22: Benefits of volunteering: Transferable skills for a career change

One of the best things you can do for your career change is volunteer. I speak with career transition coach Bonnie Diamond, a senior executive coach at Right Management, about the professional and personal benefits of volunteering when switching industries or professions. 

Get motivated to volunteer today!


Find Bonnie Diamond at:

Website: www.bonniebdiamond.com

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/bonniebdiamond

Find volunteer opportunities at:

Idealist: www.idealist.org

Volunteers of America: www.voa.org

Catchafire: www.catchafire.org

Pro Bono Planner Match: https://probonoplannermatch.org

VolunteerMatch: www.volunteermatch.org

Volunteer.gov: www.volunteer.gov

United Way: www.unitedway.org/get-involved/volunteer

Learn more about the benefits of volunteering:

Indeed: What Are the Benefits of Volunteering? 10 Reasons to Volunteer

Flexjobs: 9 Ways Volunteering Can be a Step Toward Changing Careers

Jobscan: Where and Why to Include Volunteer Work on a Resume

Fast Company: You’re Probably Not Doing This One Activity that Can Help Your Career

Music credit: TimMoor from Pixabay 

Podcast info:
What's your career switch? What do you think about this episode and the show? Tell us at careerswitchpod.com. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Transcript

Lixandra: Hi, everyone. I'm Lixandra Urresta, and this is Career Switch Podcast. This show is here to encourage you to take action with whatever career change you're considering or working on. Maybe you're trying to switch industries or professions or break out on your own and start a business. In some episodes, I talk to people who've made their own career switch, whether by choice or circumstance. They share the good, the bad, and the truth about their journey, including what worked for them and what didn't. In other episodes, I speak with experts who offer their best career advice on challenges that can come up during the process of making a career change. After all, it takes guts to switch things up, and it's not easy. However, it is possible. 

So I hope you hear something in this episode, an idea, a suggestion, a piece of advice that'll spur you into action with your own career switch, whether it's taking that first bold step or trying something new. Welcome. I'm glad you're here. 

One of the best things I did for my career switch was volunteer. I was laid off from Family Circle Magazine in late 2018 and I decided to switch industries. However, I was lost with what to pursue. I thought I'd give public relations a try. But how? I had no experience in PR. In early 2019, I reached out to a small nonprofit and asked if I could help promote their theater production that would debut later that year. They said yes. So for a few hours every week over the next nine months, I used my editorial skills to write press releases, reach out to the media, and try to get coverage for the play. I called myself a publicist and added what I was doing to my resume and LinkedIn profile. In the end, I didn't go into PR, but my volunteer experience offered so many benefits. 

I got the idea to volunteer from Wright Management, a company that offers career transition services. I worked with them for a few months after my layoff as part of my severance package. While attending their seminars, I met Wright alumni. These were folks who had landed new positions and came back to advise the rest of us. Many of them shared how they had volunteered and how it had helped them. 

I've been wanting to do an episode on the benefits of volunteering while making a career change, especially since several of my guests have also credited volunteering with their career switch. I invited career transition coach Bonnie Diamond, a senior executive at Wright Management, to tell us about the professional and personal benefits of volunteering when switching industries or professions. 

Hi, Bonnie, this is an episode close to my heart. So thanks for joining us today. What kind of volunteering can you do while you're making a career switch?

Bonnie: Well, you know, it's funny when we started talking about volunteering, my first thought went straight to not-for-profit, you know, going and giving your time at a soup kitchen or a homeless shelter, trying to give back to the community, which of course is an excellent thing to do. But how can you contribute there? might be to use your professional skills. Maybe you're good at spreadsheets. Maybe you're good at raising money. So you definitely can use your existing skill sets, or you can look at the organization and see what do they need that you might want to learn a little more about. Let's say they're running an event and you've never really done anything with event planning, but you would like to get some experience at it. You could do it while you're volunteering. And back to the idea that it doesn't really need to be a not-for-profit. It could very well be a corporate organization or a small business where you know someone, where you know that they need something that you might be able to help them with. And that gets you in, helps you meet people, contribute, feel good about yourself, and you never know where it goes.

Lixandra: And now that things are getting better with the pandemic, should you volunteer in person or remotely?

