How Volunteering Can Help People Land Job Opportunities

When you volunteer your time, you open yourself to a plethora of job opportunities. If you are currently unemployed, you might ask, "If I cannot find a paying job, why would I use my time to work for free?" You'd have a very valid question, and this article will help you to see why working for "free" may pay you more for your time than you thought possible. There are many reasons people volunteer their time. Some people are retired and enjoy spending time sharing their expertise with the community in their spare time. Other people have a very strong passion for some issue, whether it is poverty, the environment, civil rights, or some other issue personal to them, so they spend time working toward improving the conditions affecting their cause. Working for some goal in that way is incredibly gratifying in itself; however, there are ways you can work toward a passion while gaining some powerful benefits outside of improving the lives of others.

By volunteering your time for an agency or a group, you can not only gain valuable work experience, but you can inherit important points of contacts as well as a reputation for the good things you do in your community. Aside from gaining those benefits which can help you acquire a good job, you may be able to learn what you need to learn so that you can launch your own business. The contacts you make and the knowledge you gain from your volunteer work will expose you to key concepts of many types of businesses.

Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Preparer

You can become a certified volunteer income tax preparer in your community through an IRS program called, VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance). You will take a free class on the software and basic tax forms, then you can test to become either a basic, intermediate, or advanced income tax preparer. There are other types of certification you can achieve as well (military, for example). Preparing taxes for people will enlighten you to the types of credits working families can get, and you can prepare your own taxes for free. You can further your knowledge on taxes and eventually branch out into business taxes. You will meet other volunteers from the local private and nonprofit industries. While you are gaining great experience in the field for which you are volunteering and adding something remarkable to your work resume, you are creating a presence for yourself within a community of both working and retired professionals who may have some push in your job future.

Community Action Agency Board Member

Community Action Agencies were started by President Johnson in 1964 as part of the War on Poverty. Community Action Agencies are focused on pooling community resources along with their government and private funds in a grand effort to help families and communities become self-sufficient. The agencies are written into Federal Law and are governed by the Federal Government in the ways in which specific anti-poverty goals they must achieve. Part of the Federal mandate is that each agency have a tri-partite Board of Directors. The board must have elected representatives from three sectors of the community: low-income community, private sector, public sector. With that said, you could see into serving on a local Community Action Agency Board of Directors. By doing so, you'll be giving yourself a voice in the role the agency plays in your local community. You'll become more active in the goings-on of your area, and you may become privy to potential job markets. You might even be able to have a hand in bringing job sources into your local area.

Adult and Community Education Instructor

If you have a specialty, whether it is music, art, writing, or a more technical specialty such as computer programming, you can volunteer to teach a class for one day a week with your local Adult and Community Education Center. Those centers are usually part of the public school system, and they generally offer paid positions, but they sometimes solicit for volunteer teachers. By volunteering your time, you can show that you are adept at teaching the skill, and you can show that you are an asset to the center as an instructor. You might gain a paid position with the center, but you will also connect your skills to the community. A future employer can see that you taught a class on a subject and may hire you if that subject is in any way significant toward the skills needed to perform the job you are seeking.

General Volunteer Positions

Nonprofit Agencies have Board of Directors. You can always seek a position with those boards, keeping in mind there is usually some sort of election process leading to a board position. If you prefer, you can check into your county or city commission to see if there are any advisory boards that have vacancies. Being involved in the community in such a capacity gives you insight into current events that can affect your decision to start your own business, and give you insight into programs available for your use.