Pros
- Dina is very seasoned in the Inland Empire's nonprofit world. She's great at identifying and hiring good people that genuinely care about the work being done. I was able to make plenty of great connections with coworkers that lasted beyond employment.
- Honestly a solid starter job for new graduates.
- Tons of opportunities to strengthen your public speaking skills.
Cons
- Common growing pains that come with many nonprofits -- not the most organized systems in place
- Lack of useful professional development. Management would often use evaluations to discuss short-term + long-term goals and how they would assist employees to accomplish these goals. Aside from those in College Access, I saw very little follow through in most departments.
- Very easy to get pigeon-holed into a role, no clear paths for upward mobility.
- Leadership often pushes the narrative that everyone at BLU is treated as family. I guess this is true since most families come with dysfunction lol. There's clear favoritism towards specific employees -- a handful of favorites get away with behavior that others are reprimanded for, special treatment is given to specific people, etc.
- Unkept promises of mentorship from CEO. While I understand that Dina is a very busy woman, I wish she'd stop promising to directly mentor employees if she doesn't have the capacity to be a true mentor. While I hope this is no longer an issue today, this was definitely a pain point during my years of employment. She would constantly speak life into me during our 1-on-1s and make plans to mentor me in various aspects, but would never follow through despite my frequent check-ins. Only 2-3 of her favorite employees appeared to be receive actual mentorship from her. This is ultimately what led me to leave my position.