Bonnie: Definitely either one. It depends on what area of the business you're working in. Certainly we've all learned that we can do so many more things remotely than we ever thought. So if it's anything related to office work or bookkeeping, accounting, social media, marketing, all of that can really be done remotely. Sometimes you do want to go and be in person for the benefits of meeting people, networking, and really feeling a part of the organization.

Lixandra: Okay, so let's dive into the actual benefits that you've been mentioning, such as the example you gave of an organization planning an event, but you've never done that. You can volunteer for that place to get experience doing event planning, so volunteering can help you learn and practice new skills and address a skills gap you might have.

Bonnie: It's a great way for you definitely to address the issue that whenever you're doing a career change, you're going to be up against the issue that they'll look at your resume, your background, and they'll say, Alexandra, you never did this before. So why should we think that you can do it? So it goes back to that old adage that you can't get a job without experience and you can't get experience without a job. But if you give it away, there's not as much risk for them. to give you a chance and you can get in there and learn new things and certainly contribute to the organization. And you might try it and say, well, I thought I would like event planning or Excel spreadsheets. And in the end, I don't. So as you're planning your career shift, you've got a little chance for a try and buy that. Okay. That wasn't so great. I didn't lose a lot. They didn't lose a lot. Let me move on.

Lixandra: So that's another benefit. You can try and buy, like you said. Yeah. In my case, I certainly used my time volunteering to address the public relations skills that I was lacking and to try out the industry.

Bonnie: I could actually tell a little story about my career change as I was developing skills to go towards a human resource career. I had been in my own business for many years. It was a retail business. And in your own business, you do everything. You hire, you fire, you train, you onboard, and you also do sales and marketing and bookkeeping. The business shut down. We closed four stores. And I was looking to say, okay, what do I want to do next? And I did not want to go back into a retail business, but I wanted to use some of the skills and be able to earn a living. I had been volunteering at an art center where they were running some events and they needed help in the office with bookkeeping. So I said, well, in my business, I had always done a little bit of bookkeeping, but I'll give it a try. They were looking for a volunteer. I raised my hand. I said, I'll come in and I'll write the checks, pay the bills, do whatever you need to do, which I did. And then the treasurer of the organization wanted to improve the process of paying the bills and running the accounting side of the business. He was a CPA volunteering his time. And he asked me if I'd be willing to learn QuickBooks. So I said, OK, always looking to learn new skills that would be transferable to other businesses. So we both learned QuickBooks together. And lo and behold, one of the members of the board was looking for a bookkeeper for one of his venture capital investments. And he approached me and said, it seems like you're doing bookkeeping. Would you like to have an interview for this company that's looking for a part-time bookkeeper? I got the job. I was working two days a week. The company started to grow. And now they asked me, did I want to learn anything about hiring and recruiting, which I had certainly done in my own business. So I rebooted those skills. And eventually over time that company grew and I became the director of human resources of the software development company, which all really started with volunteering back at the not-for-profit to help them pay the bills. So you never know where it's going to go. And actually during my time in the human resource role at the software company, they used to bring in an executive coach to work with the leadership team. I developed a relationship with the executive coach. I took my coach training at that time, and I started coaching in the organization as part of my human resource role. And here I am coaching full time.

Lixandra: So there you go. Your story shows how you used your skills to volunteer, since you had done some bookkeeping for your own business, and how you picked up new skills while volunteering. You learned QuickBooks, the accounting software. It also illustrates a bunch of other benefits. Volunteering gives you hands-on experience that you could put on your resume. It helps you expand your network and connects you with people with common interests that you could use as references. And you get to hear about opportunities. You get the inside scoop on job openings even before they're posted.

Bonnie: A hundred percent. There's usually pretty good payback when you're generous with your time and your abilities. You become their go-to person. At the time that I was volunteering as a bookkeeper, I never would have thought that it would lead me to be a career transition coach with Wright Management.

Lixandra: Let's go back to the try and buy advantage you mentioned earlier. Can you volunteer to try out a new industry or profession while at your current job?

