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This is for everyone who is pining away due to the lack of opportunity to move up in their organization or, for that matter, in the administrative field (translated:  break through that $35,000 salary ceiling).  I don't remember where I found this, but at least the author is listed.  Volunteering at different organizations (only a couple good projects) helped me immensely in terms of demonstrating that I had initiative and follow-through.  I didn't do computer-related projects, except for creating a small database.  My projects were related to organizing information into easy systems that could grow with the user.  Yes, it's extra stuff to do.  However, I do think it could give those who are in extra-tight job markets an edge, especially if any of you know how to put a job skills portfolio together.  It's also a great way to meet new friends who you would never otherwise seek out.





An Unpaid Career Move

Volunteering Can Buy You Experience

by Allan Hoffman



Summary

Volunteering may be your answer to this catch-22.

For some pros, even volunteer opportunities are rare.

Try to find a genuine desire to help.



A supposedly hot certification or a few months of technology training isn't

always enough to break you into the market for tech jobs. Employers prefer to

hire people with real-world experience.



Where to Volunteer:



Techies looking for volunteer opportunities should consider these resources:

Volunteer Matching Organizations

These groups match volunteers with opportunities. Some, like CompuMentor in

San Francisco or Voluntech.org in New York City, specialize in connecting

techies with volunteer assignments. For a listing of volunteer matching

services, see the list at TechSoup.org.

Community Volunteer Centers

Many communities have volunteer centers or point people to coordinate

opportunities. Call the city or town hall, or possibly the Chamber of

Commerce, to find the appropriate contact.

Do-It-Yourself Volunteering

Of course, you may want to create your own volunteer assignment. If you're

associated with a particular organization, consider suggesting a tech-related

project you can handle.



To aspiring techies, it's a catch-22: You can't get a job without experience,

and you can't get experience without a job.

What's one solution? Volunteer work.

Grassroots environmental groups, homeless shelters, churches and other

nonprofit organizations often rely on technology professionals or

professionals-to-be to do everything from set up local area networks to

develop Web sites. Though it's not a guaranteed way to bypass having no

experience (nothing is, after all), volunteering is a valuable way to prove

yourself outside of the classroom. It can also help you make the contacts

essential to a successful job search.

"It's great hands-on experience, and it looks good on a resume," says Joan

Heberger, program associate at CompuMentor, a San Francisco-based

organization with a program that matches techies with volunteer work. In a

sense, it's a dress rehearsal for a job. "It's building technology skills,

but also people skills. It's also showing that you can see things through to

completion."

That's just what employers want to know when they've got an applicant who is

self-taught or newly trained. Can the applicant work on a team? Can he or she

handle deadlines? Does he or she know how to translate classroom lessons to

the workplace? Volunteer work provides answers to those questions, and it can

also provide something else you'll need. "You're probably going to get

references out of it," Heberger adds.

Consider Charles Smith, now the network administrator for the Center for

Media and Independent Learning at the University of California at Berkeley.

When Smith started to volunteer through CompuMentor, he was in the midst of a

career transition, having worked as a chef for 10 years. In his volunteer

assignments, Smith worked as a computer technician, rebuilding and

troubleshooting computers for underprivileged families for Berkeley

Neighborhood Computers and designing Web sites for nonprofits through

CharityFocus.

"Volunteering at these different nonprofits allowed me to try several

different types of jobs in the high tech industry," he says. "I was able to

figure out if I liked writing code for Web sites or tearing apart old

computers."

Techies in some fields will have an easier time than others looking for

volunteer opportunities. Anyone with an A+ certification, for instance, is

likely to find organizations, such as Berkeley Neighborhood Computers,

devoted to rebuilding donated PCs. Web designers and developers are also

likely to find groups looking for free assistance with their sites. Those

looking to gain networking experience may have more of a challenge, as

organizations may want an experienced techie for the job. Even if you're not

able to set up a network on your own, consider opportunities that would allow

you to assist in the task.

