About Volunteering (1 Viewer)

[softchillisauce]

Well, I have been wondering about volunteering. Yes, in some cases someone may be standing for 5 hours for the sole purpose of collecting money for an organisation such as a charity. In the damn university interviews, a question might be something like 'How much volunteering have you done?' I know some people who have had this question asked to them.

I would be screwed if I had to face an interview and the interviewer asked me that.

Any suggestions about good places to go volunteering are appreciated =D

 

[Blue Suede]

Try your local council, they usually run various volunteer projects in the community in your area.

Otherwise, things like St John's Ambulance can be a good experience and teach you valuable skills. You want to do something you actually enjoy, otherwise you'll end up resenting the time you spend volunteering and how it takes time from your life as things get busier.

 

[converge]

Places like St Vincent De Paul and Anglicare also accept volunteers on a daily basis.

I have personally volunteered for both these places and they are not too bad.

 

[izzy88]

In the damn university interviews, a question might be something like 'How much volunteering have you done?' I know some people who have had this question asked to them.

Slightly off topic, but what universities (or courses) are you considering applying to that have interviews? I was under the impression, for most undergraduate degrees in Australian universities (excluding medicine, music, specialist areas like that), it is just based on ATAR.

On the volunteering side, I did some at a local community centre and Vinnies shops. You can just do a walk around your local area and ask if any of the community centres etc would like a volunteer. In some places you may need to fill out forms for a criminal history check (depending on what work they do).

 

[softchillisauce]

LOL yeah I'm sorta off topic.
I'm trying for med or optom which has an interview with it.
It's just sorta worrying because I've head that interviewers can and will ask 'How much volunteering have you done?' Then I'm screwed....O_O

 

[izzy88]

LOL yeah I'm sorta off topic.
I'm trying for med or optom which has an interview with it.
It's just sorta worrying because I've head that interviewers can and will ask 'How much volunteering have you done?' Then I'm screwed....O_O

Ok that makes sense. Even if an interviewer does ask you if you have volunteering, I don't think it would be the be all and end all of an interview (just my opinion, I have no experience with med entry). For example, you could go, I haven't managed to do much volunteering, instead I have spent a lot of time doing (xyz eg. playing in my school sport team, working in paid employment, etc).

Saying that it doesn't have to be too difficult to get up some volunteering work, in school holidays or such. Our school had a 'community service' requirement (40 hours) to do over year 11/12 before we could collect our school references. The one bit of advice I have is (depending on the organisation) don't go too close to christmas, or just after - I found that a lot of places either already had enough volunteers, were closing up shop for the xmas holiday, or most of the stuff needing volunteer work had already been done. Of course it would depend on where you went and what kind of organisation, but it's always good to try to get something organised in advance (and not leave it to the last minute like I did )