WANTING TO DO IT

There are probably as many reasons for choosing to work in the voluntary sector as there are organisations in it. Whatever your reasons are, it’s important to spend some time thinking about them. Knowing why you want to do it will help you to identify the right job or voluntary work; it will also help when it comes to thinking about your strategy for getting that work. Whether you are looking for paid work, or to be a volunteer, you’ll need to consider the issues in this chapter.

Believing in a cause

For many people this is an important starting point. There are a lot of people at all levels of the sector, paid and unpaid, who do what they do because they believe in the cause they are working for. ‘Wanting to make a difference’, or ‘contributing to’ or ‘giving something back to’ society can be a very important motivator.

If believing in a cause is part of your motivation, think about the following:

• How focused is your belief? The more specific you can be about what it is that you believe in, what it is that fires you up, the better your chances of finding the right job later.
• Can you back up what you believe in with real knowledge about the facts, the debates and the issues? The more you know about an issue the clearer you will be about what kind of organisation you would like to work for. Doing some voluntary work can be a way of finding out more, before committing yourself further.

Improving your CV

Volunteering

Working as a volunteer can look good on your CV for a number of reasons:

• 1.If you’ve had any periods of unemployment and can show that you stayed busy, doing something worthwhile, it makes the point that you don’t waste your time.
• 2.If the people skills needed for a job don’t appear in the work experience on your CV, you may be able to show that you have developed these skills through volunteering.
• 3.If you have only recently finished your education and so don’t have much paid work experience, being able to put voluntary work on your CV could show qualities like maturity, initiative, commitment and willingness to take on responsibility.

Paid work

More and more employers are recognising that the ability to work with the pressures and tensions of the voluntary sector is transferable to the private sector with its emphasis on teams, flexibility and customer focus. On the other hand, there are still many potential employers who may think you are out of touch with the world of business and its fast pace, its deadlines and its competitiveness. This is something you will have to judge for yourself, and it may affect how long you decide to work in the voluntary sector.

Developing your career

For many people the voluntary sector is where their career is. But for others it is part of their plan to move upwards in the private sector.

Making a career in the voluntary sector

• Are you happy to stay in one job or do you want promotions? The size of the organisation you work for will affect your chances of promotion. You’re more likely to get a promotion in a larger organisation, but you could get bigger responsibilities earlier in a small one.
• Is job security important to you? Causes, to some extent, come and go like fashions. Voluntary organisations relying on external funders for their income can be vulnerable to changing trends.
• Is money important to you? Some larger organisations pay well, but salaries for equivalent jobs in the private sector are usually much higher. (See Chapter 6 for more information on this.)
• Is the organisation you want to work for unique? If it is you could be working on ‘ground-breaking’ issues and the sense of personal contribution will be magnified – but will it fix you in a corner?
• Are you prepared to spend a lot of time volunteering? Being a volunteer is often a way of showing commitment to a cause and it also develops your own understanding of the issues involved.
• Once you’re on the paid staff progression could mean studying for qualifications at some time, because more and more organisations are becoming more businesslike in how they are run.

Making the voluntary sector part of your career plan

It could be that you want to do some paid work in the voluntary sector before moving on to the private sector. Or you might be looking for voluntary work to build up new skills that you can use in your workplace. Consider the following:

• Try to find out how your employer/future employer/professional association regards the voluntary sector. Some see it in a positive light, especially for the people skills that can be developed. Others may see it as a soft option, or not see what relevance such work has in the business world.
• Be very clear about the kind of voluntary sector organisation you want to work for and investigate carefully whether it will provide you with the opportunities to develop the right skills.

Developing your skills, knowledge and understanding

Volunteering could be an ideal way to learn new things in your spare time.

It may be that there are certain skills you would like to develop, knowledge you would like to gain, or issues you would like to understand. For example, you might want to learn valuable skills such as conflict resolution or negotiation, so working as a volunteer with a local community mediation project could help you develop these. You might want to develop some building or gardening skills and going on regular weekend workcamps could provide you with an opportunity. You might want to work overseas to experience living in another culture.

It’s important to think of skills in a very wide sense when looking at the voluntary sector in relation to your future career plans. For example, if you want to work in the emergency services, any voluntary work you have done that has brought you into contact with a wide cross-section of people will be invaluable.

Returning to work

Whether you have been out of work because you have been made redundant or have been raising a family, being a volunteer can be an ideal starting point for getting back to work. However, there are a few things to consider:

• Voluntary sector organisations aren’t obliged to take your help – they recognise that you want to get something out of the experience for yourself, but they’ll want to know that you’re able to put something worthwhile back in.
• Using your free time to volunteer while you are out of work shows potential employers that you are motivated and self-disciplined – after all, you don’t have to do it.
• Volunteering can get you mixing with lots of different people, increasing your confidence after a period out of work, as well as providing opportunities for networking.
• A paid placement with a voluntary sector organisation may be one of your options under the New Deal scheme. (See Chapter 4 for more information about this.)

Changing direction

Changing jobs is quite normal these days and it is not unusual for people to have three or more different careers in their lifetime. If you are considering a career change it may be worth giving your ideas a trial run before committing yourself to making such a major decision. For example, you may be thinking about going into hotel work, so you could test out how you react to and feel about a similar environment by volunteering either as a temporary Youth Hostel warden or as a worker in a refuge or homeless people’s hostel. The fact that you’ve tried something out (even though it isn’t exactly the same) will look good on your CV.

Meeting people

Volunteering can be a good way of meeting people with common interests and the same outlook on life. But you need to think carefully about the kind of volunteer activity that you are willing to do. Would it be better to be a volunteer fundraiser for a local hospice than be a prison visitor? As a fundraiser you could get involved in lots of activities, but as a visitor you would need lots of emotional resilience.

Having time on your hands

If you are retired or nearing retirement being a volunteer can be an excellent way of staying active and maintaining a wide social circle. It can also be fulfilling to share all your years of experience with others that could benefit from it.

Having fun

Last, but by no means least, one of the main motivators in work today is enjoyment. More employers are recognising the importance of people enjoying the work they do.

Wanting job satisfaction may be a major factor in your decision to seek paid work in the voluntary sector, or you may simply be looking for something different and enjoyable to do in your spare time.

Bear in mind that while there is a great deal of job satisfaction to be had from working or volunteering in the voluntary sector, it also has its fair share of mundane jobs and you need to go into it with your eyes open.