How to Strategically Work for Free While Unemployed and Why

While I was going through the 17th revision of my resume for my job search, I was pondering how I might be able to keep my fingers on the pulse of marketing work while exploring some new industries. Then, when talking to a local running buddy at the weekly running club gathering spot (you never know who knows who), he suggested I volunteer my marketing expertise at a conference featuring C-level speakers. Another runner's ears perked up and he said, "Jane, I'm running a global Green Supply Chain Sustainability conference in NYC next month, and I need marketing help."

A terrific match of an opportunity to a skilled volunteer without even having run a single step! Also, I thought my young sons, Owen and Evan, would be proud of their mama working on a cutting-edge project that will enhance their futures with sustainable, green-orientated products and resources. A cool topic for them for “take their parent to career day” at preschool. What kid doesn't like green? It's also the color of money!

From that conversation grew a unique opportunity to interact with all the C-level speakers at this global conference. My marketing job for this conference was several fold. The first task was to insure that the speakers all had the requisite information about their speaking slot, the technical details for a smooth presentation and other basic conference information. Then the second task was a series of follow-on engagements with the speakers to entice them to spread the word about their speaking presentation to the broader Green community.

To that end, I shared several marketing communications with the speakers that they could easily use for their targeted audiences. Their conference presence and speaking engagement was also a useful tool for building their brands and reputations for their firms within the larger Green Supply Chain communities. Showcasing my marketing skills in enabling others to be even more successful is a key strength in my professional arsenal. So volunteering my marketing skills in this area was second nature to me, but not to others -- I strategically identified a gap and exploited my capabilities to maximize the impact of my volunteer work.

So a good deal of work ensued over a few short weeks, which, truth be told, I had drastically underestimated. There were some key lessons learned: be sure to volunteer with a TIME LIMIT and a STRATEGIC OUTCOME. Fortunately for me, this global conference had a defined end point and will have a resulting product/output. I was targeting to take away two things from this volunteer work: one was to have many new, high-level networking contacts in a hot new marketing domain, and second was to have an important topic to share with folks when they ask, "So what have you been doing since you were downsized?"

Over the weekend, I was actually talking about my volunteer work and heard interesting feedback. In short, it is important to remember you used to get paid for this same work, so receiving parties shouldn't take you for granted as always being there as a FREE resource. Of course, other professional volunteer work can put you in the realm of being indispensable and being offered a paid position. And the power of networking is really a key dividend of this type of volunteer work. The results of this volunteer work will be evident to me in the next few weeks.

How do you intend to boost your network and experience by volunteering?

Check out these articles for specific tips for leveraging your volunteer experience in your job search:

•         "Leverage Volunteer Work on Your Resume"

•         "Volunteer for Your Career"

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