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Written by: Tracy P. Miller
Editor, Publisher
TearTaylor's Career Corner
Just because you didn’t land a summer job doesn’t mean your resume has to suffer because of it. You can still take steps to improve your resume right now, well before you’re actually forced to send your resume off to potential hiring companies at the end of your senior year. While everyone wants to land a job or internship position that pays, unfortunately, that’s not a practical scenario in this day and age of rampant unemployment and countless companies relocating their operations to facilities overseas. Therefore, I highly recommend college students taking advantage of volunteer work situations whenever possible. There are many profit-based and non-profit institutions looking for free help these days. You could try visiting your local American Red Cross center, United Way or Salvation Army to see if they have volunteer jobs that fit your needs or tastes. Also, you could try hospitals and local libraries to see if there are volunteer jobs there. If you have access to a computer and the Internet, you can conveniently go on line and uncover unique volunteer opportunities right in your particular region of the country at the following websites:
Another place to consider looking for volunteer work is with any new business in your area. If the company has been opened less than a year, it will assuredly be grateful to land your offer of free help. Many new start-up businesses need help with small tasks such as filing, typing, mass mailings, running errands, passing out fliers to even more involved tasks such as help with designing its website, writing material for the site, creating company brochures, soliciting new customers and monitoring budgets.
Please keep in mind that while your stint with these companies won’t help to fatten your bank account any, they will definitely help to establish a trackable work record for you. These volunteer settings will help to conveniently build up any mediocre or absent work experience sections on a first-timer’s resume. Volunteer encounters on a resume will aid hiring personnel in accessing your real job capabilities and determine what actual job-related skills you will immediately bring to the company. Also, these volunteer settings will provide reputable managers that can vouch for your character, past job performance, attendance, team spirit, etc.
Another thing to keep in mind when volunteering with these companies is that in the event the company turns a sizeable profit and finds itself in a positive position to hire part-time or fulltime help, you’ll definitely be one of the first candidates considered for one of these valuable positions. Companies usually prefer to hire internally. They prefer to hire individuals that are already familiar with the company and who already know the ins and outs of the job being posted. So with all this said, make sure not to take your volunteer experience likely. Consider the work that you’re doing and the people that you’re working for just as important and as seriously as if you were working in any paid environment.
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This article is © 2003-2004 by Tracy Miller and may not be reposted without written permission from the author and may not be reprinted for profit.