Does volunteer Experience at a reputable organization count as real exp?

I have been accepted to volunteer at a reputable non-profit in the Denver area on the weekends as an IT tech.. I am shocked for a few reasons. I was told by a few here that it's competitive to volunteer. Plus, I am studying for my certs on my own. For this reason, I was surprised they accepted me. They did a few phone interviews and accepted me.

I will admit my social skills(despite being an aspie) are decent if not a little above average. I sit for the 902 next week. Afterwards, I will be going for the MCP.

Will 6-8 months of volunteering doing ACTUAL IT related work count as work experience? This is not through a community college or anything. I am doing my certs on my own too. I plan to look into hospital based jobs as a desktop support analyst.

Longterm. I plan to get a bachelors. I will not attempt that until I get my first PAID IT job though...

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TheNullVoid

I think my other account is TheNullVoid12. I am the same guy...

TheNullVoid

Another question.

Two people apply for an entry level postion. Both people have no experience and required certs. The job doesn't require a Bachelors degree.

However, one got the certs on his own and got experience via volunteering. That same person has a worthless AA from a community college. The other went to the same community college but went through a two year technical community college program and got his experience in the classroom.

Would each candidate have an equal shot at a Desktop Analyst Position that required an MCP/A+

kalimuscle

Ofcourse it counts as experience.

I did it earlier on in my career.

Who knows they might hire you full time paid

If not

Also you could use this experience to get hired else where.

I am a aspie too and its shocking i was doing what you doing excatly what you were doing 7 years ago.

Pseudonym

Yeah it counts. I also volunteered a couple of years back in order to get some experience on my CV. Now been doing desktop support for 2 years.

Also an aspie.. So I dunno what that tells you, but there are a lot of us in this industry so I guess it's not that surprising.

Verities

Yes, volunteer experience counts as actual experience since you're basically working and not getting paid for it.

Wrighty11xbl

I've been doing it where I work, It might have got me a job lined up too, just waiting for funding for the role, role on the new financial year.

Cisco Inferno

Nice. who's it for? im in denver, so i may know.