volunteering

jmanrta

When I first got out of college I had a hard time finding a job due to lack of experience other than a 3month internship at a school district. So I decided to volunteer for a non-profit organization. I eventually got hired on part time and the pay was terrible, but it gave valuable experience(both windows and linux) and proved to be a stepping stone towards more challenging and better paying work.

Has anyone else here ever volunteered to gain experience?

Also for those of you who are just out of college or just got certified, but have no experience. You should consider volunteering, it get great experience, a good networking, and could possibly lead to paid employment.

Just thought i'd throw that out there.

jamesleecoleman

Sometimes it's hard trying to find a place to volunteer at. I went volunteer seaching for a while during the summer and I wasn't able to find anything or the information was out of date. You give good advice though, it's even better if people are out of school so they won't have alot of worry about.

EmpoweredBizTech

Yes early on in my career I volunteered and did numerous things from teaching MS Office to the homeless to helping re-wire a school for ethernet. And having the experience on the resume (I did show it on the job area of the resume) and being able to get the needed references for the work I did helped in getting started and my 1st full time gig.

Daniel333

Every resume should have a volunteer work spot. Both including technical and social.

apena7

Back in high school, I volunteered at a local senior center. I assisted in their computer lab with teaching MS Word and basic Internet use. Nothing technical, but it helped me acquire patience when dealing with people.

aaaa2209

I want to find a volunteer work in NYC area. I just graduated with a MS degree of EE and have CCNA. I really need more experience.