A few weeks ago, my colleague Robbie and I had the pleasure of running a resume workshop at Oz Harvest for their Nourish program. Lotus People have run the resume writing workshop in the past, but this time around it was Robbie and I’s first time. We walked into Oz Harvest not really knowing what to expect! Upon arriving we were greeted by a lovely volunteer who directed us to Daniel, one of the Nourish coordinators.

Upon greeting us, Daniel commented on our casual attire “Nice choice on the casual wear!” as he walked us into a small room full of young adults awaiting our arrival. Given that it was “Casual Friday” we were unintentionally dressed accordingly to our audience – side note, at Lotus we like to dress down, corporate wear isn’t our style! We take our jobs seriously but not ourselves.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with OzHarvest or their Nourish program, let me tell you about it. OzHarvest runs a free program called Nourish, this program enables young adults from ages sixteen to twenty-five years to gain experience in hospitality and kitchen operations. Mentors and industry professionals teach their students the fundamental skills of hospitality such as food safety, hygiene, cooking techniques, nutrition etc. just to name a few. The program is affiliated with TAFE NSW here in Sydney, has presence in Adelaide and will soon be available is the Gold Coast as well. The Nourish program takes an alternative approach to learning and teaching young adults. Upon completion students will achieve a Certificate II in Hospitality or Kitchen Operations.

Here at Lotus, a huge part of our day consists of looking through CVs. We don’t offer a CV writing service, but we are always happy to give our candidates tips and pointers. For OzHarvest we put together a presentation of CV 101’s, dos and don’ts to help these students effectively write a CV. After our presentation we sat down with the students one on one. Some of the students had CV’s they had already written, which were great! I sat down with those who had CV’s already written up, while Robbie helped those who didn’t have a CV at all.

I’ll be honest, even though a big part of my day is spent speaking to new faces and conducting interviews, I was quite nervous about spending one on one time with these students. Robbie on the other hand got right into it, and didn’t show any nerves. We got to ask the students about their interests and hobbies, what they do in their extra time and what their dreams are, making the experience a lot more personal. It was nice to get to know each and everyone on a more personal level. I suppose it helped that we were more casual in our approach and didn’t just talk business.



All in all this was a great initiative to be apart of! The OzHarvest team are doing a great job at making sure young adults have a supportive community and healthy future. Lotus People are always happy and willing to help projects like Nourish. It’s important for those of us who have the resources and means to offer a helping hand where we can. I’m extremely grateful to be apart of a community here at Lotus where our Director Sinead Connolly is extremely supportive and progressive in her approach. We look forward to working OzHarvest and continuing our relationship with them!