Bonnie: That's going to depend very much on what kind of an organization you're going to find that's going to give you the opportunity to get in there while you're doing your nine to five job. If it's something that's digital, if it's something that's project based that you could do in evenings or weekends. As we said earlier, we've learned to do so many things remotely that previously we always thought we needed to be in the office on site. People are no longer talking about work-life balance. They now talk about work-life integration. So maybe let's say you're in that full-time job that you're looking to leave and you're looking to get some flexibility. so that you can do that try and buy within another area of the business. So you might work out a schedule with your current employer that would give you that flexibility. Maybe it's going to be Fridays off or you're going to take two hours off in the middle of every day to volunteer and get that exposure to the other organization. So there's all different kinds of arrangements that you could make as you're preparing. for that career shift to give yourself that exposure and opportunity to try something new. You know, if you're a little bit creative about it, so much could be done at a different time of the day. You know, the world of nine to five is very much gone.

Lixandra: And what if you've been laid off and have more time available?

Bonnie: I have this one gentleman who I was working with who had a very long career in banking, project management, technology. really big job, long career, a lot of changes going on in the bank. His position was eliminated and he was looking at going back to do the same thing. Meanwhile, he got very involved in his church. He was volunteering. He was very involved with the youth programs, with sports, and really having a great experience contributing to his church where he had always been a member. But when he was working for the bank, he really didn't have a lot of time to volunteer and contribute as much as he had during his transition. I don't see him on my calendar for a few weeks and all of a sudden he pops in and he says, Bonnie, I have great news. I'm about to accept a position as the executive director of my church. And he was so excited that he was really going to be able to give his full attention to an area that he was very passionate about. And it just started with having the time to volunteer for him to realize how important contributing to his community and being involved in something that he really cared about, a career with purpose, was like a real big awakening for this guy.

Lixandra: That's a great story. Now let's talk about the resume. A career switch can take weeks or months. So how should you list your volunteer work on your resume?

Bonnie: What we recommend to write management as far as resumes go, if you are doing volunteering during your transition, which would create a gap on the resume, then you would just list the volunteering in the experience section as opposed to listing it as a volunteer position. I always say to the people that I work with who are in transition that you're not putting your salary on the resume, you're putting your title and the accomplishments and the work that you did So when we give away the services, you just list it as the skills and the title that describes what you've done. And it does two things for you. It shows that you have experience doing the role that you're possibly looking to shift into. And it also takes care of the gap. That's a very important piece of it, and there's no real reason to mention that you're not getting paid. If someone asks you, you'll be transparent about it. But the idea of it is that you are doing it, you are learning it, you are expanding your skills. You're not just sitting around and spending six, eight months on your job search.

Lixandra: Something I liked about volunteering was that I got to call myself a publicist because I was doing publicity for the nonprofit's theater production. I gave myself an appropriate title and could put it on my resume.

Bonnie: You give yourself the title that'll brand you with the skill and the ability that you're bringing to the market that you want future employers to be able to see that you have. Certainly by putting it on your LinkedIn, putting it on your resume, It will bring you up in searches for someone who's looking for a publicist, who's looking for a bookkeeper, looking for someone who has the skill already.

Lixandra: Now, what's your advice for choosing a title? Because you don't want to go overboard with whatever title you use. For example, I could have called myself the head of PR for the small nonprofit where I was volunteering, but I didn't feel comfortable doing that.

Bonnie: I would be realistic and logical. You know, you don't want to overdo it because that's not going to help you get where you're looking to go. Picture yourself as the hiring manager and picture the questions that they're going to ask you. What did you do, Alexandra, when you were the head of public relations for that not-for-profit organization? You want to make sure that your story is going to ring true and demonstrate what you've done without inflating it too much.

Lixandra: Okay, let's now talk about the benefits of volunteering that can help you personally or mentally while making a career switch. What are some of those benefits?

Bonnie: Helping someone, giving back to the community, helping a small organization, be it a company that's a for-profit or a not-for-profit grow by contributing your skills and abilities to help them do their business always is going to make you feel good. I think that human nature makes you want to help. When we work with individuals who are in career transition looking for their next opportunity, so many of them are very reluctant to go out to their network to ask for help. I tell them, go to your network and make sure that when you leave that 15 or 20 minute conversation with them, make sure that your contact leaves with the helpers high. And that helper's high is what you're looking for when you volunteer. You might be a little down and out about a job elimination. You're feeling sorry for yourself. And then you can go and give away some of the things that you know how to do to help other people. It just makes you come home that day and say, maybe I didn't get a job today. Maybe I didn't get paid, but boy, do I feel good.

