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Thread: Volunteering/Internships

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    Senior Member sactinydancersf's Avatar
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    Default Volunteering/Internships

    I keep reading posts about college (I'm going back) that suggest volunteering and internships. I really want to use these to pad my resume and get some experience, but I'm honestly still kinda undecided on my future career. I know any skills will be helpful. Where did you find your volunteer opportunities or internships and were they at all related to your major if you did this too?

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    Default Re: Volunteering/Internships

    When I was in school and until a few months ago, I was volunteering at "Journey's End," which is a receiving center for refugees from other countries. I was involved in teaching children how read and understand American customs. I also worked at the Buffalo International Institute teaching adult refugees how to do everyday things that are necessary for the poor in America, such as cashing a check and riding the bus.
    Volunteering in a humanities type job is fairly easy if you're in a big city. I just decided what I wanted to do with my life and asked my college advisers where to go in order to achieve that goal. Most of the career counselors are pretty helpful, and they know what they're doing. I also got an unpaid internship which I choose not to accept by talking to a professor who was active in the field to help me out.
    All of the above were related to my major; but as for padding your resume... most employers don't really care about your internships or volunteering unless it relates to their field... so I would advise choosing a career path before worrying about padding your resume for said career path.

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    Senior Member sactinydancersf's Avatar
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    Default Re: Volunteering/Internships

    Thank you very much for the advice. That will save me a lot of wasted time and frustration down the road.

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    Default Re: Volunteering/Internships

    I'd suggest just taking your basic courses until you figure out what you want to do... & I really don't promote going to college until you can claim independence status on FAFSA. You can search my other posts on that. In the mean time experiment with different jobs. I won't really promote volunteering or interning because those positions often aren't given much responsibility & tend to end up doing ridiculous grunt work. However, temporary agencies are a great way to see a ton of various different types of industries in a short amount of time.
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    Default Re: Volunteering/Internships

    I see a lot of students going on unpaid internship or volunteer ones providing them with professional skills in various areas of museum operations and education. It's like an entry level to their field before they graduated. And it has been this unpaid internship a college student’s stepping stone between college and a job. Working for free might seem counter-intuitive. Many adults, however, are choosing to work for free in an internship, in order to gain experience - . These adult internships are producing both benefits and legal worries for businesses.

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    Default Re: Volunteering/Internships

    I found that doing internships, work-study, etc. helped me see which jobs I liked and which I didn't. I recommend sticking your toe in to quicken the process of deciding what field is right for you. Talk to as many people as you can to find out what it's all about. Consider hours, payscale, upward mobility, whether it's too social/political or not social/political enough, etc.

    Personally, I worked in an animal research project, in my state PIRG (public interest/activist group), as a club promoter, and record label promoter/gopher. I had a looooot of interests! Good luck and enjoy the discovery process!!
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    Default Re: Volunteering/Internships

    I actually found that interning and grad school told me what I didn't want to do, more than tell me what I wanted to do, if that makes any sense.

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    Default Re: Volunteering/Internships

    I would recommend Volunteering at a charity like the American Cancer Society or some other charity that is close to you. Most charities are in desperate need of office help even if it's an office admin position it will teach the in's and out's of office life. Plus it gets you the all important "experience"
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    Default Re: Volunteering/Internships

    pretty much any volunteer work will give you applicable skills for any job.

    if you volunteer at a hospital you're working with people, you're learning how to work in a stressful environment

    if you volunteer at an animal shelter you're learning compassion and responsibility

    any sort of volunteer work looks REALLY good on a resume. just pick something you think would be fun

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    Default Re: Volunteering/Internships

    Americorps maybe?
    Quote Originally Posted by Jay12 View Post
    ^What Sophia said.
    Quote Originally Posted by yoda57us View Post
    I wish there was an "auto-like" setting that I could just have applied to all of your posts Sophia....

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