Creating Your Opportunities Volunteering To Employment

| Read Our Blog Read Our Blog Blog Creating Your Opportunities: Volunteering to Employment Cristopher De Phillips May 18, 2015 Veterans Forward, Workforce 1 When in search of employment, there are a number of methods that we use to assist us in our efforts. We write and polish our resumes, scour job posts and attend job readiness trainings to enhance our marketability. While these are all useful strategies for attaining a good-paying job, the only most effective means of finding gainful employment might be working free of charge! This might sound counterintuitive, but in a recent study, volunteering was proven to improve job seekers’ chances for locating employment by as much as 27 percent! Volunteering provides an opportunity to learn a brand new ability set and develop knowledgeable community. To proof the effectiveness of this approach, I can use my very own latest employment as the Communications Specialist at National Able Network (Able) to reveal how volunteering for the higher good of the neighborhood can pos itively have an effect on our lives both personally and professionally. In December of 2011, I was an underemployed, half-time English teacher making ready for graduate college applications, when my girlfriend and I noticed a information report showing veterans returning stateside as part of the army drawdown from Iraq. Like many Americans, we needed to indicate our deep gratitude, however we also wanted to do one thing that may assist local veterans transition again into our neighborhood. We determined to arrange a “Welcome Home” event in their honor to lift sources and consciousness for Post-September 11 Veterans. Unfortunately, neither of us had any event planning experience nor did we now have any contacts within our local veteran community. Lucky for us, one of many first organizations to support our efforts was Able and the Veterans Forward team! After studying about us, a Veterans Forward representative invited us to the Able headquarters the place they assessed our idea, helped us flesh out a plan of attack, and offered us with some much wanted veteran contacts. Through this course of, it became clear that I needed to be taught a whole new ability set if this idea was going to work. Therefore, I realized how nonprofit organizations functioned, tips on how to use social media to recruit volunteers and participants, tips on how to formally apply for city and federal parade permits, the way to write press releases to draw media attention and, in fact, how to fundraise! The Chicago Welcomes Home the Heroes Event was held on December 14 and 15, 2012, corresponding with the one-yr-anniversary of the drawdown from Iraq that inspired us a year earlier, and it was a hit by any measure. Ultimately, it was a three-part, two-day event that included a ceremony honoring those who gave their lives in assist of the Post-September 11 conflicts, a Welcome Home Parade, and a Veterans Resource Fair in Chicago. Thousands of like-minded Chicagoans attended the occasion, and practically 70 veteran service organizations participated, together with Able. After the occasion, I continued volunteering to additional refine my newfound talent set, however I was not capable of finding a protracted-time period, paying position that utilized these abilities, until now. On April 15, 2015, I was employed as a Communications Specialist at Able! In this capability, I will assist in creating income sources that will proceed to assist Able’s mission while promoting the essential work that Able does through our social media shops. Today, I finally have the opportunity to take the knowledge that I accrued whereas volunteering and reinvest it again into Able, and in return, I get to continue serving veterans and my group more broadly. This career opportunity would not have been possible had I not volunteered. By volunteering, I created an area to study new marketable abilities and reveal my capacities. It also launched me to a longtime group that shared my values a nd ambitions. And most significantly, it began a professional network that ultimately led to me being employed. In the long run, since I am acquainted with Able and they are acquainted with me, the possibilities of this being a great, lengthy-term match are exponentially better than if I got employed by way of a simple job post. Moving ahead, I will proceed to evangelise the advantages of adding volunteering to a profitable job search! If you have an interest in volunteering with National Able Network, please contact Maureen Wilson at For extra details about the advantages of volunteering go to: /. One comment on “Creating Your Opportunities: Volunteering to Employment ” Cris put on an amazing Welcome Home event, and I was proud to be there to help him! Your email handle won't be published. Required fields are marked * Comment Name * Email * Website Subscribe me to your mailing list Receive our newsletters, breaking information alerts, and more! Veterans Forward Orientation Care ers by National Able Network: An Online Orientation for Nebraska Residents! Careers by National Able Network: An Online Orientation for Illinois Residents! View More…