Tag Archives: Volunteering

Volunteer work may get you hired, new LinkedIn survey shows

Posted on by
1

People who volunteer find it brings them a real payoff in all kinds of ways. Now new research from LinkedIn shows it could pay off in a job offer too.
One in five hiring managers surveyed by LinkedIn say they’ve chosen someone based on the candidate’s volunteer experiences, and 41 percent say they consider volunteer work equally valuable as paid experience.
“In this hyper-competitive world of work, where we all need to differentiate ourselves, volunteering not only provides you the opportunity to showcase your talents and experiences, but it also allows you to demonstrate compassion and commitment,” LinkedIn’s connections director Nicole Williams writes in a blog post announcing a new field for volunteer activities on individuals’ profiles.

I’m a big believer in the value of volunteering – to build your self-confidence, your connections, skills and to improve your world.  Here’s three tips for making the most of volunteering:

  • Play to your passions.  Volunteer work can bring back a spark. It can give you a sense of adventure, engagement, meaning. And yes, it can give you a place for your passions and your causes to run free, which can keep your creativity flowing, especially if your day job seems rather drab or mundane.
  • Identify the right opportunities. Especially when you’re filling in gaps in your resume or trying to develop a new path, choose your volunteer work with care.  Depending on your goals and career plans, serving on an advisory board or helping to organize a major fundraising event may make more sense than serving up soup. For more, read my Washington Post piece from a couple of years ago.
  •  Place it on your resume.  Yes, you can and should add it right in alongside your paid work. Or you may highlight it in its own section. LinkedIn just introduced a new category on its profiles for causes and volunteer work.  Fill it in with your volunteer activities and give recruiters another reason to consider you.

You really can open doors as you open your heart to volunteer work. So if you haven’t taken a pro bono project yet, start one today.

 

More information:

Read my previous Workingkind post on volunteering your way to a new career.

Read my Glassdoor post on inching your way toward your dream job; and another on how kindness can be worthwhile to career advancement.

Check volunteer opportunities on VolunteerMatch.org, Idealist.org or a local or regional volunteer opportunities site. Individual charities also sometimes post needs on their websites.

Share

Tools and tricks to start your own company or employee gardens

Posted on by
Reply

Anyone with a garden knows they need a few tools to plant and tend. If you want to create garden for your workplace, the tools go beyond a hoe and some kneeling pads. You’ll need some communication and collaboration tools too.

My piece on Fortune.com gives many reasons why employee gardens are valuable and worthwhile. My previous blog post gives some more motivation for adding seeds and dirt to your employee benefits. Now it’s time to dig in and offer practical tools and tips for those who want to follow the lead of Timberland, Haberman and many other companies.

Here’s some smart suggestions if your organization wants to plant an employee garden this spring:

  • Start small and grow the garden the second year. It’s easier to expand it based on serious interest than to have plants or beds go untended.
  • If your company isn’t ready to commit or doesn’t have land available, find a community gardening organization and see if they’ll let you join.
  • Understand your goals and if possible, articulate them before you begin. You may want to set some measures of success, too, whether it’s based on how many bags of beans you donate to the soup kitchen or how many staffers start eating healthier with produce picked from the parking lot.
  • Connect the garden to your company’s mission or employment practices.  If wellness is a major theme, give staff recipes that use garden produce. If you’re trying to encourage cross-pollination, make your garden teams a hodge podge of folk. If you want to add more organic food companies or farmers to your client lists, you need to use the best practices that will resonate and impress them.
  • Cultivate teamwork. If you want people to collaborate over carrots and cucumbers, set up teams that bring together people from different departments.
  • Hire outside help.  Haberman uses youth to handle some of the routine weeding.
  • Spread the word. A garden can help attract the people you want to your team, so include it on your website, Twitter and company Facebook page.
  • Include everyone.  Hold a harvest party for all. Have a green open house or meet the bees events, as they do at Chesapeake Energy.

You also can request a booklet from Chesapeake Energy on establishing a garden by sending an email toemployeegarden@chk.com . Haberman’s website on corporate gardens also has a variety of articles and resources that could be helpful. (My kindest thanks to Haberman’s Liz Morris Otto for her assistance and ideas for this blog post and the Fortune.com article.)

Now, I’d love to hear from you what other tools, tips and resources you can offer, based on your experience as a backyard gardener or a corporate green thumb.

Share

10 more karma creators that your coworkers will love

Posted on by
2

That warm happy glad-to-be-on-the-team feeling that creeps into offices sometimes could be an everyday event.  All it takes is some kindness and a focus on creating career karma.

