The document discusses how intentional volunteerism can help students find the right fit and gain skills that are valuable to employers, it outlines trends in the job market that show volunteering improves chances of finding employment, and it provides tips for selling volunteer experience on resumes and advice on whether to pursue graduate school immediately or gain work experience first.

1. Volunteerism & The Job
Market: Connecting the Dots
Ashley Meadows Miller
Success Coach
Lindsey Wilson College

2. Agenda
Intentional Volunteerism
• Finding the Right Fit
• Treat volunteering like a job
• Put your coursework into practice
Job Market Trends/Liberal Arts Education
Selling Volunteerism to Employers
• CLA’s are your friend
• The art of Resume wording
• Practice makes Perfect
Graduate School: Go or No Go?

3. Intentional Volunteerism

4. Intentional Volunteerism
• Finding the Right Fit
– Meaningful volunteer jobs
• Fuel or Fissile passion
• Narrow your field
• New contacts & insider information into future
openings
• Skills or expertise closely aligned with your goals

5. Meet Alex
“My passion for Alzheimer's Disease came from
going through my Grandmother's journey with
dementia. As a Bonner, I volunteered with the
local nursing home and adult day center, and
then did my summer of service with the
Alzheimer's Association in 2014. I continued to
volunteer with association events, driving all
across the state. When my summer of service
supervisor took a new position, she let me
know that I would be dealing with a different
coordinator, and I asked if I could apply. The
rest is history.”

6. Intentional Volunteerism
• Treating volunteer work as a job
– Respond to Telephone and Email Messages
Promptly
– Always arrive to your site early
– Communicate in cases of emergency or illness
– NEVER just not show up – EVER

7. Intentional VolunteerismIntentional
Volunteerism
• Backstage
• An area away from customers or clients
• Ask about cell phone use policies
• Careful not to engage in Badmouthing or
Bashing
• Onstage
• An area where customers or clients can see
you, hear you or both
• Smile - it goes a long way!
• Practice empathy

8. Intentional Volunteerism
• Little things matter most to employers
• Learn how they take their coffee
• If a stapler is empty - fill it
• "That is not my job“ NEVER utter these words
- even if you're thinking it
• “Would it be possible for you show me how?"

9. Intentional Volunteerism
• Story Time!

10. Intentional Volunteerism
• Put your coursework to practice
• Apply course principles to your Volunteer
sites

11. Job Market Trends
• The Corporation for National and
Community Service
70,000 jobless people between
2002 and 2012
Those who volunteered had a
27% better chance of
finding a job than those who
didn’t.

12. Job Market Trends
• The study — "Does It Pay to Volunteer?" —
found that unemployed people who
volunteered between 20 and 99 hours
during the year were roughly 7% more
likely to have found employment

13. Job Market Trends
“Employers like to hire people who can
demonstrate that they’re motivated and
hard working, even if they haven’t been
getting paid for their efforts lately.
Volunteering can also provide you with
an insider’s advantage if the nonprofit
has an opening for a paid position.”
Nancy Collamer, Contributor, Forbes Magazine

14. Job Market Trends
National Association of Colleges & Employers, NACE, Fall 2016
Executive Summary Salary Survey

15. Selling your Volunteer Work
• Get Resume Help
• Formatting matters!
• Use your CLA to your Advantage
• Use your Career Services Office

16. Selling your Volunteer Work
• Resume formatting
• Treat your Primary CLA like a job

17. Selling your Volunteer Work
• Education Major

18. Selling your Volunteer Work
• Accounting Major

19. Selling your Volunteer Work
• History Major

20. Selling your Volunteer Work
• Practice Time!

21. Graduate School: Go or No Go?
Go! Benefits
• Free tuition
• Greater promotion
potential
• Narrow your field
• Expand your network
• Enhance your career
No Go! Benefits
• Additional Cost
• Return on investment
• Stressful
• Requires even greater
commitment to time
management

22. Graduate School: Go or No Go?
• Research, Research, Research!
• Use your College’s network
• Consider online programs from accredited
colleges/universities
• Grad school CAN wait
• Never, Ever, Ever, Ever, think that you
cannot achieve something!

23. Ashley Meadows Miller
Success Coach
(270) 250-2344
millera@lindsey.edu