Of course, if you're planning to volunteer, you should also have a genuine

desire to help the organization rather than just gain quick experience and

split when you've got a full-time job. Experienced IT pros often find a

distinct type of reward in their nonprofit work. "If you set up a network for

a nonprofit, you can immediately see it's made a huge improvement," notes

Heberger. "That's one of the reasons why they volunteer; the impact is

visible."



 

Thank you for sharing, GE.  Many readers will appreciate that you now have the time to spend here at TAA to give helpful information.  Volunteerism definitely must come from the heart, meaning it should be something you want to do.  Sure, it can give you the leadership experience, but it doesn't necessarily mean you will be promoted.  I believe it does gives you a better chance at "climbing the ladder" but there are other things that go into being promoted.  From experience, I believe you should first become persistent and proactive at your job.  Don't be afraid to ask for projects.  If an opportunity presents itself, take the ball and run with a project to show that you have the initiative.  Try the volunteer effort at work -- volunteer to be on a committee or task force.  That's what I've done in the past and it's given me a great deal of experience.  I've also gone the route of volunteering for a number of non-profit organizations from United Way to Juvenile Diabetes Foundation to Junior Achievement and others.  My recently created skills portfolio devotes a section to these activities which has enhanced my career and given me added leadership experience.  Yes, volunteering is useful but I think you need more than volunteerism (even though the volunteerism will reflect positively on the company you are working for in that their company name will probably be mentioned when your name is mentioned) to get a promotion and break salary barriers.  Companies are more inclined to want to see bottom line contributions made to their company and give those employees a promotion who contribute that way.  Thanks again, GE, for sparking the topic.  

I whole heartedly agree with the author of the article GE, thanks for sharing it.  Many many MANY moons ago, I began an all volunteer organization.  I got a lot of attention but was never paid for my efforts. I managed a large staff, recruited planned events wrote everything from brochures to press releases and just generally became comfortable with lots of unique and varied skills, all volunteer.



Couple of  years later I was in a fairly dead end job (even altruism has it's limits and my kids had this funny habit of requiring me to GET paid so they could have little things like food and shoes) anyhow an opening came up for a position as the assistant to a very high powered, high profile, individual within the same company.  I restructured my resume to include all the volunteer experience I'd managed to accumulate targeted the resume to her to include "professional references" from my  media contacts, since I knew that would be a hot button...



And got the job.



I've told others in the past that volunteer positions are often valuable sources of proof that you have real world skills that you were not currently using it IS one of the many pathways to promotion. Im living proof! :)



   

It has been ab-so-lute-ly *fabulous* to have more time to spend here during the last week, especially after last week!  That will probably change now that I have my wheels back, as of just a few minutes ago.  Personal circumstances change all the time, don't they.  I believe most everyone would recognize that outside volunteer opportunities are an important facet of all of the many other things we already know that we need to do in the office in order to stay in the faces of those we want to impress and receive favor from.  And, the things that we do just because we want to do our very best job for the company and ourselves.  Whether we *feel* like working at them or not, outside volunteer opportunities are especially great when they benefit others as well as us, too.  I think it was Smith Wigglesworth who said, "If the spirit doesn't move me, I move it."  In your case, Andrea, moving your spirit to do those outside jobs put you over the top.  It's just that 2% extra effort that does the trick, in most cases.  Yeah, doggone food, doggone shoes!  I rue the day that someone thought up Limited Too or, rather, I rue the day they thought up their prices and the scheme to get you back in within a month to spend (deep sigh) more money.    

Second to your comment, Andrea, volunteering is one of the many facets of a person that helps to lead to promotion.

I've never worked for a non-profit; however, in the past I have done my share of volunteer work.  It didn't get me a promotion but in a small town like Macon, GA, it sure got my name out.  I chaired a couple of city-wide recycling committees, which provided an opportunity to meet many of the business leaders and elected officials.  Between that and my association with IAAP, I landed a couple of really good positions because people knew me, one being the Exec Sec to the Mayor.  In addition, my qualifications didn't hurt either!!



I can see Allan's point about if you don't have experience try volunteer work - that's one way to get it.  Guess it would work for some, especially in the IT field.