Job hunting. It’s a term that leaves many people gulping,
shivering, and convulsing. These days,
job hunting is merely like hunting down a killer whale with a Mattel-made bebe
gun.
For many job-seekers, it involves spending a good portion of your day sifting through job postings, tweaking your resume and cover letters, researching the company, filling out the never-ending job applications. These applications generally force you to repeat what you wrote on your resume, and go back to your old contacts book for references and address of your previous working places. The saying always goes, finding a job is like being at a job.
With every generic
response of “Thank you for your application to ___________Company. We will be reviewing your resume, and if your
resume matches, we will get in contact with you shortly,” you spend hours,
days, weeks, and then months not hearing any responses, or getting another
generic rejection email.
Unfortunately, as the
employment drought becomes harder to ignore, many HR and employers begin to
take notice, and it can ultimately lead your resume to be filed away into the
unknown cyber world of HR sites. Despite
the economic downtown the last several years, how do you avoid resume
droughts/gaps? Other than working at a
Starbucks or a retail position, how do you ultimately convince employers that
your current experiences are still relevant to them?
One outlet that
others are turning to is volunteering.
The quick downside to volunteering is that all of them are unpaid, and
require some time commitments and travel.
However, the rewards of volunteering can be substantial especially to
job seekers looking into the non-profit sector.
As internships are
extremely competitive and require you to be in school, volunteering comes with
no such prerequisites. It offers you a
chance to showcase your skills and abilities.
It gives you the chance to network with the organization, its sponsors
or with other organizations that they’re connected to. Volunteering keeps you productive in a time
where you are spending countless hours job-hunting, and more importantly, it is
an experience worth having on a resume, and it shows to your prospective
employers that you are staying productive while sacrificing your time for an
important cause(s).
The benefits of
volunteering bring you closer to the community that you’re working in. Unlike the corporate world, there is a
greater sense of accomplishment when you are part of an organization that helps
those in need. You meet volunteers from
various backgrounds. They, too, can
become part of your network. Though
many organizations don’t have enough funding to pay its volunteers, they do
make a great effort at rewarding them.
Other organizations have been known to throw dinner or lunch parties, or
give gifts to volunteers, but most importantly, they can also provide an
important reference contact as you are job-hunting.
Organizations ranging
from youth outreach, community organizing, promoting awareness for Breast
Cancer, AIDS, cancer, and other health issues, and civil service projects are
just one of the many areas in the non-profit sector that people can get
involved in.
Places to look for
volunteering and networking opportunities can simply visit places such as www.volunteermatch.org, www.idealist.org, www.taprootfoundation.org,
or join non-profit groups through LinkedIn.
As things are
uncomfortably tight and competitive in today’s market, the opportunity to
volunteer provides the convenience and comfort of building your personal and
professional skills as you are going through the days of a never-ending job
search.
In the end,
prospective employers want to know what you are doing during your job search,
and how productive you are during your challenging moments. For volunteering, it could mean a few hours out
of your time making opportunities happen rather than being confined to your
computer.
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