How Volunteering Helped Me Gain Employment

Our Marketing and Communications Assistant Steven talks about how volunteering with us helped him gain employment in his latest blog.

In the summer of 2015, I was unemployed and looking for work for two years and wasn’t really getting anywhere. I was sent to an agency called Working Links who try to help people who are long-term unemployed back into work and they suggested volunteering to help put something fresh on my CV and gain some experience.

I was given two different options. The first option I can’t remember what the exact role was but it was social media related for a charity that was involved with Fife Council in Glenrothes and the second option was Greener Kirkcaldy.

Initially, I wasn’t sure about even going to the interview with Greener Kirkcaldy because in 2015 I had no knowledge of climate change and it wasn’t something that was on my radar. I decided to go along anyway and see what it was all about and was happy to learn that they were happy for me to learn as I went along.

The volunteer role I chose to go for was a Media Volunteer. My main job was to write blogs once or twice a month and visit the office once a month with the other media volunteers to discuss what blogs we would write for that month. Also, I had the option to attend any events that were put on to take photos or write blogs about the event.

The role was very relaxed with attending meetings being optional and working around other things you have going on in your life. This allowed me to do other things as well and keep looking for full-time employment but in the quieter moments, it was brilliant to have something to focus on such as a blog to write or an event to attend.

I was a volunteer at Greener Kirkcaldy for four years between 2015 and 2019 and in that time I wrote blogs, attended events (took photos or wrote about them) and attended training courses to improve my knowledge and understanding.

It was always in the back of my mind that I would like to have a full-time job with Greener Kirkcaldy but as time goes on and other job opportunities came up it didn’t seem like it was going to happen. Towards the end of last year, however, the opportunity came up to become the Marketing and Communications Assistant.

I firmly believe that without the experience gained being a Media Volunteer for four years got me to this position. I found two job opportunities in that time and I also believe I got those opportunities thanks to the experience I gained as a Media Volunteer. Getting those two other job opportunities while volunteering that allowed me to gain more experience and bring a much better skillset to my current job.

If you can relate to the first part of my story and have found yourself out of work for a while and needing something to do or needing to put something else on your CV, then I couldn’t recommend volunteering highly enough. Not only did it help gain me employment in the long run, it got me out of the house, it allowed me to meet new people and make new friends and it boosted my confidence immensely.

If you would like to volunteer with Greener Kirkcaldy, we have a number of different roles which could be suitable for you. Also, our new community bike shop Lang Toun Cycles are looking for new volunteers.

Let us know in the comments about how volunteering has helped you!