Lixandra: Also, a lot of places will ask volunteers for a commitment. How is that a benefit?

Bonnie: It's very good, especially if you're in transition and you finding that you're wasting a lot of time. You know, when you're working, we somehow or other fit so many things into our day, but yet sometimes when the job is eliminated, we just feel like we're wasting the day away. So if you decide that you wanted to volunteer, Let's say you do it at a school where they always need help during lunchtime or during recess for safety purposes or during events when a lot of people are in and out of the school or a hospital or any other kind of an organization. They will ask you for a time commitment. Can we count on you, Bonnie, every Wednesday from two to four to be here to do whatever it is I volunteer to do? That turns out to be a good thing for you because it structures your day. It makes you be organized. It says, okay, I have to get dressed. I have to get up. I have to get out. I have to get to that volunteer position and be dependable. So it puts a little structure in our day. It gives us a good feeling about helping others. Again, all good.

Lixandra: Yes, I agree. It gives you something to do and or somewhere to go on a regular basis. It's also a good way to take a mental break from working on your job search. Bonnie, how can volunteering keep you motivated?

Bonnie: We talk about keeping your energy up during a job search. And certainly if you're adding to the job search, a career shift, which will possibly take a little bit longer. be a little bit more challenging, that you really need to make sure that you're keeping your energy up and volunteering can definitely do that for you. It will put you in front of people, expand your network, give you opportunities to feel good about yourself, even when you get that job rejection and everything isn't going your way. Sometimes if you're volunteering places where people really need help, you can come back and say, I'm still very lucky. I I'm able to be here to give, and I don't need the help that some of these organizations are giving to others. So it's a very good way to kind of bring your spirits up about your situation.

Lixandra: So where can our listeners find opportunities to volunteer?

Bonnie: The basic site where most people will look for volunteering would be idealist.org. Another one is the Volunteers of America, which is www.voa.org. Those are two good sites, but all the job boards also have volunteer opportunities listed. LinkedIn has it, Indeed has it. It's really not very hard to find. Also, think of your own world. Anything that you're affiliated with through your children's schools, anything that you care about. If you can make your volunteering in an organization or an area of business that you care about, the rewards are going to be that much greater emotionally, socially, and probably even getting a job or getting into the organization. Not-for-profits in particular really want you to be aligned with their mission and their vision if they're going to hire you to work for them. So Whatever it is that you care about, think about it and volunteer.

Lixandra: Yeah. So that's one more benefit we can mention. Obviously, if you want to get into a particular place, volunteer there.

Bonnie: It seems so obvious, but a lot of people don't think of it. Volunteering is a great way to go in there and contribute and also kind of make that real statement that you're interested in the business or the organization. And that you're willing to give something, you will get something in return.

Lixandra: I promise you. And I'll add my two cents for finding volunteer opportunities and say, simply ask, ask a place if you can help them with whatever they need.

Bonnie: You've got to be creative. You've got to go out there and meet people. You know, hopefully we're at a stage now that things are opening up more. You never know where you're going to meet people. But if you put yourself in places where you have interest and passion, you know, if you love sports and you want to volunteer and help go to the events, meet the people, see what they're doing. Are they running a big race next year or next month that you can help them with a fundraiser. If you're that social media person, if you are that promotion person, keep thinking about what interests you and who's doing it. and how can I help? That's the big question to keep asking yourself, how can I help? And asking others.

Lixandra: Thanks to Bonnie Diamond for being our guest today. You can find Bonnie at our website, bonniebdiamond.com and on LinkedIn. Also, check out the many volunteer resources in the show notes. You can find links to the resources mentioned in this episode and more helpful information in the show notes and on our website, careerswitchpod.com. 

So what's your career switch? Are you motivated to take action after listening to this episode? Tell us at careerswitchpod.com. We'd love to know, along with any feedback you have about the show. Let us know too, if you'd like to be a guest. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn at careerswitchpod. And please rate, review, and share with your friends and colleagues. It'll help get the show out there. Thanks for listening today. Till next time.