Hi. My name’s Jess. I’m here today to give you a bit of an overview as to my experience volunteering and how that introduced me to the workforce. I’ll give you a bit of an overview intro to me first. I’m a sustainability consultant. I was a graphic designer but had a bit of a career change in the last couple of years. I live in Sydney, but I grew up in Upper Ferntree Gully. I know Sally from my volunteering days back in Upper Gully so that’s how I came to be here today. So when I was a teenager I started my volunteering journey with some friends and I started a body image Action Group for teenage girls and we were literally just a bunch of friends who were impacted by body image. So we were interested and wanted to do something to help other teenage girls so we ran activities and events to bring us all together and talk about it. We brought experts in to talk to us about it and just tried to foster a sense of belonging while we were going through a tricky time. That in particular was definitely a passion project that was my first kind of introduction to volunteering. We learned all sorts of skills, meeting lots of new people and organising events. Then from there I started studying graphic design. I wanted to do something to build my portfolio and teach me some real skills in the field rather than just the theoretical skills that I was learning at Uni. So I started volunteering with the local community magazine or newspaper, designing that and getting that printed. That was a really skills-based choice, I suppose. I made that decision because I wanted to have some experience and something for my folio when I did eventually finish uni. I also did some more work with the volunteer Resource Center also while I was still at Uni. That sort of stemmed from a uni project and it was again trying to build some skills, meet some people. I could apply what I was learning in the real world. I think the biggest thing I learned through all of those experiences was how to talk to people and how to talk to all sorts of different people. Every volunteering experience I’ve had since, the most enjoyable part of it that I take away is, I leave feeling that my cup is so full because I’ve met all these new people and I’ve heard their stories and their experiences. Everyone is so varied and you never know who you’re going to meet either. That could also open up opportunities. It’s not meeting people in a salesy sense. It’s just meeting people to meet people and have a chat and see what they’re about. You can learn so much just through that alone. I always tried to find volunteering opportunities that would allow me to do that because that’s what I enjoy. But in saying that there’s tons of volunteer opportunities. The beauty of it is that you get to pick what you want to do and what you want to get out of it. There’s so much flexibility with it and whether that starts being a passion project because you think you’re interested in it but you’re not really sure yet because, really, who knows what they want to do for the rest of their life? I just changed my mind in the last couple of years. It can always change. But I think you know every little step, every little piece adds up together and you don’t have to get it all right in one decision. One volunteering role isn’t going to solve your career questions. It’s just going to be one little piece of the puzzle. I think finally the thing I have always taken away is just the confidence from learning something new, developing a new skill in a pretty lowkey environment. Volunteering opportunities are generally not too high pressure situations it’s an easy environment. You’re there to help and everyone sort of recognises that. So it’s a low impact way to learn and to grow some new skills, I suppose. So then leaving those opportunities you’ve got a bit of confidence, you’ve got something behind you, you’ve got something you can talk about in interviews, which is always really useful. It just sort of broadens your network but you get to be really picky about what you want to do and choose things that interest you. You can decide if it does or not. I think I think those are the main things I’ve taken away from it. I still volunteer to this day and I I really enjoy it. I find it incredible that you can meet so many people and you can tailor it to what you want to do, and what you want to learn, and what you’re interested in. It is always the best part so good luck on your volunteering adventures.
