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| Exploring a Career
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Are you looking to start a career or to
change jobs?
| Volunteering is a marvelous way to explore
possible career options. It is relatively risk-free in that you can sample a
work field or setting without making a long-term commitment to it. This allows
you to discover whether or not you like the work or are good at it -- and if
you discover it's not for you, you can move on without disrupting your resume
or your cash flow. |
On the other hand, if you
find the work exciting, you can increase your volunteer commitment so that you
learn even more about this new job field and your talent for it.
Eventually, volunteering can lead you
to a paying job--by providing contacts, references, and something tangible to
show on your resume.
For new
graduates, volunteering can place you a notch above your fellow students
who may only be able to show prospective employers that they studied in the
classroom and held minimum-wage summer jobs. Your volunteer work will
demonstrate that you have practical skills, can function in a work environment,
and care about your community.
For those who are tired of their present
job, volunteering is a welcome change of pace. It allows you to test
yourself in new situations and to see what truly interests you. It gives you
the luxury to fail -- the chance to risk doing something you've never done
before and to learn from it even if it doesn't work out.
Community service shows prospective
employers that you not only want to make a change in your job, but that you
have already made a change and now want to expand your "extracurricular"
activities into a full-time career.
If you have been out of the work force
while raising a family, or took a leave due to illness or bereavement,
volunteering is a way back into the work place. It gives you the opportunity to
develop self-confidence and prove that your skills are still alive (or lets you
get back up to speed on new-fangled developments such as computers and faxes).
For the active retiree,
volunteering is a second (or third or fourth) career -- the chance finally to
do what you thought was closed off to you because of job choices you made long
ago.
Experiment with
volunteering and keep your talents youthful. Volunteering is only career
exploration if you consciously select assignments that:
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place you in
the type of setting you want to learn about;
let you work side by side
with professionals you can observe and who can answer questions you may have
about their career;
ask for as much training as you can get;
ask to be "promoted" to tasks
of greater challenge so that you can truly use the volunteer experience to
document your accomplishments to a prospective employer. |
You will
learn the most by involving yourself in causes and agencies you want to help
succeed. So while you gain career exploration, the agency gains a great
volunteer -- a win-win situation.
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