Hi Samandi,
I am someone who has made the transition from voluntary work to paid work.
I currently volunteer at an advice charity 2 days a week for approx 2 years. I decided to volunteer because I wanted to make a career transition and I found it difficult to get interviews for other types of jobs. When I started volunteering I that decided for the next year or so to focus on the volunteer work get relevant training and to build a track record in the organisation and gain experience needed for jobs.
Since April this year I have actively been seeking work and have applied for all relevant jobs restricted to a narrow location and mainly part-time ones in all sectors. Since I started applying for jobs I was averaging 2 interviews a month. To be honest, I was getting frustrated, my background was ok, but I was being pipped by someone slightly better, or who was an internal candidate at the interview. Then I got offered a job for a post that I thought was a bit of a long-shot. I?m pretty sure it was my volunteer work which was helping me get all the interviews and eventually the job, not just the actual role I was doing, but also meeting the criteria e.g. having 1 to 2 years experience in a customer facing role which I wasn?t so strong in.
It sounds like you may be doing too many different types of volunteer work. Think about what sort of job you would like to do and what bits of your experience are relevant. I you don't want to work in retail maybe take the emphasis off shop work. If I hadn?t got my current job and was still out of work next January I was thinking about volunteering at another charity and perhaps trying to get some project-related experience.
I do think the job market is difficult at the moment and it may just be a question of keeping applying. If you aren?t getting interviews then maybe you need to change your cv (strange because I rarely send out a cv, it?s all application forms) or your statement on job applications as to why you meet the job criteria. If you?re getting interviews you?re nearly there.