APPLYING FOR A JOB

There are a number of ways to apply for paid and voluntary work in the voluntary sector:

• responding to an advertisement
• making a speculative application
• registering with an agency
• door-knocking.

Speculative applications and door-knocking can work, but because of the attitude towards equal opportunities, they are more useful if you are looking for voluntary work. For speculative applications you will need to write a letter of application and include your CV with it (see Figure 1 for an example of a speculative letter). If you are door-knocking you will need patience and stamina – the better your targeting of organisations the easier your job-hunting will be.

If you see an advertisement for a paid post that interests you, it is likely that you will be asked to complete an application form or to send in your CV. Again, because of equal opportunities, it is important that you do as you are asked. If you are asked to complete an application form, don’t send a CV instead. It won’t put you at the front of the queue and it could even be ignored. (See Figures 2 to 6 for examples of advertisements and application forms.)

But whatever way you make an approach, it is important that you are clear about your own skills, experience and suitability for the work.

FITTING IN YOUR LIFESTYLE AND ASPIRATIONS

If you are considering paid work in the voluntary sector, thinking about your life as it is now and as you want it to be in the future is an important part of your career planning. It will be worth doing the following exercises to focus your mind on what you want to get out of your experience. Even if you are only considering volunteering you may still find these exercises useful in helping to decide what kind of volunteering you want to do.

Thinking about your life now

Take some time to do this exercise. It’s worth spending a couple of hours doing it initially and it may be worth coming back to it, as you read through the rest of this book.

Exercise

Write yourself some notes in response to these questions:

• 1.What do you like/dislike about your current work?
• 2.How much are you paid and is it enough? If not, how much could you realistically aim for?
• 3.Write a paragraph describing your typical working day. Note down your start and finish times; the routine tasks; the challenging tasks; who you meet; the interactions you have with colleagues. Write down how you feel about what you do, when you do it, why you do it.
• 4.How much free time do you have outside work and what do you do with your free time? Make a list and note down the main features of each thing – is it competitive, creative, co-operative, social, isolated, active, passive, a chore?
• 5.Why do you do these things – what is it that you like about them?
• 6.Finally, make a list of the things that have happened to you or that you have done that you feel have shaped your life.

Thinking about your future

It may be hard to visualise yourself in five or ten years time but try to picture yourself that far ahead for this exercise. Imagine that time is not a constraint and, in terms of work and lifestyle, you can do whatever you want. Describe your dream job and include the following:

• What the work would be and how much responsibility you would have.
• Who you would be working for.
• How many days a week you would work.
• How much you would be paid.
• Where (country and town) you would be living and what kind of house and transport you would have.
• What kind of people would be around you.
• How you would spend your free time.

Imagine you are writing a list in a few years time of things you have done. What would you like them to be?

Being realistic

Now take these exercises and look at what they say about you. Are you materialistic, competitive, a leader, a loner, a socialiser? Do you respond to deadlines or hate them? And so on. The idea is to have a starting point for understanding what motivates you. Be honest with yourself. If money is important to you, there is nothing wrong with that, but depending on how important it is, it might mean that paid work in the voluntary sector is not for you. You still might be able to make a great contribution as a volunteer and have some wonderful experiences along the way. If you are honest with yourself, these exercises should help you decide, not just whether you want paid or voluntary work, but what kind of work you want it to be.

KNOWING WHAT YOU HAVE TO OFFER

If you spend some time thinking about your skills, experience, personality and background, the information that you come up with will be useful when you apply for jobs and when you go to interviews.

If you are having a conversation with a friend you might say, for example, ‘I’m good at hockey’. After a little more conversation you might agree with your friend that you’re good at hockey because you are competitive and disciplined and you are able to motivate your team-mates when the going gets tough. For applications and interviews it’s these last bits of information that are important and that you need ready to hand.

The exercises in this section will help you to identify in a clear and well-ordered way what you have to offer.

Listing your experience

Exercise

• 1.Take a pen and a few blank sheets of A4 paper and write down as many positive things as you can from your life experience. Write down things from your whole experience – personal, social, work, travel, sports and so on. Write them down as they come to you and write anywhere on the page. Doing it this way will stop you writing a list of points one under the other and this is important because it will allow your mind to wander and make associations. This is more creative than list-making and you’ll probably find you get more information this way.
• 2.Now take two coloured pens and put different coloured rings around things depending on whether they are work or non-work experiences.
• 3.Take a big sheet of blank paper (A3 or bigger) and draw three columns on it. At the top of the first column put ‘EXPERIENCE’. Underneath this take all the things you have ringed as work and put them into a chronological order. Then continue underneath with the non-work experience.

You should now have a good list of your experience and achievements.

Listing your skills

Exercise

• 1.Take another sheet of A4 paper and list all the skills you can think of that you have and use in all the different areas of your life. Again write them down randomly.
• 2.Go back to your large sheet of paper and at the top of the second column write ‘SKILLS’. Underneath this write down all the skills that you came up with, against the experiences where they have been used.

You should now be getting a picture of where your skills and experience match up and prove each other.

Listing your personal qualities

Exercise

• 1.Again on a blank sheet of A4 write down randomly, in any order on the page, all the positive personal qualities that you have. Don’t be modest.
• 2.Then, on your large sheet of paper write ‘PERSONAL QUALITIES’ at the top of the third column and list underneath, in line with the experiences, all your qualities.

What you now have is a template for future job applications and interviews (see Figure 7). If you have any gaps, see if they can be filled. For example, if an experience doesn’t have any skills or personal qualities lined up with it, spend some time thinking about what skills and qualities that experience demonstrates that you have, and fill in those gaps.

Now, when you are applying for jobs, instead of each time thinking how you match up to a job description or how you can answer a particular question, you will have something to refer to. You can add to it as you gather new experiences and achievements.

Another value of this exercise is that often, on application forms and in interviews, you will be asked for evidence of the qualities and skills that you say you have. This exercise gives you that evidence in the first column.