Volunteer in your Job Search

When I was in my job search I heard I should volunteer.

Supposedly, there were plenty of organizations, especially non-profits, that love to have volunteers help out. I might to something administrative, or something that was more in-line with my profession, but volunteering had various benefits:

1. Good for networking. You should meet some interesting people, and you never know who might be able to help you network into your next job.  Whether it’s someone with the organization where you are volunteering, or it’s another volunteer, it could be excellent networking.
2. Good to keep my skills sharp. Maybe it would only keep my people skills sharp, but still, doing *something*, or anything, is good, right?
3. Good to get out. In my job search I spent 10 hours a day online.  Not healthy, and not good tactics. “Getting out” makes you dress up (even if just in jeans), meet people, smile, shake hands… all those good things that you don’t have to do if you turn yourself into a hobbit.
4. Good karma. Helping, or serving others, is good for them, but it’s also good for you.  I’m sure there are studies that show that serving others is really quite beneficial to your health, attitude, fortune, etc. Here are some search results along those lines.

I say “supposedly” because I made a few phone calls to help volunteer, and my calls had gotten to the wrong person.  When I asked about volunteering, they treated me like I was a martial, asking for something totally foreign.

A few calls like that and I gave up.

My job search was void of any volunteer efforts, which is a shame because since then I’ve volunteered quite a bit, and gotten great benefits out of it.  More on that on Wednesday…

Do you have any advice for a job seeker looking for volunteer opportunities?