Hello, my name is Kelly Clay. I am 29. I have three arts degrees, all of them 1sts or with distinctions. I am unemployed. This is not an unusual state of affairs, especially in THE CURRENT ECONOMIC CLIMATE. I say THE CURRENT ECONOMIC CLIMATE with that force and emphasis about five times a day, it doesn’t get tiresome, it makes me feel like I am part of something, a rolling critique of coalition policy and deep recession living.

However, I have found a measure of balance and fulfillment through my (unpaid) work at the British Heart Foundation charity shop down my street. What follows is a truthful assessment of the pros and cons of undertaking voluntary work when you don’t have an income of your own.

What I am trying to say is that I was lonely.
Unemployment is curiously exhausting – most people have been through a job hunt and know how long it takes to pull together applications of quality, tweaking your cover letter to exactly express your need, your desire and -most importantly- your utter suitability for the role. Then, the elaborate filing process so that you can prove that you’ve made the effort, that you’re still entitled to the Job Seeker’s Benefit package that allows you to scrape through the month.

Most of my time is spent in front of my computer, googling, bookmarking, writing and updating my LinkedIn profile with ever more flattering photographs and ever-more effervescent promotional copy. It is enormously draining. You start to feel like a self-promoting robot. The memory of what is beyond your living room dims. It’s really not ideal.

Community volunteer work as salve for all of this
Despite the exhaustion of the fruitless job application, I still had a lot of time on my hands. If I was busy, this would feel like a luxury. As it was, the dominant emotion I felt was loneliness, with uselessness riding happily on its tailcoat. I knew that I had to do something. I had to leave the house. I noticed on one of my walks that my local British Heart Foundation was looking for people to sort out its books department. “I have a lot of bookshop and book industry experience!” I said to the sign. On impulse then, I walked into the shop and got one of their application forms

The Pros Of This Course Of Action

1. Feeling part of the world again

There’s nothing quite as necessary for self esteem as the feeling that your actions matter. Donating your time to a volunteer position is an automatic adoption of responsibility. People expect you to turn up on time. They expect you to do the work they set out for you.

1. The implied good that you are doing

Volunteer charity work has tangible real-world benefits beyond the good feelings it engenders in the individual. Being part of a chain of industry that benefits people in need is something important, something of a privilege.

1. Potential Employers Look Kindly On This Sort Of Thing

It show you’re proactive, willing to work, community-oriented, all those appalling compound phrases. Even if you don’t want a career in the charity sector, extra experience in dealing with the public, promotion, shop work and money handling never hurts a job application, ever.

The Cons

1. The responsibility of working in a certain place at a certain time diminishes your flexibility when it comes to job interviews

This was one of my problematic thoughts before I began my volunteering ‘What if I get an amazing opportunity? What then?’ Well, this is a classic example of projecting yourself out of the present moment, finding problems and reasons for inaction before you’ve even begun. If this situation arises, then you’d deal with it, no? Either you’d switch your shift or ask the interview to reschedule. People have dependencies, everyone. Even employers accept this. It’s important to be able to ask for the things that you need – people are more flexible than you’d imagine.

1. It takes forever to get going

There’s nothing more demoralizing than being rejected for a position, except perhaps when that position is voluntary. It took almost two months for Oxfam to even acknowledge my application, despite the sign stating they were ‘desperate’ for volunteers. I won’t lie, it didn’t help my self-esteem to feel like I was being ignored by the voluntary sector. However, bear in mind that a lot of the administrative stuff is also done by volunteers and by the very nature of that, it can take a little longer to process things. Once they had secured my references, Oxfam couldn’t have been friendlier and more welcoming. I am very happy to give 15 hours to them. The thing they give me in return is hope. I think that’s worth battling all the ‘cons’ in the world.

What do you think of this Argument For Working For Free: Voluntary Work and Unemployment? Leave us a comment below.

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 19th, 2012 at 8:52 am and is filed under Career, Career Coaching, Job Search, Networking, Personal Branding. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.