Dealing with an extended stretch of unemployment can be at once stressful and dispiriting - and the longer the stretch, the more likely one is to encounter a question like this during a job interview: "So what have you been doing since then?"
There's something you can do that gives you a good answer to this question, keeps your spirits up, keeps your skill set fresh and exposes you to networking opportunities that could help you land your next job:
Volunteer.
Nonprofit organizations have the same needs businesses do, including the need for coordinators, organizers, office assistants and other administrative professionals to keep their operations humming. And as nonprofit budgets are stretched thin thanks to declines in charitable giving, volunteers at all levels play increasingly important roles in enabling charities from the Red Cross on down to the neighborhood soup kitchen fulfill their missions.
Back in March, The Wall Street Journal reported on how laid-off professionals and managers found that volunteering their skills to groups like the Red Cross and Habitat for Humanity kept them active in their work and connected to their fields, helped them reduce stress and fight depression, and even enabled them to make connections with others who could provide them with references and job leads.
As with management, so with office support. No organization, no matter how small, can function without administrative staff, which means that these same nonprofits have a need for administrative professionals to handle scheduling, recordkeeping, telephones and office management. Employers also tend to look favorably on applicants who kept working while laid off by volunteering their skills to organizations that can use them - and any accomplishments you achieve while volunteering look just as good on your resume as the ones you got paid to achieve.
Chances are there's a nonprofit organization near you that could really use you right now. A good place to find it is VolunteerMatch.org, where you can search for organizations in your area that have opportunities to match the skills you have - or would like to have: you can also use volunteer work to expand your skill set and qualify for better jobs.
By: Sandy Smith
Sandy Smith is an award-winning writer and editor who has spent most of his career in public relations and corporate communications. His work has appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia CityPaper, PGN, and a number of Web sites. Philly-area residents may also recognize him as "MarketStEl" of discussion-board fame. He has been a part of the great reserve army of freelance writers since January 2009 and is actively seeking opportunities wherever they may lie.
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