Volunteering to build up CV before return to work

[Cocochai]

I’ve been out of the workforce for 7 years (SAHM) and have been volunteering for two charities for the past 10 months. I do the equivalent of 15-20 hours each week between the two. Around 10 hours is in an office and the balance is facing and helping service users in a different charity.

With recruitment how long should I volunteer for before starting to look for a job? As in, who will take me seriously and not just regard me as a waste of space because I’ve been out of the paid workforce for so long? I intend to keep volunteering with the charity that I go to the office for because the work can be done from home too (this is how some volunteers do it there).

A poster heavily criticised me a year ago and seriously knocked my confidence so please be kind.

Well done for volunteering!!! Honestly it is a great way to build skills. I would start looking for work now, really look at what you do and reflect it in your CV. I volunteered after being at home. First got a fab part time paid role with a charity and have worked for charities in a paid role ever since. Now i work full time in a senior role. Volunteering built up my confidence too so just keep going.

Volunteering is a brilliant thing to do.

I think the thing about how people see your CV is a lot to do with how you talk about/ write about yourself, and how confident you feel in your own skills and abilities.

Maybe look at some job descriptions for things you might like to do, with no pressure/ intention to apply, and just see how you match up to the criteria.

You can use this to think about what skills you might still need to develop, and also as a basis for summarising your skills on applications and your CV.

Also think back to what you did in the past and make sure you have a good summary of your skills and experience from back then.

It's as much about how you sell yourself as anything else.

(I guess to answer your question, I would say 10 months is a good amount of volunteering and you can start looking for a job whenever you want/ whenever you feel ready!)