Tag Archives: job

By Donna  Fuscaldo

Volunteering Your Way To A Job

It’s no secret the job market is tough. But whether you’ve been unemployed for two months or two years, you can still gain new skills, fill gaps in your resume and network, all the while giving back to your community through volunteering.

Long gone are the days when volunteering meant working in a soup kitchen or taking part in a clothing drive. These days, non-profits need all types of skills from marketing to accounting. Sure you won’t get paid, but the experience you’ll gain can go a long way in landing your next paying job.

“Volunteering is a fantastic way to build skills, contacts and get your foot in the door,” says Sara Sutton Fell, chief executive and founder of FlexJobs. “It’s a great opportunity to show your motivation and contribute.”

But how should you go about getting that volunteer gig? According to career experts you’ll need to approach it similar to how you would tackle finding a paying job. After all your goal is to get into a company where you can use your current skills or learn new ones and at the same time have access to the people that can help you transition from volunteer to employee.

“You have to do some soul searching and figure out what it is you want to do and then tailor all your volunteer work to filling the tool box with those skills,” says Mary Marino, founder of EmployementPipeline.com. “This market is very competitive so getting more skills and more experience is going to help.” Let’s say your chosen field is accounting but you want to move into advertising and marketing.  Instead of offering to balance the budget ask to work in the advertising department.

Strategically Find Volunteer Work

Once you’ve figured out what you want to do as a volunteer, the next step is to find a company to give your time to. That will require research on the internet and a bit of cold calling of non-profits and for-profit companies.  Don’t focus only on the large ones. Chances are there are a lot of small organizations in your neighborhood that would welcome the help. It also pays to align yourself with a cause you care about. It will make the volunteer work more rewarding if it’s something you feel passionate about.  “Even in a volunteer work setting you are selling yourself,” says Nicole Williams, a career expert and connection director at LinkedIn. “There are a lot of qualified people looking to volunteer. This isn’t a secret.”

The holy grail of volunteering would be to serve on the board of a non-profit as an un-paid member. It’s an ideal way to network since typically the people on the board are well connected in the community. But not just everyone will be able to pull this off. According to Heather Krasna, author and career coach and you’ll need to be a lawyer, accountant of have specific skills the non-profit is looking for.

Include It on Your Resume

After you’ve landed your volunteer job it’s important to list it on your resume and profile it on your professional networks like LinkedIn. These days hiring managers consider volunteering as legitimate work experience. What’s more, it shows you’re not just sitting around, but are out there trying to keep your skills fresh.  Don’t pretend it was a paying job but do make sure to highlight the expertise you gleaned and honed from the volunteering experience. “Employers don’t care if you were paid. If the work is substantial then its work,” says Krasna.

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Donna Fuscaldo is a freelance journalist hailing out of Long Island, New York. Donna writes for numerous online publications including FoxBusiness.com, Bankrate.com, AARP.com, Insurance.com and Houselogic.com. As a personal finance reporter for years, Donna provides invaluable advice on everything from saving money to landing that dream job. She also writes a weekly column for FoxBusiness.com focused on technology for small businesses. Previously, Donna was an equities reporter for Dow Jones Newswires and a special contributor to the Wall Street Journal. Through the Glassdoor Blog, Donna will provide tips on how to find a job and more importantly keep it.

The Glassdoor Team is a small yet seasoned group of individuals looking to provide greater transparency into one of the most important aspects of our lives – our jobs. Contributions to the blog are designed to present a unique perspective on current events, offer commentary on the inside workings on specific jobs at a multitude of companies, and provide details on the latest happenings from within Glassdoor.

By Debra Wheatman

After searching for a job and finally getting the new position you really wanted, your friends and family, who have been so supportive, think you should be on cloud nine, right?  After all, the market is tough and you got a JOB. Whoo hoo!

So how come your hands are still clammy and you can’t sleep at night?  Why are your thoughts racing with worry about your day to day performance?  You should be happy, not worried, right?

There are a number of reasons why you may feel fearful before you start in your new position.  If you have been out of work due to a layoff or some other reason, worry and self doubt might be overshadowing your positive feelings about finally getting that new role. Maybe your skills are a little rusty or you are beginning to second guess your performance. Maybe you feel you are off your ‘social game’.

