President’s Volunteer Service Award
This past weekend, my girlfriend brought this to my attention: if you volunteer your time helping a non-profit or charity for 100 hours or more over the course of a 12-month period, you receive an award from the President of the United States, called the President’s Volunteer Service Award. You get a pin, a certificate, and a letter of recognition from Barack Obama.
You can read the details about it here.
I know that times are tough right now, and a lot of people are being forced to work fewer hours due to budget cuts. Many more are unfortunate enough to not be working at all. Like everyone else, I'm holding out hope that things will get better and that job opportunities will appear for who aren't working.
After the dust of this economic storm has settled, I wouldn't be surprised if interviewers at those jobs asked candidates how they used all that extra time while they were unemployed. Imagine being in that position, interviewing two prospective hires for a job. The first one claims they spent lots of time watching DVD movies they got in the mail and perfecting the fine art of Netflix Origami. The other one says that they received a President’s Volunteer Service Award for spending time volunteering to help their community.
As the interviewer, which candidate would interest you more?
I realize that people who actively volunteer are probably not terribly interested in getting any kind of recognition or credit for the work they're doing. But there are those who don't see why they should spend their free time volunteering. Here's your incentive: it'll help you pad your resume, and there's not only a chance you'll enjoy it, but you just might help a lot of people.
Check it out. After you create an account, you can start easily logging your hours on the site and work up towards the 100-hour mark. I would encourage anyone with free time on their hands to start looking for non-profits or local charities you can spend some time helping. And if you're already volunteering your time anyway, it couldn't hurt to keep track of the hours, if only to satiate your own curiosity.
(In case anyone's curious, I've got 25 hours logged this year so far.)
You can read the details about it here.
I know that times are tough right now, and a lot of people are being forced to work fewer hours due to budget cuts. Many more are unfortunate enough to not be working at all. Like everyone else, I'm holding out hope that things will get better and that job opportunities will appear for who aren't working.
After the dust of this economic storm has settled, I wouldn't be surprised if interviewers at those jobs asked candidates how they used all that extra time while they were unemployed. Imagine being in that position, interviewing two prospective hires for a job. The first one claims they spent lots of time watching DVD movies they got in the mail and perfecting the fine art of Netflix Origami. The other one says that they received a President’s Volunteer Service Award for spending time volunteering to help their community.
As the interviewer, which candidate would interest you more?
I realize that people who actively volunteer are probably not terribly interested in getting any kind of recognition or credit for the work they're doing. But there are those who don't see why they should spend their free time volunteering. Here's your incentive: it'll help you pad your resume, and there's not only a chance you'll enjoy it, but you just might help a lot of people.
Check it out. After you create an account, you can start easily logging your hours on the site and work up towards the 100-hour mark. I would encourage anyone with free time on their hands to start looking for non-profits or local charities you can spend some time helping. And if you're already volunteering your time anyway, it couldn't hurt to keep track of the hours, if only to satiate your own curiosity.
(In case anyone's curious, I've got 25 hours logged this year so far.)