing your ds last) with assisting other people with breastfeeding issues.  I say leave your person experience for last b/c 1.  if its the first thing you say it will downplay your education and training about BF'ing, 2.  if they want someone who has personal experience it will be the last thing they hear.

I would do something similar with your viewpoint on nutrition - obviously if you're working at WIC you won't only have vegetarian clients, so they will want to know that you can work objectively with people who eat meat.  If they ask how you will help clients who are vegetarians, or something like that, then you can bring up that you are a vegetarian, and explain.  But if you put it on your resume, it might come across as "holier than thou" depending on who is reading it - a meat eater who has been lectured by nutritionists about eating meat might not be so keen on interviewing a vegetarian, kwim?  It can be a good thing, but you don't want to throw it in people's faces, you want to be a little subtle about it.

[GreenGranolaMama]

Originally Posted by Super~Single~Mama 

I wouldn't put breastfeeding on your resume, nor would I specifically put they type of diet that your prescribe to - whether you get hired will depend on who interviews you.  If they ask questions about breastfeeding in an interview or conversation, thats when you should bring up your experiences (listing the experience you had bf'ing your ds last) with assisting other people with breastfeeding issues.  I say leave your person experience for last b/c 1.  if its the first thing you say it will downplay your education and training about BF'ing, 2.  if they want someone who has personal experience it will be the last thing they hear.

I would do something similar with your viewpoint on nutrition - obviously if you're working at WIC you won't only have vegetarian clients, so they will want to know that you can work objectively with people who eat meat.  If they ask how you will help clients who are vegetarians, or something like that, then you can bring up that you are a vegetarian, and explain.  But if you put it on your resume, it might come across as "holier than thou" depending on who is reading it - a meat eater who has been lectured by nutritionists about eating meat might not be so keen on interviewing a vegetarian, kwim?  It can be a good thing, but you don't want to throw it in people's faces, you want to be a little subtle about it.

Thanks for the advice, I'm 100% positive that it will come up during conversation during an interview and I worked so hard for everything else on my resume, I would hate to accidentally downplay anything. I hadn't thought of it from that perspective and sounding holier than thou is defiantly something I would like to try and avoid lol : P

I think what sparked me to think about trying to include it stems from us having recently switched peds (our new one is vegan), which is turning out to be so helpful for our family- a major selling point for us! But your entirely right in that using it outside of conversation on a resume also has the potential to backfire- same goes for personal breast feeding knowledge and research. 

[cheer mom]

I would send resume first and then call.  My theory is that if you call first, they may say they don't want your resume and then your stopped in your tracks.

I have two other tips--first, get a gmail account with your name as the email address-- [e-mail]

And second--name your resume file, firstnamelastnameresume.doc 

the thought being that the more they SEE your name, the more your name will stick with them. ;)