'Smart volunteering' sets you apartSmart volunteering is about making yourself stand out from the crowd by applying your professional skills in a meaningful way that directly benefits the organization and the individual seeking full-time employment in the private sector.
Twenty-nine-year-old Kurian Jacob found himself on the job market 10 months ago after leaving his job as a business analyst with Suncor Energy Inc. as part of an IT outsourcing deal, confronting the worst job market in recent memory.
"The first part was just absolutely painful because I could have almost plastered my wall with all of the rejection letters," says Jacob. "At one point, I started scoring who had the better automated rejection letter."
That was January 2009. After getting no callbacks from employers in months, he saw a position advertised on the job board of Volunteer Calgary for the YWCA of Calgary looking for a professional with his skill set to develop a request for proposals for a fully automated payroll and human resources system.
He took on the short-term position in June and treated it like he would any corporate job.
"When I noticed the kind of work I was doing, I realized this deserves more prominence than one line on my resume saying I volunteered with the YWCA," says Jacob. "I moved it right to the top of the page as the most recent position."
Within two months, he had multiple offers. He was interviewed by Talisman Energy Inc. and recently took a job with the company as a business analyst.
"I started explaining about the role (at the YWCA) and they got more interested in the kind of stuff I was doing because it was still a technical skill I was using," he says. "I was losing touch with the business world . . . so I wanted to keep up with my skill set."
Recruiters and educators call it "smart volunteering"--aligning your professional skills in a volunteer capacity to the needs of a nonprofit for the benefit of both the organization and the individual.
"Kurian really had some things to sell when he went back to pounding the pavement and getting out there and having interviews," says Virginia Trawick, director of organizational effectiveness at the YWCA. "It shows their adaptability."
Staffing professionals and educational institutions have been telling job hunters and graduates for months now that in this highly competitive job market, you really have to go the extra mile to differentiate yourself and smart volunteering is one way of doing that.
"Smart volunteering can give you all sorts of experience, you can learn a lot on the job and it still allows you to network," says Susan Quinn, an associate professor of human resources at Mount Royal University's Bissett School of Business.
For Jacob, the result of his smart approach speaks volumes.
"It looked good on my resume, but I was doing something where I felt happy at the end of the day and actually used what I'm good at," he says. "I got to learn so much that I probably wouldn't have learned in a corporation."
Just because it's a non-profit does not mean the organization cannot get the same quality and level of service that a Fortune 500 company can get, he adds.
Smart volunteering is about making yourself stand out from the crowd by applying your professional skills in a meaningful way that directly benefits the organization and the individual seeking full-time employment in the private sector.
These types of roles tend to be short-term, project-based work that provide flexibility to the highly skilled professionals who donate their expertise, says Trawick. "The complexities of the issues we deal with creates a huge opportunity for (volunteers) to look within a different culture that's usually completely removed from the corporate world," she says. "It's an opportunity to see a different world."
Find an organization you have a passion for and a role that allows you to build or expand your skill set or one that is aligned with your existing skill set. Use the experience to incorporate into your resume. It helps make your resume stand out and provides a talking point during an interview, as it did for Jacob.
It was the frustration of so much rejection over eight months that led him to opportunity with the YWCA, but he's not looking back. He plans to follow the project through to completion, although he has reduced his involvement now that he's landed a great full-time job.
"Right now, I'm looking forward to what lies ahead in store for me here, but not forgetting . . . the YWCA," says Jacob.
