Is voluntary work useless?

mr10

I couldn't get any interviews for anything I applied for so a month ago I started voluntary work at a local accounting practice. With a months work experience on my CV and still no interviews I'm starting to wonder - is it all a massive waste of time?

davealucas

No it isn't.

mr10

@davealucas can you expand please? How long would a level 3 student need to volunteer before getting interviews in your experience?

davealucas

@mr10 Gaining experience is never a waste of time. People have volunteered for considerably longer than one month before gaining jobs, sometimes in excess of a year, but despite that length of time have often gained a range of experience and knowledge to take themselves forward into their "dream" job.

amurray

I would say volunteering is a fantastic thing to do. I have a few colleagues who did this before getting into an accounts related role and they did this from as little as 6 months - 18 months. Mainly on a part-time basis whilst still in former non-accountancy related roles, and these opportunities were mainly in practices or working for self-employed bookkeepers.

I know that the experiences and knowledge they gained were invaluable for their AAT studies and for finding an accountancy related role. Its hard out there to find work (even pre the current global crisis), so I think anything you can do to improve your chances and stand out can only help.

There is also the do-it website (https://do-it.org) which lists various volunteering roles, not sure if this is any help?