How do you do that? I’ll give you 10 good ideas – and then hope to hear 10 more from you, my readers.  My first 10 suggestions appeared here and on GenPink.com as a guest post. These next 10 are an eclectic lot, but many will make the workplace an easier, happier place.

11. Develop a team ritual. Maybe it’s a monthly birthday celebration for anyone born in that month. Or a wine after work night once a week – whining may not be your style, but a little camaraderie could be. Whatever it is, make sure everyone feels welcome. And if alcohol is involved, switch it up once a month so those nondrinkers and who are in recovery can join in.

12. Volunteer at work. Start a canned food drive for your local soup kitchen. Collect gently used suits for a job seekers group. Backpacks for kids going to school. Talk to your HR director or CEO about a team building day at Habitat for Humanity or for KABOOM!, which builds playgrounds.

13. Bring a jobless friend to work day. There’s already a bring your dog to work day and a bring your parents to work day, so why not a day dedicated to our unemployed friends?  Maybe you could arrange an interview for them while they’re in-house. Or a few introductions to the kindest, most-connected coworkers and bosses in your organization.

14.  Teach the new techno-tools or marketing marvels. You know how to use the software that confounds your coworkers. Or how to use FourSquare or the latest productivity app. Or some other technology that terrifies some others. So show the way. Set up a lunch and learn for your department – and teach everyone how to use it. When you do, pull out your best ah shucks Gomer Pile approach and tact and be gracious about follow-up help too.

15. Create a universal “I need to concentrate for an hour” signal. Everyone needs time to focus intently on work, with no interruptions. Everyone needs think time too. So you could help yourself and your co-workers gain this by creating some flag, some token, something that says – stay away, I need to work.  A little red elf that sits atop your computer perhaps? Or a piece of that yellow warning tape that says do not cross this.  Find something that is clear and clever and suits the culture of your workplace – then find a way to introduce it this month.

16.  Fill the copier drawer or printer with paper. If you do this regularly, you’ll find it takes only a minute or so (as long as the paper is stashed very nearby). Then you will win you the gratitude of the administrative assistant and other heavy users – as well as a cavernous amount of karma.

17.   Make a miracle happen at work. “Pull a rabbit out of a hat.”  Achieve what they say cannot be done. Work a miracle for your boss or a colleague who’s hopelessly behind on a project. Solve a very difficult problem and make it look easy. Then be sure your attitude seems modest yet pleased to help.  (You’ll hear more about making career magic in some blog posts planned for mid- to late-January.)

18.  Create a recognition space. One of my editors at Newsday called it the “wall of love” – and he posted articles that he really appreciated.  Maybe yours is a bulletin board with a folder full of blank stars and exclamation points. Anyone can write an appreciation note to a teammate – and the bosses are expected to post something every Monday for the previous week. Or perhaps yours is a weekly award – not money, but the parking space nearest the entrance for the worker who went furthest to help others.  Or a weekly email or Facebook posting shouting out praise and accolades. If you’re not a manager, you may want buy-in from a boss first. You could even get her to send out the words of praise – written partly or completely by you. They mean even more when they come from the brass.

19. Seek out a master, a mentor, an advisor. This may sound like something that will bring you benefits – and it will. But it also will bring you good karma, as you show respect for another’s expertise and wisdom, and then share what you learn with others in your circle. You may add still more karma by helping your advisor with some situation or question or need.

20.  Beat the deadline by a few hours – or even a day. If you can finish up a project or some research early, you ease the burden of those who await it. You give them a small gift of time (as well as gain a bit for yourself or another project.) So use the motto I once tried as a business editor: “Get ahead by getting ahead.” And give others the chance to get ahead too.

Now it’s your turn. What are you doing to create good karma in your cubicle or your company? Please share your ideas and insights here – and be prepared for an interview. I hope to write about this for a magazine article in coming weeks. (If you don’t want to be interviewed, I respect that so just make a small note of that in your response.)

Share

7 More Ways to Help A Jobless Friend

Posted on by
3

“If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.”  ~Mother Teresa

“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.” -Martin Luther King Jr.
Economic worries weigh heavy on so many people today – and the paths to prosperity seem so elusive.  For millions of jobless Americans, the world feels dark, bleak, frightening.

We know our unemployed cousin Leroy needs a hand or our Aunt Millie is facing foreclosure. And we know we could reach out to our neighbor or friend, who lost her job a year ago. Whether family or friend, former colleague or ex-teammate, jobless Americans need our help. They need encouragement, support – and a job. But what can we do that the Obama administration and Congress couldn’t? Plenty.

My blog post on Glassdoor.com gives five ways you can help. Here’s seven more in case you have a lot of jobless friends – or want to provide a variety of kindnesses:


1. Become their “goal buddy.” Help them set goals, work on them and achieve them. Hold their hand and hold them accountable for some action and outreach. They could do the same for you – and keep you advancing, whether you’re working to lose weight or launch a blog or business.

2. Free them to have fun. Watch local calendars for free events, lectures and other activities. Mix up the kinds of things you see together – to give them some fresh ideas and perspectives on the world. Before you head to the lecture or event,  remind them that the person sitting next to them could be their next boss or cubicle mate.

3. Help  change their perspective, attitude, outlook. Buy them a book “Life Is So Good” by George Dawson and Richard Glaubman  or AdaptAbility by M.J. Ryan, What Color Is Your Parachute by Richard Bolles or something else that uplifts and encourages. Suggest a mantra that reinforces their talents. Send an uplifting quote by email every day for a week. Buy a pack of Goddess Cards or Power Thought Cards (yes, I’ve used both and they are useful for difficult times).

4. Drop off a care package. The food may differ from what you’d send a college student. But the idea’s the same – the care and feeding of someone starts with some good food. Make homemade soup and buy a loaf of bread. Pick up a pound of roasted almonds, a few energy bars and a gift card for their favorite restaurant. Or buy them a couple bags of groceries – including a small luxury item they’ll savor – and drop it by their place.

5. Listen. Just be there.  In the book When Bad Things Happen to Good People.  Rabbi Harold Kushner says when you go through the toughest times, through tragedies and loss, friends can help just by being there. Sit and listen to them, assure them they are loved. No need to give advice or answers.

6.  Volunteer for success. Encourage them to sign  up for some volunteer work that will work for them. Help the chamber of commerce at its quarterly mixer by registering guests.Assist the local hospital with a fundraiser or a business incubator’s open house or other project. Give time to nonprofits where successful business people are engaged and involved and be clear that you want to work for a socially responsible enterprise and boss like them. More from my Washington Post article on volunteering for career success or my blog post from March.

7. Write them a love letter. Platonic love of the whole person can lift them up and help combat depression and despair. Remind them of the hard times they’ve gotten through before. Tell them how much you appreciate their innate skills and nature. Appreciate their lifetime of accomplishments. Appreciate their friendship and the things they’ve already done for you and others. Write the letter long-hand or print it out from your computer and mail it to them. That way they will have it to pull out and look at when they need to recall how good they are, and how much they are appreciated.

There must be a dozen other ways to help those in need, many  small and many easy. What are you doing to lend a hand? How are you helping?

The Quote Garden creator Terri Guillemets says: “If I had to sum up friendship in one word, it would be comfort.”   This week and every week, be a friend to someone who’s out of work.

Huge thanks to my friend Anita LeBlanc and my sweetheart, Mark. Both help many people and both shared ideas for this post.  And thanks to to QuoteGarden and ThinkExist, which supply me with amazing and uplifting quotes here and on Twitter (@ WorkingKind) .

Share

Volunteer your way to a new job

Posted on by
2

After Hurricane Katrina hit, an “enormous wave of good will and generosity flooded” VolunteerMatch with people and projects.  So the nonprofit that matches people with non profit organizations and assignments itself posted some volunteer positions, for people with tech skills.

Chad, an Intel veteran, showed up, and volunteered full-time for about two months. He loved  VolunteerMatch and so when a job opening came up, he said, “I want it.”

“He got the job from the volunteering bench. We all knew how smart and committed he was,” recalled Greg Baldwin, president of San Francisco-based VolunteerMatch.  Baldwin acknowledges that Chad’s story is “one in a hundred.” A more likely scenario, he said, is someone who is actively volunteering for one nonprofit ends up referred to another with an opening, perhaps even before the job is posted.

I wrote about this job-hunters benefit of volunteering for CareerFocus in a piece titled  ” Volunteer your way to new work.”  It provides some useful advice and suggestions to those who want to make their generosity pay off.  (You can see the article by opening this rather large PDF and looking in about three pages, or searching for the term “volunteer.” CareerFocus is produced by Washtenaw Community College in Michigan.)

Baldwin, of course, believes volunteering belongs on your resume – whether you’re working or not. And so do many employers and hiring managers, especially those who are active volunteers themselves.

Truth be told people who work part-time are much more likely to help out at a non-profit, school or religious organization than are unemployed individuals, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  Maybe that’s because they haven’t realized the value of volunteering to their career as well as their community.

Volunteer assignments can be used right on your resume to show how you developed new skills or kept your current ones sharp. Integrate it into the paid work area if you’ve had a significant assignment or volunteered for more than one day a week at an organization. Label the assignment pro bono but you don’t have to make that a prominent piece.  Or create a separate category and call it Community Work or Pro Bono Projects.

