How do I apply to an organization or an opportunity?
Overview
Before you can reserve shifts with an organization, you need to be approved for one of its opportunities. There are two ways that happens:
- You submit an application form and the organization approves it.
- An administrator assigns you directly, with no application needed.
Once you are approved, you can reserve shifts, track your hours, and use the opportunity's chatroom (Chat icon > See all).
If an administrator has already assigned you, there is nothing to apply for. Skip to question 6.
The two ways to reach an application form
A form reaches you in one of two ways. Both end at the same place.
Route 1: a direct link
The organization publishes a link to its form, or sends you one directly. It might come from:
- the organization's own website,
- an email, a text message or a social media post,
- a QR code on a poster or a flyer.
A direct link opens the form straight away. You do not need to be connected to the organization on Vome first.
Route 2: the organization's page on Vome
Every organization has a page on Vome, and you reach it two ways:
- With a link to the page, shared any of the ways listed above.
- From your Vome account, if you are already connected to the organization. Its name appears at the top right of your homepage. Click View portal.
Once you are on the page, click Get Involved to open the organization's general application form, or pick something from Featured opportunities to apply to that one specifically.
If you have no connection to the organization yet and nobody has sent you a link, see question 1 below.
Why you might not see a form, or any opportunities
You only ever see what the organization has chosen to publish.
- If the organization has never published its application form, there is no Get Involved button on its page and no form for you to fill in.
- If it has not made any opportunity public, its Featured opportunities section is empty, so there is nothing to apply to there either.
The two go together. If you cannot see an opportunity to apply for, there is no form to reach through one.
This is a decision each organization makes about its own recruiting. It is not a Vome setting, not a bug, and not something the page failed to load. Vome cannot open a form or an opportunity on your behalf, and our support team cannot make a private one visible to you.
What to do: contact the organization directly and ask them to send you the link, or to publish the form or the opportunity. They are the only ones who can.
Still being asked to find an organization?
If your homepage still shows Looking for an organization?, and Find organization is still what the left-hand navigation offers you, that means your account is not linked to any organization yet.
It is a status, not an error. Something has to create that link, and none of these has happened yet:
- You never submitted the organization's application form, or it was never fully submitted.
- The organization never invited you to claim an account with them.
- You never applied to one of their opportunities.
Any one of those links your account to the organization. Until one of them happens, the organization's name will not appear at the top right of your homepage and there will be no View portal button for you to click.
If you believe you did apply, check that the form was actually submitted rather than left part-filled. If you are sure it went through, contact the organization and confirm they received it.
1. How do I find an organization I am not connected to?
Click Find organization in the left-hand navigation. Enter at least three letters of the organization's name plus an address, which can be specific or general. Pick a suggestion from the dropdown, then widen or narrow the search radius if you need to.
The Looking for an organization? section on your homepage does the same thing.
Please note: you need both the name and an address. A name on its own will not return results.
2. Where do I see what they are recruiting for?
In the Featured opportunities section of the organization's page. That is where every opportunity they have made public appears.
Click any one of them to read the details and apply. If the section is empty, the organization is not currently advertising anything you can apply to directly, and you should use Get Involved instead.
3. What is the Get Involved button?
It opens the organization's general application form, rather than an application to one particular opportunity.
Use it when:
- The Featured opportunities section is empty.
- Nothing listed there is an obvious fit.
- You would rather tell them about yourself and let them decide where you fit.
The organization reads your submission and places you from there, so this route usually involves a conversation rather than an instant answer.
If the button is not on the page at all, the organization has not published a general application form. See the section above.
4. I clicked an opportunity and got the general form anyway
That is expected, and it is not a mistake.
An opportunity's landing page does not hold its own form. It sends you to whichever form the organization has linked to it, and plenty of organizations link the same general application form to everything. So applying through a specific opportunity and clicking Get Involved can land you on exactly the same form.
You are still applying for the opportunity you clicked. The organization can see which one you came from, so you do not need to explain it in the form.
If an opportunity's application window has closed, you are sent to the organization's page instead, where you can use Get Involved.
5. How do I submit the application form?
Fill it in and submit it. Every organization asks for something slightly different, because each one builds its own form.
Fill in every required field. An incomplete form is the most common reason an application stalls, and the organization may not be able to tell you what is missing.
6. How do I know when I have been approved?
You get a Vome notification as soon as the organization approves your application or assigns you directly.
From that point you can:
- Reserve shifts for the opportunity.
- Track the hours you contribute.
- Use the opportunity's chatroom to reach the organizers.
You may also be placed into an onboarding sequence, a set of steps to finish before your first shift. If that happens you will be notified about it too.
7. I applied and I have not heard back. What now?
Approval is entirely the organization's decision, on their own timeline. Vome does not review applications and cannot approve one on your behalf.
If you have been waiting a while, contact the organization directly. If you can already see their portal, the opportunity chatroom is usually the quickest way to reach someone.
Summary
- You get approved either by applying or by being assigned by an administrator.
- A form reaches you two ways: a direct link, or the organization's page on Vome (View portal, then Get Involved).
- To find an organization you are not connected to, you need its name plus an address.
- Featured opportunities on their page lists everything you can apply to directly.
- Get Involved opens their general application form, for when nothing listed fits or the section is empty.
- An opportunity may route you to that same general form, because the landing page sends you to whichever form is linked to it.
- If you can see neither a form nor any opportunity, the organization has not published them. Contact the organization, because only they can give you access.
- If your homepage still asks whether you are looking for an organization, you are not linked to one yet, because no application, invitation or opportunity has connected you.
- Approval unlocks shift reservations, hour tracking, and the opportunity chatroom.
- Approval decisions belong to the organization, not to Vome.