Volunteering Your Way To Paid
Employment
Giving away
something of value, such as your time, talent, and expertise does not
always occur to the job seeker. However, it is a time-honored,
successful strategy. This is why you see people in the grocery store
handing you a toothpick with Jimmy Dean Sausage on it. They are
standing, not by accident, in front of the Jimmy Dean Sausage cooler.
In my 'Day Job' of
creating and managing career programs for people with disabilities, I
believe I had 5 volunteers last year. I hired 3 of them when
appropriate positions became available. From my perspective, these
were easy hires. I had met the person, and trained them to some
extent. Best of all, I directly observed their work, and also was
able to get direct feedback from their future co-workers. We were
able to find the best possible 'fit' for them because we understood
their skills and abilities.
Beyond the 'free
sample' benefits, please consider the networking opportunities. One
of the above people was a clerical/admin type person. She
volunteered for me, and my office never operated so efficiently.
She was so good, that I ran out of tasks to assign. So I loaned her
out to the Executive Assistant to the CEO. When a job became open in
the larger agency (I manage a Division), guess who had a SERIES of
supporters telling the decision-maker who to hire? The Volunteer
did. She is now working full-time with benefits.
When you
volunteer, you will (over a few months), develop a reputation and
certain very important contacts. This is vital. Some statistics
show that 60% of jobs are filled through networking activities.
Further, only about 25% of jobs are even advertised when the economy
is tight. It really is about who you know.
That said, the
people you get to know may be somewhat limited as far as THEIR
networking contacts. In the U.S., Federal Fair Wage Law is somewhat
restrictive about people giving free labor to for-profit
corporations. That means that your volunteer experience will be
limited to charitable organizations, not-for-profit businesses,
churches, schools, and governments. Interestingly, government grants
many exceptions to Minimum Wage laws to...governments.
The point is,
these folks mainly run in professional circles with each other.
Birds of a feather flock together and all that. However, if you are
not interested in just charity work, all is not lost. You never know
who has a brother in law who is a Corporate Attorney who dates a
Public Relations Executive at the firm you would be PERFECT for.
We'll just skip on past the brother-in-law might be married to
someone's sister but still dating thing...that's a different column.
So, to change the
subject, let's go back to what YOU get out of all of this. I have
completely glossed over the way that you get to improve your skills,
expand your abilities, and do different things in your occupation.
Space is limited. But, you DO develop good contacts, and might be
auditioning for paid employment.
At a minimum, you
are doing something that is good for a charity or other non-profit
organization. You are making a difference to some important mission,
and improving our world. You have the privilege of giving of
yourself. If nothing else, you can take pride in having value as a
person and as a worker.
Good luck,
Chris
Links to my
work, “Beyond a Career Crisis”:
Kindle Edition
Paperback Edition
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