A third approach, for those who are less actively volunteering:  Place it in the Interests section at the bottom of the resume. Definitely show volunteering ahead of hiking or baseball or mushroom gathering.

“It definitely matters. We don’t distinguish between paid work and unpaid work generally,” said Tracie Spinale, the Smithsonian Institution’s academic program manager who helps hire 1,300 interns a year. She likes to see previous internships, and also volunteer work at local museums or science centers.

Other employers like to see community service and volunteering as a a way to develop leadership skills, add to your connections or make you a well-rounded individual.

“The people who get jobs are the people who are busy,” said Baldwin, who with his staff volunteers once a month at places such as Habitat for Humanity. “People seek those associations where people stretch beyond themselves – to see some acknowledgment that you’re concerned about neighborhood or community.”

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

MORE RESOURCES:

Career coach Laura Labovich offers six ways to implement a generous job search on Careerrealism.com

The Chronicle of Philanthropy has advice on moving from volunteer to paid status, and ways to combine pro bono and paying gigs.

I wrote about the value of pro-bono and between-job assignments for the Washington Post in July. See my piece http://bit.ly/aXDMDr

If you’re not sure what kind of volunteer assignment to seek, my CareerFocus article has hints, or check out this list, which I produced for the Washington Post:

  • Join a cause that is timely and relevant to the industry where you want to work. Read execs’ bios or check corporate websites to see what charities they support.
  • Skip a controversial cause or charity – or at least don’t put it on your resume. Among the pass on them are abortion rights, gun advocacy, some religious groups.
  • Community groups, food cooperatives, neighborhood associations can be valuable, as can chambers of commerce and business groups. They may introduce you to your next employer.
  • Kids and pets are  safe popular areas, as is a professional organization or association.
Share

A resume writer full of generosity

Posted on by
Reply

Note: This WorkingKind post originally appeared on March 27, 2009. I am reposting it now as Wendy Enelow prepares for her Career Thought Leader Conference in Baltimore.

Wendy Enelow describes herself as an “old hippy girl” who lives on a 35-acre farm outside of Lynchburg, Va. And she does have long hair and dangling earrings – and apparently wears Birkenstock sandals and her PJs to work sometimes.

Enelow also is one of the great resume writers whose work helps advance and relaunch careers of executives all over the country. She spends about half her time as a career coach and resume writer for individuals – most earn well into six figures – and the other half with “career seekers,” people who want to become resume writers or join the career advice field.

So the hippy chick assists the corporate chieftain with career advice – at $2,000 to $3,000 and up for a resume redo.  And then she uses some of her earnings as a “do gooder” — someone who lends a hand freely to those in trouble. She and her husband “adopted” a family displaced by Hurricane Katrina, and helped them relocate to rural Virginia. (They’re still there and still friends and Enelow, a skinny Jewish woman who grew up outside Pittsburgh, now considers herself almost Latina from their connections.) She helped organize Volunteers for Careers after Sept. 11, providing free career counseling and advice for a year to anyone who had lost their job or their spouse to the terror attacks. They reactivated it for Katrina victims and stand ready for the next huge disaster – “God forbid,” she says, yet she knows it may come around again.

Enelow doesn’t have any specific cause or charity as a volunteer focus. “There’s always something that just appears in my life – formal or not – that is the “right” do-gooder thing to do at that exact moment in time,” she says.

Of her kindness and assists, she says, “It’s the right thing to do.”

Community service and volunteering looks right on your resume, she says, providing a “glimpse into who a person is.” She suggests steering clear of political and religious causes on your C.V. since those can be both an advantage and a disadvantage, depending on who’s viewing it. Write about your volunteering in a section called either Personal Profile or Volunteer Experience.

Now Enelow has some excellent advice on her website on making your resume into a key sales tool for your career.  (A bit of it showed up in this week’s Working in the Post. Enelow recommmends the “sell it, don’t tell it” approach to highlight achievements and quantifiable results. A good trick for this, she says, “for each bulleted point you have on your resume, read it out loud and then say and — and … .” And then fill in the result, the impact, the contribution, whether it’s new multi-media materials for sixth graders or reducing the accounting cycle by three days.)

But the biggest inspiration comes from Wendy Enelow’s choices — and her passion to make a difference – whether by creating the Resume Writing Academy with a colleague or by lending a hand for a food drive or another “do gooder” activity.

That generosity of spirit says almost as much as any resume could.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

To learn more about the Career Thought Leaders conference, check their website

You also can follow some of the key career coaches and resume writers who will be presenting there on a Twitter list managed by Chandlee Bryan.

Share