Does this position (residential service coordinator of a nonprofit site) count as leadership?

[RikkiMaida4102]

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Hello, new to the forum. I have a position as a residential service coordinator for a site belonging to a nonprofit, and have been working there since 12/2024. This site is a safe parking site for unhoused folks living in RVs. In this role, I basically do rounds on residents, decide whether to let visitors on-site, and record what happens during my shift. Since this is a relatively new site, there's a revolving door of people coming from other sites such as case managers, fellow RSCs, and so on, while I'm basically the only one who works there consistently. My supervisors are available by phone, but they are typically working at other sites themselves. Because I am often the one most familiar with the site, I have been making a lot of the decisions as to who is permitted on-site, sometimes in extenuating circumstances, such as a case in which a client passed away and his family members wished to visit his space within the lot. In addition, I have trained several people who come from other sites and filled them in on the workings of my site, although these people typically return to their own sites because they are temporary helpers.

Unfortunately, I have not had traditional leadership roles such as coaching or club positions, which is why I'm thinking about framing this experience as leadership. I trained several students in my undergraduate lab on laboratory techniques, but this was not a structured, particularly longitudinal, or "official" activity. I have also been a biology lab teaching assistant, in which I assisted in the demonstration of lab techniques, helped proctor, and helped prepare labs before class. If you have advice to offer to someone in my position, I would greatly appreciate it.

 

[Rachapkis]

Characterizing this position as leadership sounds forced to me.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

At the very least you're a site manager. Leadership says you lead people, so who are your direct reports? You don't describe any.

 

[RikkiMaida4102]

At the very least you're a site manager. Leadership says you lead people, so who are your direct reports? You don't describe any.

That's the problem, I would say. I sometimes train people on what we do on-site, which I have been told can count as leadership in a pinch. At least for the shift, these people "report" to me, although I am hesitant to call it "reporting" because the reports are informal and usually consist of things like, "#X is still parked near their RV. Should I knock on their door and tell them to move?". This is one example of the problems we often encounter at our site, as gasoline in close proximity with an RV can constitute a fire hazard. In another situation, there was a client on the roof of another client's RV, and I instructed the other person to monitor the client while I recorded the event in our daily log. On an uneventful day, we simply do walkthroughs every hour. I'm usually the one who determines this schedule, although it's really a mutual agreement. However, duties are fairly limited outside of that.

I personally have always associated leadership with a large team, and am only thinking about framing this as leadership because I don't have experiences that clearly count as such. I believe what we do could just be teamwork if training were provided by the nonprofit ahead of time, but my framing hinges on the fact that the other person often needs to be directed on what those at our site do.

 

[RikkiMaida4102]

Characterizing this position as leadership sounds forced to me.

I unfortunately do not have anything more natural, like a role explicitly called "Lead X" or a student officer position. In that case, do you think the experiences I described at the bottom would be a better fit? I have been warned against framing my TA experience as leadership, and plan to count it in my tutoring/TA section. The lab training was actually a similar situation as my residential service coordinator position in that I trained people because they were inexperienced. In particular, I was training my peers on a technique for injecting our model organism (which is a microscopic animal). I did not get to see the results of this training, either--I just had time left over from my own lab work, and the postdocs in charge of these students advised them to ask me for help, as they were busy with their own projects.

 

[LizzyM]

You don't need "leadership" on your application although it is a category. Frankly, I see a higher value being placed on activities of any kind that demonstrate teamwork. What you are doing is either employment or volunteer. Call it one or the other, depending on what is most accurate.

 

[RikkiMaida4102]

You don't need "leadership" on your application although it is a category. Frankly, I see a higher value being placed on activities of any kind that demonstrate teamwork. What you are doing is either employment or volunteer. Call it one or the other, depending on what is most accurate.

Thank you for your response. In that case, I will play it safe by putting it in the "Paid employment - Other" category. I'm happy to hear that not having activities in the leadership section won't sink my application, if I interpreted your reply correctly, as some people have told me I will need to come up with something for that category in order to have a successful application cycle. I will try to describe this activity in detail on my application so people may decide what to make of it.

 

[LizzyM]

some people have told me I will need to come up with something for that category in order to have a successful application cycle.

Utter nonsense. I've interviewed dozens of applicants this year (the top 10% of a large applicant pool) and I can't recall ANY who had something in the "leadership" category.

 

[RikkiMaida4102]

Utter nonsense. I've interviewed dozens of applicants this year (the top 10% of a large applicant pool) and I can't recall ANY who had something in the "leadership" category.

Thank you so much for the information. I don't know how much it came across here but, I've been panicking a little about this due to conflicting sources and your comments have really helped put my mind at ease. Thank you for helping me with this.