According to a recent online survey conducted for the American Psychological Association, 36 percent of workers reported frequent work related stress and nearly half said they stressed over a lack of adequate salary.  If you are reentering the workplace after a short or prolonged absence at reduced compensation this could be adding to your anxiety as well.

Whatever the reasons, here are a few strategies for overcoming anxiety related to your job:

1. If you had to accept a reduced salary or forego some other benefit that you once had, or if you took a role that is not quite aligned with your ultimate career aspirations, consider the upside of the situation. The employment will help you get back in the game, meet new people, expand your network, and possibly develop a new skill that you did not have before. Identify things you can do to improve your situation over the medium- and long-term. Can you take an online course to advance your skills further? Do industry related research to make sure that you are well informed about the latest trends.
2. Be sure to take care of yourself.  Eating 3 donuts and 2 gigantic cups of coffee before you go to work will not make the anxiety you feel about your job any easier. Consider taking a short walk during your lunch hour if feasible; look into incorporating other stress reduction strategies into your daily activities.
3. Refute your negative thoughts.  Most of the time our imagination gets the best of us.  Start off on a positive course. The position might live up to or possibly exceed what you expected.
4. Create a professional brand for yourself and then “act as if.” Decide how you want to be perceived by others. Positive, proactive, and committed are some things that come to mind. Your self confidence will grow as you start and get into a schedule; you don’t know where your new path will take you. Consider it something of an adventure. Things sometimes happen when you least expect it.

It is normal to have a certain amount of anxiety when starting any new job.  By taking a few simple steps, you can ensure your outlook is a positive one. The mind is a powerful thing; and certainly something that you have the power to control. Preparation and positivity will get you 50% of the way. Be the keeper of your own success and your own career destiny.

Have you ever glanced at a job description and thought it matched your skill set so perfectly that the hiring manager surely had you in mind when creating it? Only to realize at the interview that you would never, ever fit in at such a place? There is no denying that possessing the right skills and background are imperative to the position you want. But as too many people learn, allowing yourself to be seduced by great pay or benefits while ignoring warning signs about the culture can be disastrous.

Why should job-seekers care about a potential employer’s corporate culture? Aren’t there more important factors to consider, such as the job itself, salary and bonuses, and fringe benefits? These factors are important, but increasingly career experts are talking about the employee-employer “fit.” How well the employee fits the culture can make the difference between job-search success and failure. According to Leadership Coach Ron Rael, today’s applicants will base their decision to accept a position on two criteria: 1) the person that he will work for, and 2) the feel he has for the corporate culture.

Just what is corporate culture? Simply put, it’s the personality of an organization. It guides how employees think, act, and feel, and includes a company’s core values and beliefs, ethics, and rules of behavior. Culture reveals itself in many ways, both obvious and subtle. The décor of its offices, how its employees dress, and how they interact with each other are all observable clues.

Before you dismiss the corporate culture factor as insignificant, here are some tangible ways it affects you: the amount of hours you are expected to work; whether it’s a fun or hostile environment – or something in between; the dress code; the type of office space you’ll occupy (and rules regarding display of personal items); the training and development you’ll receive; the availability of onsite perks such as fitness and daycare facilities; and the interaction you’ll have with other employees, especially top management.

How do you uncover the corporate culture of a potential employer? The truth is that you will never really know the corporate culture until you have worked at the company for a number of months, but you can get close to it through research and observation. Understanding culture is a two-step process, starting with research before the interview and ending with observation at the interview.

Experts suggest arriving early to the interview — unannounced if possible — and spend the time observing how current employees interact with each other, how they are dressed, and their level of courtesy and professionalism. While it is great that firms are now using their cultures as a tool to attract and retain talent, companies must be able to substantiate their claims of a work/life balance, team atmosphere, or any other such promise.

The bottom line is that you are going to spend a lot of time in the work environment — and to be happy, successful, and productive, you’ll want to be in a place where you fit the culture. A place where you can have a voice, are respected, and have opportunities for growth.

Portions of this article have been excerpted from Dr. Randall Hansen’s website, quintessentialcareers.com. anding