Adulting is hard. We know it, and if you’re a college student or early career professional, you definitely know it. We want to help. That’s why, after a successful pilot program in June, the HAYVN team is thrilled to announce the official launch of our next in-person Roots + Wings workshop: Tuesdays and Thursdays Nov. 2–11 from 5–7 p.m., registration space is limited.
Applying for jobs can feel like throwing your resume into a void and hoping somebody will respond, even if it’s just to say “no.” School might have given you a degree, but it hasn’t given you the three plus years of work experience that every entry level job seems to require these days.
In short: The first steps in your early professional career can be exhausting and stressful — even soul crushing. You may struggle to remind yourself that you have inherent value that companies would be lucky to employ.
Roots + Wings is a two-week career workshop designed to help college students, recent graduates, and young professionals market their strengths, manage stress, and leave with, as co-creator Kristen Rzasa puts it, “practical tools and skills that could be immediately applied to your job search.”
Each of the four sessions covers a different topic, from LinkedIn and resume optimization to stress management. Start by learning how to leverage your soft skills. By the end of the workshop, you’ll be using them to network effectively within and without the HAYVN community.
How Roots + Wings Launched an Early Professional Career
To get a better perspective of what the program did for its attendees, we asked Roots + Wings alum Katherine Gunya about her experience.
Question: Why did you participate in Roots + Wings?
Katherine Gunya: There were a few reasons: pessimism about the current job market, lack of resume-worthy experience, wanting to learn money management and salary negotiation. I had just finished up my degree and was actively looking for a job, but I didn’t want to waste my time writing cover letters nobody was going to read and tailoring my resume for an algorithm to reject. Roots + Wings covered all of my pain points, so I thought I’d give it a go. I’m so glad I did!
Question: Why did you participate in Roots + Wings?
Katherine Gunya: There were a few reasons: pessimism about the current job market, lack of resume-worthy experience, wanting to learn money management and salary negotiation. I had just finished up my degree and was actively looking for a job, but I didn’t want to waste my time writing cover letters nobody was going to read and tailoring my resume for an algorithm to reject. Roots + Wings covered all of my pain points, so I thought I’d give it a go. I’m so glad I did!
Q: What’s your title and company?
KG: I networked within HAYVN and was lucky enough to land an internship with Publio right out the gate. That developed pretty quickly into an actual job at Publio, and now I’m project managing for them. I also help teach marketing curriculum here and there.
Q: What did you think about the program after participating?
KG: It fired me up for sure. Kristen and Chris talk a lot about trying to give participants actionable guidance, and I have to say that they definitely achieved their goal there. I would come home practically bouncing off the walls because there was so much I wanted to do based on the presenters’ advice. Overall feelings-wise, Roots + Wings was a really positive experience.
Q: How will the program help our participants?
KG: The best part of Roots + Wings is that it covers a lot of bases, so there’s something for everyone. One of the unexpected things it got me to think about was building my own personal brand. I really liked the perspective shift of coming at networking and interviewing as if you’re marketing a product: namely, yourself. So your resume, LinkedIn — even your outfit — should implicitly tell others about who you are and what it would be like to work with you.
Q: What was your take away after participating?
KG: I think my main takeaway was that you should know your strengths, but you should also know what you value. For example, three of my core values are open mindedness, individuality, and trustworthiness. Now I can look at a company’s website and Glassdoor reviews, check whether their culture aligns with my values, and nix it if I don’t like what I’m seeing.
Hiring is a two way street, you know? The hiring manager obviously wants to make sure you have the right skill set for the company, but you also need to be cognizant of whether the company has the right environment for you to flourish.
Want to start forging a new path? Here’s how to register.
If you’re looking to build out your professional skill set and start adulting with confidence, give the HAYVN Roots + Wings Career Workshop a go! The next 4-part series meets Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5–7 p,m. on 11/2, 11/4, 11/9, and 11/11. Space is limited to 8 to 10 spots. You can register for the course on EventBrite or find more information on Roots + Wings career workshop.
Please make sure you can attend all four sessions before you register; this is an in-person workshop and will not be recorded.
HAYVN Coworking
Founded in 2018, HAYVN is a flexible workspace for enterprising women (and men) to connect, create and grow. Along with a vibrant & engaged coworking community of entrepreneurs and business professionals, HAYVN is a business HUB, offering short- and long-term office space leases, meeting rooms rentals, and events to support local businesses. HAYVN is proud to be a Certified B Corporation™ and a CTNext partner. We believe in using the power of business to build a more inclusive and sustainable economy and have met the highest verified standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. HAYVN’s workshops and signature programs encourage women of all colors and ages and acts as an incubator for developing skills and pursuing funding. HAYVN Launch incubator is a 2021 winner of the SBA's Growth Accelerator Fund Competition (GAFC), and the only 2021 winner in Connecticut.
Visit our beautiful safe ‘HAYVN’ in Fairfield County, CT at 320 Boston Post Road, Darien, CT, 06820. Arrange a private tour today, or to learn more about our health and safety response, read through our detailed guidelines here.
