In an increasingly competitive jobs market, interning and volunteering can push you to the top of the shortlist. We look at the options...
You want to get on the career ladder. Maybe you’ve already got the right qualifications and know what skills are required, but you’ve applied for jobs and still haven’t been offered an interview.
One way to improve your chances of bagging that job is to prove you are employable by getting a placement in the workplace, either by volunteering or via an internship.
Although these are two different options, there is a certain amount of crossover. Volunteering is giving up your time for a cause you believe in, for no financial gain. You can do this for a set period (undertaking a three-week stint in an animal sanctuary, for example), or regularly (such as working every Saturday at your local charity shop).
Professional internships are paid positions, where you get hands-on experience in a role that you wish to pursue as a career. However, there are also lots of unpaid internships about, which are basically work experience and similar to what you would undertake at school or college. You would not receive any pay for these, although you should get travel expenses.
Make sure you are aware of what type of internship you are being offered before you sign any contracts, as some unscrupulous employers are using a succession of long-term internships as a way to avoid employing people and paying salaries for full-time staff.
Whichever you choose to do, the fact that you have hands-on experience will look good on your CV, boost your confidence and allow you to gain new skills and all these things can only benefit your future job-hunting attempts.
Internships
An internship provides direct experience of working in a particular role, and is usually undertaken by those who know what type of job they want to do. You can apply to do an internship straight out of school, after leaving college, post-graduation or later on in life.
Many employers offer internship programmes, and they use them to assess a student or graduate’s capability. Some go on to recruit interns who made a good impression into full-time roles.
An internship can last a few weeks in the summer holidays, or a year, depending on the sector and employer. Student internships tend to be shorter in length than graduate internships.
Be very wary of doing unpaid internships. While working for free for a few days or a week won’t do you much harm financially, and may bring some benefit by increasing your practical skills and knowledge, working for free is not sustainable or beneficial in the long term.
You may find yourself following one unpaid gig with another, in a fruitless search for ‘valuable experience’ and still have no job offers. Employment legislation plainly states that anyone required to work for a minimum number of hours, who is set tasks and who adds value to a business, is classed as a worker and consequently is entitled to the national minimum wage.
This applies to all businesses, regardless of size or profits, excluding charities. So, if you are doing work for an organisation, and not just shadowing, for example, then you are classed as a worker and are entitled to earn the national minimum wage.
Visit gov.uk/employment-rights-for-interns for more detailed information.
Become a Volunteer
Volunteers make up a large part of the charity sector. Volunteering shows your commitment to your chosen charity, and is also a great way to get your foot in the door. Some people choose to do it as it offers the chance to give something back to the community, or to make a difference to the people around them.
For others, it provides an opportunity to develop new skills or build on existing experience and knowledge. Maybe you are between jobs and at a loose end volunteering can be a great way to fill any CV gaps – or maybe you are in a job that you don’t enjoy and looking for new opportunities – volunteering can provide you with something to do that is both challenging and rewarding.
Charity vacancies can be highly sought-after, and you’re much more likely to be offered a full-time position or paid work if you have previously volunteered at a particular organisation.
Research by MovingWorlds found that volunteering can help you in all steps of your career journey, from identifying your passion to standing out in the hiring process regardless of your career ambitions. It found that, beyond helping you understand your strengths, being purposeful about volunteer work can also help you learn more about specific industries, gain experience working on different types of teams, and get exposure to what it’s like to work inside different sizes of organisations.
The combination of these can help you refine what and where your dream job is. In fact, 95% of career advisers agreed that volunteering ‘brings clarity to the job search’, and 76% strongly agreed that it made you ‘more likely to get your dream job’. They also found that 63% of managers said that they ask about volunteering experience in interviews, and 66% specifically look for it and strongly value it.
Volunteering doesn’t just show you’re a passionate, altruistic person, it shows you are proactive, so include it on your CV as work experience – you don’t even need to mention it was a volunteer position; instead, put the focus on the skills you used and gained.
Volunteering can also help you to:
• Give something back to an organisation that has impacted on a person’s life, either directly or indirectly.
• Make a difference to the lives of others.
• Help the environment.
• Feel valued and part of a team.
• Help other people who are less fortunate or who do not have a voice.
• Spend quality time away from the workplace or a busy lifestyle.
• Gain confidence and self-esteem.
• Develop existing skills and knowledge.
• Gain skills, knowledge and experience in a new field of work.
• Enhance a CV.
• Improve your employment prospects.
• Gain an accreditation.
• Use your professional skills and knowledge to benefit others (usually described as pro bono work).
