This job is not for everyone. My experience was humiliating. - Mid-Year ACM City Year Employee Review

Be prepared, because I have a lot to say for this one. IF YOU ARE NOT AIMING FOR A CAREER IN EDUCATION, DO NOT PURSUE AN INTERNSHIP WITH CITY YEAR. I really can't stress that enough. Don't make the same mistakes that I did. I had recently graduated from university and had wanted to move out west for a while. I had no idea of what career-oriented direction to follow, and long-story-short, I ended up joining City Year as a mid-year member. Keep in mind, mid-years have to meet the same deadlines and join in on the same shallow and insincere team activities (I'll get in to that later) as their full-year counterparts who have a 4-5 month head start. The big upside is, you suffer for about 4-5 months less than your counterparts. Other things I'd like to stress in the hopes that I can potentially save another like-minded person some time. Be wary if you can identify yourself with any of these traits: If you don't like authority, chances are you're going to have a rough time. If you enjoy self-expression, chances are you're going to have a rough time. If you don't perform well under competition and care little for status and professionalism, you're going to have a rough time. Now that I have that out of the way, let's move on. If you start as a mid-year, you're going to face some additional challenges while being relieved of a few others. Most volunteers, including those who had an overall positive experience of City Year, will claim that they feel slightly exploited due to the low pay and long hours. However, I’ll concede the first half of that point to City Year. The low pay is understandable to me, given that this is a non-profit organization that relies heavily on donations, federal and philanthropic aid.They're just trying to survive, man. Plus, you did sign up for volunteer work after all. The long hours, on the other hand, are what killed me. You can end up working 42-50 hour weeks that extend long past the typical school hours. If I had enjoyed the experience and liked my team, this may have been tolerable, but these were tedious, grueling hours. My team was very clique oriented and seemed to hold the fact that I came in as a mid-year against me personally. Throw in transportation and sleep time in, and you get very little free time at all. Before I began working inside of the school I worked at (middle school, no less). I was worried about what the kids were going to think of me. Are they going to like me? Am I old and out of touch? What am I going to do if they don't want to work with me? In retrospect, I can say that I needn't have worried about the kids at all. Interacting with them was by far the best part of the job, and I have a lot of respect for them. Institutionally, many of the kids have things stacked against them. The thing is, City Year helps, but, it doesn't solve the problem or offer many long-term solutions. The school environment is better with City Year's presence, but it's gonna take a lot more than an after school program to address the needs of the kids that City Year serves. We're talking about the necessity for wealth redistribution and racial/economic/systemic justice here. Needless to say, one person or one organization can't do this alone and I don't think that's the goal of City Year, but it would be nice if City Year did more than supplement the current education system that fails many of these kids. On a personal level though, the most disrespectful and garish offense of City Year was the workplace culture. Dear God, was it ham-fisted and unbearable. On top of this, the organization demands your conformity. Forget to wear your belt? That's a write up. Your khakis aren't the exact shade of beige designated in the organization’s manual? Better fork over another $25 and get a new pair. Running 15 seconds late to service? - (And this is based on a true story, not a joke), be prepared to lose one of your 4 late arrival pittances. Yeah,you heard me, I said SECONDS, not minutes. We had to learn a fraternity style chant and movement. We spent, or more accurately, wasted a good couple of hours practicing this, and we had to make sure it was down to a T. Someone would have to bring to my attention every time my shoulder was slightly out of place or my foot was pointed in the wrong direction. See, I'm not a total stick in the mud; If this were a fun dance to boost morale, I wouldn't have any problem at all. I wouldn't have felt so aggravated by the whole charade. But, it wasn't. We have someone come in and grade us on how well we perform this routine. Our motions need to be perfect, we have to recite the City Year pledge and mission statement word for word. There was no room for improvisation here, just biting your tongue and holding back the remorse. It was so unnecessary - ridiculously so. Every Friday, you are required to engage in "Team Time". The team leader comes up with, an oft sentimental activity to engage the team in. Some people may get more out of this, but it felt so disingenuous to me. Especially when your hand is forced into saying kind words about members of the team who clearly don't like you, or who are way more concerned with their own power dynamics within the team than to forming a meaningful connection. You are constantly made to recite your "Why I Serve" statements to remind you why you're there in the first place, presumably to dissuade you from quitting. I know City-Year tries to do good things, but I wasn't too impressed.