Christina Lucas

CNS 220
Informational Interview #1
For my first informational interview, I had a discussion with
Lamaya Williams, who I contacted through LinkedIn. We set up a time
to meet and I conducted the interview at a local coffee shop near her
office building. Lamaya works as a marketing executive in the nonprofit organization Family Services. The Family Services Association
assists families with fiscal management, creates programs to support
positive family values, and helps families effectively deal with their
problems and challenges. This type of work can be very rewarding and
I am very interested in a career path where I can help others with the
ultimate goal of having a positive effect on the world.
Prior to our meeting, I took the time to prepare thoughtful
questions about her individual experience as well as the challenges
she has faced working in the non-profit sector. I began by asking her
how she got started in this career path. She informed me that she
graduated from Wake Forest with a B.A. in English, and then went on to
get her M.A. from Wake in Liberal Studies. She always had a passion for
writing, but what she really wanted to get involved with was
fundraising and philanthropy. After she received her B.A., she worked
as an assistant director of Multicultural Affairs at Wake. Being an
African American woman herself, and attending a predominantly white
school, she found it rewarded to help other multicultural and
international students acclimate to the culture at Wake. After Lamaya
obtained her M.A., she searched for philanthropic opportunities in the
Winston-Salem area.
Lamaya informed me that she has been working in the non-profit
sector for almost 10 years. She was involved with United Way of
Forsyth County for about a year before she switched over to working
for Big Brothers Big Sisters Services, Inc. She mentioned that United
Way works to strengthen our community by identifying and addressing
its most significant needsparticular those of educational attainment,
financial stability, and living a healthy lifestyle. Lamaya worked at the
Community Development Director in which she was responsible for
overseeing the planning and zoning activities of the Forsyth
community. Essentially, she helped with the zoning board regarding
requests for changes and oversight to make sure the industry and
residences are in compliance. She then worked as a Campaign Division
Director, which is one of the most important roles in the association
because it is central to the organization and its effectiveness. For this
job, she managed campaigns on issues concerning her organization
and played a key role in the planning of campaign organizing and
organization growth.

Lamaya has help many different job titles, but the most
interesting to me was that of a recruitment coordinator. Even though I
am passionate about working in the non-profit sector, my dream would
be to work in human resources management. Lamaya explained to me
that a recruitment coordinator holds similar responsibilities as those in
HRfor instance, she was in charge finding and hiring employees (or in
this case, volunteers). At Big Brothers Big Sisters, she held this position
and was also in charge of arranging for the application and
interviewing of potential candidates. One particular aspect of her job
that she found extremely important was that of running screening and
background checks to verify that the volunteer candidates were
suitable to volunteer. This is important because Big Brothers Big Sisters
is an organization that involves the mentoring of young children and
volunteers must have a positive impact on these childrens lives
whether that be instilling confidence and helping them avoid risky
behaviors, or promoting educational success. She said that her work is
very gratifying because she gets to help people every day.
I then asked Lamaya what steps I should take in order to get
involved in the non-profit sector, particular in the HR field. She told me
that the biggest thing for her was building a strong network of people
and contacts. This helped her progress in her field of work and led her
to more central roles in the non-profit industry. She told me that all
businesses work differently, and the only way to really know if you like
the particular job position is to gain experience first. She did this first
by getting involved with volunteer work on Wake campus, then through
networking, she found out about more non-profit industries in the
Forsyth county area.
In the end, Lamaya encouraged me to reach out to as many
people as I could, and offered me her e-mail and told me to contact her
at any time if I needed advice or if had any more questions. She also
noted that in order to work in the non-profit sector, you have to be
very patient, a good communicator, and hard working. I should be
prepared to work with a range of people as wellthose of very low
income, little to no education, and possibly be prepared to live in lowincome neighborhoods. However, she assured me that her work is very
fulfilling and she is happy that she chose this career path.