Volunteer Your Skills So Your Resume Doesn’t Get Musty
By Lauren McCabe
(This post was originally featured on the KODA Community Blog.)
You’ve got skills, baby. Whether it’s an insane research prowess from your political philosophy major, or your ability to craft a badass excel spreadsheet thanks to your MBA degree, businesses need you. Non-profits need you. Put those talents to use while you’re unemployed and volunteer your skills.
Our Director of Marketing, Katie, volunteered her big, beautiful, brain to various non-profits when she made her first trip down here to New Orleans. How? She went to neighborhood association meetings and asked how she could help. She went to The Louisiana Association of Nonprofit Organizations’ (LANO) meetings and made contacts. She presented her resume to leaders and said ‘I’ve got this big, beautiful, business brain that I want to volunteer to your organization.”
It goes without saying that volunteering your skills to non-profits is an excellent way to network, but it also keeps your skills fresh. After all, if you’ve been fluffing around the house for eight months on an “internet job search,” some of your strengths may have gotten a bit musty. That’s what recruiters think, anyway, and volunteering your skills is an excellent way to show that you’ve been “working,” even when you’re not working for money.
Here’s how to do it!
1.) Go to a coffee shop with Wi-Fi. You don’t have a laptop? Go to an Internet café with desktop computers. I know you have a computer at home, but going to a coffee shop will help you resist the urge to crawl into your pajamas and slither to your computer to check your email for the 100th time while googling cute baby lamb videos. You aren’t a slug, and your pajamas with little snowmen are kind of cute but kind of weird because it’s summer. Get dressed and go to a coffee shop, and you will be so much more productive. Trust me.
2.) Now that you’re squared away in a coffee shop, research non-profits that are deserving of your mad skills. But wait! Don’t only search for organizations, search for meetings and events, real world gatherings that will get you off your butt and meeting people. After all, this is about action.
Start thinking:
- Is there a local coalition of non-profits in my area? Do they have a regular meeting open to the public? If so, you should attend the meetings with your resume and desire to volunteer.
- Are there active neighborhood associations in my city – particularly those connected with communities in need? Visit.
- What other meetings are listed in the local newspaper? Oh yeah, and that thing called the internet. Get online, check out Meetup.com, and also the Facebook Pages of organizations you admire. You’ll find lots of events and meetings to choose from.
3.) Okay you got your list? Print it out and tape it on your forehead so you can absorb the good energy of progress. Then tape it to your refrigerator so you can make a schedule.
Yes, you need to make a calendar for your volunteer endeavors because it’s going to take time and commitment. That calendar should be full– that’s part of the reason why this experience will look so good on your resume.
4.) Now is the toughest part of their entire process. You go. You do. You meet. You plan. You talk. You network. You help. You sweat. No excuses, no whining, no “But I’m going to miss Jersey Shore,” no “I’d rather be surfing in a big silty lake in the middle of the city.” No. You go to the meetings. You lead the random bus tour. You build a house, or a dig a trench. You organize events, or tutor kids, or you even learn how to recycle old paint. (Katie did all of those things.) You do things you want to do and things you don’t want to do, because everything is an experience that helps you grow while you’re unemployed.
5.) Don’t get daunted if non-profits don’t seem to want your volunteer-brain. Organizations, especially non-profits, are tight on resources, so they have to factor in the cost and time of training you about their organization. Make sure you thoroughly research the organization beforehand so they don’t have to do extra work. And, be flexible enough to bounce around between organizations so that your time is only used when you’re really needed.
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Lauren McCabe is the chief blogger for KODA, an online community that connects young professionals with employers and job opportunities. To read more of her career advice, inspiration, and humor check out The KODA Community Blog and connect with KODA on twitter @KODAus.
