Volunteering pays!

Joanne Kelly tells her career success story, and it how it all began with working for free

I can now appreciate that volunteering at the Oxfam bookshop was vital to where I am now. Photo: Crispin Hughes/Oxfam

For many, volunteering is something they hear about others doing. Some say they’d like to, but do not have the time or they can’t afford it. What some overlook, however, is that in the long run, volunteering does pay. OK, obviously you don’t get paid, but the skills to be developed from volunteering often outweigh those gained through paid work at the beginning of a career and, consequently, can set you on the path to being ‘paid’ more, whether financially or through greater job satisfaction and career fulfilment.

I’m not just saying it, I’m talking from experience. After graduating in 2006, I started volunteering at the local Oxfam bookshop. With a distinct lack of interesting jobs in Reading, and everyone in Reading seemingly applying for every interesting job that was going, I soon found myself temping. Volunteering at the bookshop immediately gave me much more responsibility than I had in my other job: I was soon given the responsibility of managing the media section, and this provided me with the opportunity to develop management skills, make decisions about which books to sell, where to place them and at what price, while also helping me to become much better acquainted with media books.

Soon I was offered the opportunity to campaign for and promote Oxfam’s work at a couple of fairs at the local University. For me this was a daunting task; I had to encourage students to come to our stall, and then talk to them about Oxfam. Getting them interested in volunteering and really engaging with what Oxfam stands for, was quite difficult, at first, but it got easier, and I began to develop my ability to promote an organisation, campaign for a cause and motivate others; all skills that most employers would appreciate.

I now work as a campaigns co-ordinator at a students’ union. Without having initially volunteered at the bookshop, I would not have gained any campaigning experience, which I can now appreciate was vital to where I am now. Volunteering might not be for everyone, but there really are loads of opportunities that will help develop a whole range of skills, and one of them might just lead to that perfect job.