Job Search Advice Archives

Volunteering Your Time – The Amazing Benefits

Have you considered Volunteering your Time to help others? There are many benefits for both the volunteer and the organisations that you volunteer for.

It’s true that we all have many competing responsibilities in our busy lives. There are times when it can be hard to figure out how you will ever get everything done. Whilst it may sound counter-intuitive spending some of your time volunteering for a worthy cause just may be the thing you need to get things moving on the right track.

As I said volunteering your time is something that benefits not just the organisations and other recipients of your contribution, but it can also improve your life too!

Here are seven reasons why you may benefit from volunteering some of your time:

Making New Friends

All of us to some extent are social creatures. We are meant to genuinely and authentically connect with others. Volunteering your time is a natural, organic way to meet others who share the same interests.

Building Personal and Professional Connections

If it’s not something you are used to then “Networking” may sound a bit odd. However, in this day and age, it is necessary to meet other people so you can gain exposure to new experiences and opportunities. Volunteering is an excellent way to build personal and professional contacts without traditional “networking”, if that’s not really your style.

Building Your Self-esteem and Self-confidence

If you find yourself struggling with self-esteem and confidence, volunteer! You will feel great about contributing to a cause greater than yourself, and as you accomplish different tasks, you will learn new skills and find yourself growing more competent in the area of your choosing.

To Make a Difference in the World

Do you ever find yourself thinking that there is too much greed, evil, poverty or other issues in the world? Do you wish there was something that you were able to do about it? You may not be able to change the whole world but through volunteering you can make a difference in your community or around issues that you are passionate about! You will find that you can experience a sense of purpose by making a difference in the world. If when deciding how you are going to go about volunteering your time you choose a cause that truly resonates with what you feel are the big problems of the world we inhabit.

Add Experience to Your CV

Very few of us nowadays are in the same jobs or even the same career for ourr entire adult lives. Yet, if you are looking for a career change that represents a big departure from your current skillset, then you are going to discover that there’s a bit of a catch-22 scenario.

Without experience on your resume, nobody will give you a solid chance. But without a solid chance, you’ll never get relevant experience.

What do you do?

Volunteer, of course!

If you really want to break into a new sector or feel tempted to test the waters of a life change, why not consider volunteering a few hours at a time to help fill in the gaps on your CV while helping a cause you care for?

Improving your Health

One often overlooked benefit of volunteering is that it could help improve your health.

Depending on the volunteer activity you select, you could gain some valuable outdoor time, which would improve your physical health. You could also try something nurturing and soothing for your mental health like keeping lonely senior citizens company at nursing homes. Or you could even try something spiritually uplifting like going Christmas caroling during the holiday season.

There are many options and many ways volunteering could benefit your health – you have to be creative with selection.

Having Fun!

Last but not least, one of the real benefits of volunteering your time is that it can be lots of fun! Maybe you get a group of friends together and go on a beach or local park/community area clean-up day. Or you do a charity fundraiser walk.

The possibilities are truly endless!

Volunteering Your Time Conclusion

You really will get a lot more out of your volunteer experience than you put in. Take a look at some of the causes looking for volunteers in your neighborhood today, and see which may be a good fit for your personality and your lifestyle.

You will gain so much more than you contribute on so many levels – and you really will be happy you gave it a go.

Being Kind To Yourself This New Year

In a previous post I talked about the positive benefits of Being Kind to Yourself. Now I am going to look at several ways to incorporate self-kindness into your daily life.

This is probably one of the most critical habits you’ll ever build. Being kind to yourself means you care enough to take care of yourself. You’re striving to be the best version of yourself possible, which is going to have very positive benefits on both your mental and physical self. This is exciting stuff.

Be A Lifelong Learner

If you were to develop one skill to help you in all aspects of your life, what would it be?

Studies have shown that one of the best gifts you can give yourself is to become a lifelong learner. What exactly is a Lifelong Learner? A simple definition is that it is someone that “engages in the “ongoing, voluntary, and self-motivated” pursuit of knowledge for either personal or professional reasons.” Why should you be a Lifelong Learner? Because, quite simply, without learning, the mind stagnates.

Thankfully, becoming a lifelong learner isn’t hard. Below are ten easy ways to build a habit of learning that will serve you in years to come.

Commit

Unless you make lifelong learning a priority, you’re not going to do it. You start with committing to change and then go from there.

Create a Personalised Learning Environment

True learning results when you take charge of your learning environment. Sit down with your mentor and make concrete goals. Set up a system that enables you to learn and a setting in which you can learn. Once you have this, you are truly ready to begin.

Read

Read books, magazines, news articles, academic journals, and anything that catches your attention. If it’s interesting to you, then it’s worth perusing.

Keep a List

Have a question? Write it down. Come back to this list later and Google the answers. Let this become the jumping off point for learning new things.

Create

Create a project out of one of the things you find interesting. Set goals, give a timeline, and a final deadline to complete it. Invite others to take part in your project with you. You learn so much more when you collaborate. Create milestones and celebrate each one on your road to completion.

Socialise

Engage with and socialize with people who also enjoy learning. These will become your encouragers and mentors along the way.

Become a Mentor Yourself

We all have something we’re good at and could help others learn. Your particular skill set might be what someone else needs to succeed. By getting involved in mentoring, you find yourself not only cementing the knowledge you already have but learning new things as well.

Study with Others

When you work with a group, it’s generally easier to learn as you can draw upon the base of shared knowledge. That, in turn, helps you to discover new things yourself.

Seek out a Job that Encourages Lifelong Learning

The final step toward lifelong learning is to find work where you are encouraged to learn new things, and which continually challenges you.

Remember, building habits that lead to lifelong learning relies on repetition. Consciously engage in learning activities as often as possible, making them a part of every single day if you can, for optimal success.

Top 5 Job Search Tips

What are my top 5 Job Search Tips? As regular readers of this blog (Hello!) will know I try and participate in the L&D (Learning and Development) Twitter Chat each Friday at 8am(GMT) which you will find under the hashtag #LDInsight.

A few weeks ago the question posed was what advice we would offer people seeking a Job within L&D. The request was that we shared our top Job Search tips.

Career and Knowing If It’s Time To Move On

Have you reached a point in your career where you feel it is time to move on?

This morning I participated in the Learning and Development Chat on Twitter (#LDInsight.) The question posed was a really interesting one:

“How did you decide that a career in L&D or OD was for you?”

It was fascinating to see the many and varied routes through which my many L&D/OD connections have arrived in their current roles and careers.

I shared a little of my own story. My career started in Personal and Corporate Banking in the days when human beings made lending decisions rather than computers! I initially got involved in training through my membership of an external organisation Junior Chamber International which at the time was the largest out-of-hours management training organisation for young professionals.