The benefits of volunteering

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When I graduated from university I had no work experience. Tbh I probably was lazy and just thought I would get a job immediately after graduating. I viewed education as a kind of 'conveyer belt' that I just moved along and eventually end up working. This however has not been the case. This was in 2005 before the financial collapse. I had no references and no experience. I had no job interview experience either. I found interviews very nerve-racking indeed. My lack of experience meant I kind of had to lie on quite a large scale, which I found that I was not able to do. I think the main thing was I had no mental reference points and therefore no base in my head to build on and speak/act confidently.

I decided to do volunteering in an art gallery and in a debt advice charity. Interviews for these were much easier and simpler with not much pressure at all. It was a really good experience mainly in dealing with people at work and learning how to conduct oneself. Looking back on it now some of the things I did and said to fellow workers were probably not appropriate lol. Offices are certainly places of illusion. Thats MY chair, MY stapler, I brought that from home etc. These were not comments from me but from fellow workers. It was rather bemusing at times. I didn't bring things from home so I was ok. Anyway its a good thing volunteering, good experience and a reference. It gives you stuff to talk about in future real job interviews. One tip however. When you go to real job interviews after volunteering don't say you volunteered, say you worked for money. I've found many money-driven employers don't understand the concept of working for nothing. Also don't say volunteering on your resume either, say it was a real job.

Thanks for sharing your experiences here. Happiness is infectious. When I read about people's happy experiences, I feel happy too. Out of curiosity, I would like to ask how did you manage to find out that the art gallery and the debt advice charity were looking for volunteer(s)? Thanks in advance.

I'm in the UK. Theres a site called do-it it's a volunteering opps database. I don't know about US versions. I walked into the gallery and asked. I was given a contact form to fill in and hours were arranged. As for debt advice it was called citizens advice bureau again it's a UK thing. I learned my office/admin stuff in there. They have a website, got contact details of my local office, phoned and an interview was arranged. Make sure you get travel expenses. Don't volunteer if they don't give expenses. It's good to volunteer as you hear about real job opps inside the organisation.

There are similar sites in the U.S. that list a lot of opportunities such as volunteer match. I agree that this is a great way to build a resume. My DD who has AS has been volunteering since she was 13 (she's almost 16 now) and has already built a great resume for finding a part time job in college. The experience is also great for getting into college and is helping make up for some things she doesn't perform well on (such as standardized testing).

It's especially important to volunteer if you're planning on a career such as law enforcement. You can get good volunteer "jobs" while going to college too. I, for example, recently got on our college's Campus Emergency Response Team, which trained me in being an Advanced Medical First Responder for free (the course costs around $500 if I'm not mistaken).