Sahm for 10 years. What looks better on cv - volunteer roles or part time online learning?

[Yumyi]

I am a bit lost looking for a job. I did very well academically and used to earn really well. But now feel like I am qualified for nothing. I want a job in something preferably desk based. An admin role perhaps. I have started volunteering for a local charity to do admin for them. Will this actually be of any use when looking for a job? I started to wonder if I would be better doing a part time college course, although not sure what in. Maybe bookkeeping. I need to build up some things to put on the cv and some people who would be willing to provide reference for me.

Can you do both? 10 years is a big gap to fill, and volunteering in a relevant role and learning new skills both look good on a CV.

Oh for sure! I haven’t worked for 10 years but I’ve spent my time volunteering for things like 25 years of working with the homeless (volunteer) I do mountain rescue for 10 years. (Volunteer)

companies are always offering me jobs based on what I’ve done. I also network within those voluntary roles too!

Absolutely both.

I think if I was looking for someone with bookkeeping skills, I'd want them to have real world experience. If someone could answer application or interview questions well with examples from volunteering I wouldn't treat it any differently to experience from paid employment.

I recently led a recruitment for my workplace and personally I would have preferred you to have actual admin experience, even if voluntary, rather than part time college courses/online learning.

For me I’d prefer a candidate who can demonstrate an ability to actually do the job & is able to provide a reference from an employer (even if voluntary) to vouch for that, rather than someone who has done an online course which doesn’t “prove” much really. I think across the board actual working experience is always going to be more valuable to an employer, the only time it perhaps wouldn’t be is if you have got a substantial qualification in something that employer is looking for someone skilled in specifically which is most common in IT jobs rather than admin.

Thanks. I am loving my new volunteer position and now hungry to do more. But something a friend said made me think maybe employers dismiss volunteer experience as irrelevant.

I could do a course in something just difficult to find what would be useful. Plus they are often quite expensive whereas volunteering my time doesn’t cost me money

Employers want to see relevant experience and education and not just time fillers. Take courses in things that will get you up to speed on relevant training for jobs you want to apply for. And do volunteer work in similarly related roles. Whether one or the other is more important would depend on the minimum requirements for a particular role though.

I can personally say I wouldn’t discount experience just because it was on a voluntary basis, if you can demonstrate you can do the job & have a reference to back that up then it’s irrelevant to me as the person sifting/interviewing whether it was paid or voluntary work so try not to worry about that!

If the roles you are looking at are entry level admin roles then honestly I wouldn’t really advise wasting any time paying to do any online courses, the reality is for most admin jobs all you need is a working knowledge of Microsoft & the rest tends to be internal systems which you learn on the job. If you aren’t confident using Microsoft (Excel, Outlook, Word, Teams etc) then it may be worth doing an online course refresher on those just to get up to speed but you can find plenty for free x