Cooking Up New Opportunities by Volunteering « bro·ken [broh-kuhn]: (adj) not working

Volunteering can be a great way to network and gain career skills while helping give back to the community. Monster recently teamed up with Points of Light Institute's HandsOn Network as part of our 2010 Keep America Working Tour to deliver volunteer opportunities to job seekers.

We spoke with Veronica Parages, director of skills-based volunteering at HandsOn Network to get more information about how volunteering can benefit your job search. A native of France and cooking enthusiast, Parages is going to take a crack at using cooking as a reference point to answer some questions about her other passion: volunteerism.

Are volunteer organizations looking for a specific age range? Is it better to be older, younger, or can anyone with a passion to help others volunteer?

Any age is perfect. Volunteering on a project is like helping in the kitchen. Even if you don’t know how to cook, everyone has unique skills and talents that can be put to use. The same is true for volunteering. You have skills that can help others -- professional or personal -- and as long as you’re willing to give it a try, volunteer organizations will help you find a project that meets your competencies.

How can volunteering help a job search? Does it help with networking?

Let’s use another cooking reference. Suppose you know a good chef, an expert who was recently laid off during these tough economic times. Without a full-time job, a chef could choose to stay in bed all day. But, because they’re helping the food bank to find new resources, they’re meeting vendors to get some fresh ingredients for free. They feel helpful and productive, and stay engaged in the community. In the process, they meet new people, expanding their network of contacts. A growing network is one way to increase your chances of finding employment, and it all started with volunteering.

How do you see volunteerism playing into a larger career-development strategy?

Chefs aren’t born cooking -- they must learn. Volunteering your expertise, sometimes working completely outside your normal realm, could help you develop leadership skills. Suddenly you’ve got a whole new set of skills to offer an employer and, again, more opportunities to find a new job. Plus, volunteering is a great way to try something new in a low-risk environment. Who knows -- you may find your true passion in the process.

What tips do you have for people who might be volunteering for the first time?

· Be Open-Minded: Skills-based volunteering is a new world that can give you a lot, but is quite different from a business environment.

· Nonprofit Organizations Need Help to Provide Help: Here is an example: I was talking to a young volunteer when I discovered he specialized in logistics. He was currently volunteering every Saturday for a food bank delivering meals. He liked what he was doing but was disappointed that the distribution system wasn’t efficient and that he was not delivering to the same families every week. I suggested he offer up his logistics knowledge to the food bank to help reorganize the food distribution. His skills and help would be appreciated and he, and the other volunteers, would be able to have more impact as they continued their food deliveries. Be proactive in proposing your talents, skills and knowledge.

· Be Creative: This is your opportunity. Constraints and lack of resources in the nonprofit sector shouldn’t stop you. Think outside the box, put your "noodles" to work to find solutions.…It is worth it.

What’s the most unique or offbeat volunteer organization you know of?

HandsOn Network, of course. We are always trying to find new recipes, and skills-based volunteering is just one. We want to connect the right volunteer with the right skills to the right project for a major impact -- how great is that? Contact HandsOn Network at one of its 242 Action Centers across the United States to discover skills-based volunteering initiatives. Or to find the right project for you, check out the HandsOn Network Web site. If you are interested in the subject, the National Conference on Volunteering and Service is offering plenty of opportunities to learn more about skills-based volunteering.

Now, get out there and start cooking -- I mean, volunteering your skills.

Want to learn more about volunteering to develop your professional skills while you’re unemployed? In this video, a HandsOn Network volunteer at the Los Angeles stop of the Keep America Working Tour answers a frequently asked question about volunteering: