Volunteering for job skills

Here’s what I did when I didn’t have the skills for a job but needed that skill to be considered.

I volunteered 👥

Yup! I took on volunteer work to gain the skills that was missing from my toolbox 🧰

My go-to for this was VolunteerMatch. Early in my career, after being passed over for roles because I didn’t have the experience, I ended up looking into volunteer work as “my last resort” 🥴 I knew these would be unpaid and probably not as cool as the roles my friends were getting. However, the volunteer work I did was instrumental to the foundation of my career 🪴

I took an HR and Recruiting role for a non-profit and had an incredible manager who took me under her wings. She gave me real work that taught me recruiting skills. It was only for 4 hours, 2 days a week, so I got to do it on my time. In between, I was still job searching, BUT I was adding new skills to my resume. I volunteered for a few months until I landed an internship 👩🏻‍💻

Fast forward to today, I still volunteer! I’m part of organizations and in roles that teach me new skills. Each new skill gets added to my toolbox.

I share this in hopes it helps someone. I know job searching is hard and it’s frustrating to be in the cycle of needing a job for experience, but not having the experience because you need a job ∞

I hope this inspires someone that while in your job search, don’t forget to keep building those skills wherever and whenever you can! 🏋🏻‍♀️ Invest in yourself and see opportunities blossom! 🌸