Get a Job by Volunteering

One of the tried and true principles of getting a new job is to network with others. I hear this tip all the time. A subset of this suggestion is to volunteer your time and experience for a non-profit/charity event. This way, you'll be able to help out a needy cause and at the same time expose your (great) skills to a ton of new people -- one of which may want to give you a new job. That's what happened to me. Here's my story.

A few years ago I had the idea to raise money for a local charity by having a live and silent auction (not an original idea, certainly, but it was a new event for them.) The charity's president liked the idea and asked me to head the event's committee. I agreed as long as he would get me the key workers I needed. I gave him the list of the types of people I needed, he got them to volunteer, and I agreed to head the committee.

We all worked hard as a team -- me leading the group and the others handling their areas of expertise. We spent a lot of time together in meetings and the members of the committee got to see how I led, made decisions, handled challenges, etc. When it was all said and done, we knew each other very well. The event went off after seven months of planning and was able to raise over $100,000. It was a huge success!

A few months later, one of the members of the committee contacted me. They needed a marketing executive for their company and since they had seen me in action for several months, they thought I was the right guy. A couple interviews and a few emails later and I had a new job, better hours, higher compensation and was working for people I greatly admired. I'm not sure I would have ever dreamed a position like this even existed. But the fact was that it found me when all I was doing was trying to help a charity. Almost four years later, we're still happily "married." It's probably the best place I've ever worked and I'm thankful for it.

So if you're in the market for a new job (or even if you aren't), let me suggest that you look for an opportunity to volunteer and showcase your talents. If you do, you may end up with a new, great job like I did!

Comments

[plonkee]

Clearly this can work well, but I think to get the most out of a volunteering activity you have to have the right attitude and any personal gain is a by-product, not your primary focus.