A few good reasons to volunteer your time

If you are currently out of work, the idea of volunteering has probably crossed your mind. Volunteering can be one of those things that is easy to think about but often it’s harder to actually get out there and do it. Having a few compelling reasons makes it easier. In speaking with several people who have recently spent time volunteering, here are the selfish and non-selfish reasons that drove them to do it.

Keeping Skills Fresh: Assuming you can find a way to volunteer in your particular field, volunteering is a great way to keep your skills fresh. Let’s say you are a technical person who builds web sites and your local job club needs a new site. Volunteering your time to help build a new web site for the job club not only helps the job club (which doesn’t have vast funds to spend on technical resources), it allows you to keep up on your trade and be even more prepared when you find your next opportunity.

Networking: Volunteering is about getting involved. And getting involved allows you to meet new people. If you are volunteering in a relevant industry, these people could be valuable future contacts. Even if you are volunteering in a completely different industry than your own, new contacts are new contacts and you never know what opportunities they might lead to. A friend of mine was volunteering with Habitat for Humanity and met contacts in marketing that they are now pursuing to help find work.

Working Towards a Paid Position: What better way to show people at an organizing that you care than by volunteering your time. And they will see that you are a person who cares and wants to spend their time out-of-work in a productive way. I think this makes a huge impression on any organization (of course this assumes you do a good job working on the project!). Show them your skills. Show some initiative. If they aren’t hiring at the moment, chances are they will remember you when they start to hire again.

Doing Good: This is an obvious one. Helping other people gives a sense of personal satisfaction. I spoke about this in a recent block about Staying Positive. Giving your time to others can create a positive energy inside you that will help in other aspects of life – including your job search.

Some people ask “how much time should I spend volunteering?” and “what about earning income?”. I don’t advise spending all of your time volunteering. In fact, I recommend you determine a specific amount that can be spent on volunteering and don’t allocate beyond that. You still have to spend time on your job search. And you may also be doing part-time work that generates income. Volunteering is just a piece of the puzzle and doesn’t replace other responsibilities.

At the last question “where should I look for volunteer opportunities?” First determine what you want to do. Work for the Red Cross? Habitat for Humanity? Offer to help with an upcoming conference related to your industry? Help a local industry group plan an upcoming event? Once you know what you want to do, look in the paper, ask friends, and do some networking to determine how to get involved!