Volunteering gets you off your butt and out of the house
Every year, Volunteering makes it into the top ten lists of popular New Year's Resolutions. This year, according to a recent national survey, 59% of Americans plan to volunteer in 2010. At VolunteerSpot, we're thrilled about this statistic and work hard to help folks keep their commitments - by making it easier for local leaders to coordinate volunteering and easier for volunteers to step up and get on the schedule.
Last year we had the pleasure of meeting Abby Schwarz, the business and jobs contributor for Girls Guide to the Galaxy. In her humorous post Volunteering Gets you Off your Butt and Out of the House, she made a strong appeal to young adults and job seekers. Keeping New Year's Resolutions is difficult enough, keeping them when you are unemployed or underemployed, even more challenging.
As a kick-off to 2010 and New Year's Resolutions - please consider Abby's list of awesome benefits to volunteering:
Volunteering gets you out off of your butt and out of the house - For many of the unemployed, sitting at your computer and desperately looking for jobs gets depressing pretty quickly. Try leaving the house and focusing your energy on something besides CareerBuilder one to two days a week. Volunteering also puts your current situation into perspective.
Volunteering can teach you new skills/offer new work experience - I often hear from applicants who want to try switching careers but don’t have any work experience in their desired field. Volunteer with a group where you can gain hands-on experience and learn from people who are experts in a specific area of work. These are often opportunities you wouldn’t be privy to at your current job because employees are often pigeonholed in their roles.
Volunteering looks good on a resume - From an employer’s perspective who would you rather hire: the person who spends their free time watching “Dancing with the Stars” or the person who participated in a dance marathon to raise money for a local charity? Those who regularly volunteer are perceived as “go-getters” and that gets employers interested in hearing more about the person behind the resume.
Volunteers interview better for “real” jobs - Those who volunteer generally interview better for jobs than those who sit at home and freak out about finding a job. Volunteering gives people a sense of self-worth/purpose and it shows in their overall demeanor during an interview.
Volunteering can lead to full-time employment - At my company, where we heavily encourage volunteerism, we have heard several success stories from applicants who landed a job either directly at the place where they volunteered OR through a connection they met while volunteering. Again, it beats sitting and home and waiting for a recruiter to call you back.
I’m not suggesting that young people quit their current jobs to devote 40-60 hours per week to as many non-profits as possible. My hope is that more young people dedicate five hours per month to a cause close to their heart. Whether it be animals, kids, the environment, or historical buildings, it would be great if more young people dedicated a small amount of time to their community.
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When choosing a volunteer opportunity, consider your passions and interests. Ask friends who volunteer, do some internet research and contact a few local groups that seem like a “fit” to see where they need help. To find organizations that match your interests, please search on VolunteerSpot using AllforGood's widget - just click here and click 'change settings' in the header of the search tool to add your zip code.
Happy Volunteering, Happy Job Hunting and HAPPY 2010!!
Abby Schwarz is the Business and Jobs contributor for Girls Guide. She is an HR/Recruiting Specialist for a local, woman-owned staffing agency in Clayton, OH by day, and an active volunteer all over St. Louis by night. You can email her at abigail184 [at] gmail [dot]com, and follow her on Twitter.
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