-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Steve Brant Sent: Wednesday, December 31, 2003 4:22 PM To: Triumph of Content List Subject: <toc> NYTimes: In a Pinch, Working Free Can Help Lead to PaidWork
In case you were wondering why the productivity rate in the US keeps going up... ------------------------------ The NY Times In a Pinch, Working Free Can Help Lead to Paid Work December 21, 2003 By BETSY CUMMINGS THREE months into a job search, Corey Feldman hit a dead end. After losing her position in June as a case manager at the Vera Institute of Justice in New York, she applied for jobs daily and went on dozens of interviews - often twice at the same agency - to no avail. So in September, Ms. Feldman, 27, who has six years of experience in youth services, walked into the Correctional Association of New York, a criminal justice advocacy group, and did something she once would have considered unthinkable. She offered to work free. In a job market that shows signs of improvement but has yet to turn fully, many unemployed workers are taking a path similar to Ms. Feldman's, volunteering in their field of expertise instead of working odd jobs. By doing so, they say they intend to maintain their skills, network in their chosen area, and perhaps get a foot in the door with a potential employer. "As the job market has gotten tighter, people have been trying to think more creatively in terms of networking and skill development about what they can do," said Rena Lewis, a senior vice president with Lee Hecht Harrison, a career management firm. No one tracks exactly how many job seekers are volunteering in the fields they once were paid to work in. But Lee Hecht Harrison recently reviewed more than 50,000 clients' cases and found that 18 percent were volunteering at organizations, up from 11 percent in 2000. Dr. Donna Mogan, the owner of Eagle Wing Enterprises, a career coaching firm in Chesapeake, Va., said 75 percent of her clients are now considering volunteering, up from 20 percent a few years ago. Many job experts and career coaches consider volunteering a smart job search strategy - but only if job seekers understand how to take advantage of the opportunities such work can present. "This is really an extended interview, where an applicant can take the time to meet everybody in a company and show them what he can do," said John Challenger, chief executive of the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas in Chicago. But volunteers who think that quietly churning out reams of work will be enough to be noticed might be disappointed, Mr. Challenger said. "Job seekers also have to get into the culture of the company and learn what the team's about," he said, including going to lunch with employees and asking for informational interviews with company officials. Cora Nucci, 40, was laid off from her job at iparty.com, an event planning and party supply company now based in Dedham, Mass., in December 2000 as the Internet bubble began to deflate. She stayed in New York for a year, living on her severance and some freelance work, but eventually moved to Baltimore to live with her sister. By January 2003, Ms. Nucci said, her freelance business had started to pick up, but she realized that she needed more of a network to land a permanent job. Ms. Nucci said she decided to volunteer at a Baltimore public radio station, WYPR, and almost immediately realized that she might be able to land a job there. "Sitting in on early meetings at the station, I got the sense that there wasn't a lot of understanding about the tech side of Web development," she said. "So when the Web developer sat in on meetings, I was able to communicate with him, and that distinguished me from other personnel and volunteers." Gradually, Ms. Nucci began to showcase her talent and ideas. Knowledgeable in print and marketing, she suggested that the station revamp its brochures. She also presented a possible job description for herself as a producer and news director for the station's Web site. The station president told Ms. Nucci in October that he would like to bring her on full time if his budget increased in 2004. In the meantime, she has been hired as a part-time assistant to create an e-newsletter. Volunteering can also help workers who are trying to change careers. In July, Chris Pascuzzo, 28, was let go from his position as a supply chain analyst at AOL Time Warner, as it was then known. He said he decided he was young enough to make a career change into advertising, even if it meant starting from scratch. A friend found him a temporary job compiling surveys at MDB Communications, an advertising firm in Washington. Upon completion of the project, the firm's senior director offered Mr. Pascuzzo a chance to work at the firm as a volunteer. Mr. Pascuzzo has created a newsletter for the firm and streamlined its client database. Agency directors have agreed to set him up with several informational interviews at other Washington advertising agencies if a job does not materialize by December at MDB. Getting in the door of an organization - even as a volunteer - is no guarantee that a job offer will follow. Amber Almida was optimistic about landing a job in human resources after she completed two years of course work at the University of California San Diego in March 2002. But she received no offers, so that August, Ms. Almida, 32, called Scripps Health, a health services network in San Diego, and asked if she could volunteer in the human resources department. For three months as an unpaid volunteer, she rewrote the company's job descriptions as part of its accreditation requirement - but despite approaching hospital administrators about six possible job openings, she got no offers. "Being within the system I thought I would get a preference, but it wasn't the case," she said. Still, even job seekers who do not land work where they volunteer can benefit from the experience. Ms. Almida, for one, was able to use her volunteering at Scripps to get a job at Sharp HealthCare, a Scripps competitor in San Diego, where she works as a staffing specialist. For her part, Ms. Feldman has managed to parlay her volunteer work at the Correctional Association into additional volunteer opportunities and contacts at places like Friends of the Island Academy, a nonprofit organization that helps young people who have been released from Rikers Island. Today, Ms. Feldman is optimistic that a job could materialize soon at Friends of the Island. "A woman I work with said she was going to graduate in May and move on," she said. "She's a case manager there, and she has the job I want." http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/21/jobs/21jmar.html Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
