How you spend your job-search time can be valuable
➔ One inescapable truth of job seeking is that you have a lot more time on your hands. The savvy job seeker recognizes that, takes advantage of that excess time and puts it to his advantage.
Even those who claim that looking for a job is a full-time job usually admit that spending 40 hours a week, each and every week, is a stretch. We’ve stated here and others have gone on at length about the advantages and benefits of doing volunteer work while you’re job searching.
In addition to giving you something to do, it may be a chance for you to sharpen or upgrade any number of skills that you may find lacking. Then, there are the people. Who knows what people you will meet during your volunteer experience, plus those people may be able to serve as references for future job opportunities.
Now to the nitty gritty
When those volunteer organizations are looking for professional staff – for many – one of the first places where they look is to their volunteers. You may actually be able to land a real, paying job with your volunteer group.
But there’s more, some volunteer coordinators are reporting that they are being approached by various employers seeking temporary, part-time and full-time employees. Apparently non-profit organizations are mining this talent pool more than for-profit companies, but there is what seems to be a definite trend emerging.
When they say “volunteer your way to a job,” they’re not kidding.