Have You Ever Wondered if HMIS Work Could Be for You?

Whether it’s a result of expanded funding or normal staff turnover, Institute for Community Alliances (ICA) tends to hire 2-5 new employees a year, mostly in system administration-related roles. Perhaps you have seen us post these job openings in the newsletter and wondered if it’s role that you would enjoy.

Did you know?

•  System administrators wear a lot of different hats – setting up users/programs/agencies in HMIS, training users, providing helpdesk support, ensuring the quality of the client and administrative data in our system, and contributing to local community planning around ending homelessness.

• While confidence and fluency with computers is needed for this work, it does not require an exclusively technical background.  Most of our system administrators have prior experience as HMIS end users, not programmers, database administrators, or other jobs you might think of as being more in the realm of IT. And no matter what background new staff come in with, we provide extensive on-the-job training.

• You might like being a system administrator if…

  • You are detail-oriented and organized

  • You like solving problems and puzzles

  • You enjoy helping others

  • You enjoy and excel at building relationships

  • You like teaching or explaining concepts to others (creating those “light bulb moments”)

  • You are knowledgeable and passionate about the work of ending homelessness
    

ICA is offering informational interviews

It’s a common experience on the career path to see jobs that catch your curiosity but not be sure if you qualify or if you would find the work fulfilling. And then if the timing doesn’t line up – there isn’t an opening when you’re actually job seeking and/or you’re too consumed with other things when there is an opening – you might miss the opportunity. On the employer side, often the job applicant pool is passively filled through postings on the same sites and/or through existing networks – leading to a lack of diversity amongst job candidates and ultimately within hired staff. This leads to more disparities within our field, holding us all back from doing our best work to end homelessness.

One way (of many) to break these barriers is to broaden our network before jobs are available. To do this, we would like to offer informational conversations.

If you have ever had an interest in the work of the HMIS system administrator role, please consider reaching out to an ICA staff person to learn more. We are available for one-on-one chats (these tend to be around 30 minutes long) via video conferencing or phone. You are welcome to contact Amy Olsen-Highness, HMIS Manager (amy.olsenhighness@icalliances.org), but if there is another ICA staff person you have a good relationship with already, you can reach out to that person too. 

Here are a couple of “how-to” articles about informational interviews. These conversations do not have to be formal, but it can be helpful to think about what you want to get out of it ahead of time. If the concept is a bit intimidating or new but you would still like to connect, Amy can help guide the conversation. You will walk away with a better understanding of the work we do at ICA and some experience with professional networking, which will serve you wherever your career path takes you.

We look forward to getting to know you!