Volunteering pays off in job hunt

A dismal job market awaited Christi Brooks when she returned home in 2001 from a publishing job in London. The 25-year-old Portlander said that while she looked for a permanent position, she did some strategic volunteering to keep her portfolio current and taught swim lessons at a local community center as a "survival job."

TED MITCHNER OregonLive.com

She also freelanced on marketing projects, many for nonprofits, which needed the help because of job cuts. "The more I worked with nonprofits, the more I wanted to work in that sector," she said.

She decided to pursue that interest by enrolling in a master’s program in public administration at Portland State University.

Through an acquaintance, she heard about an opening at the Oregon Student Association, a nonprofit that works with student governments to promote improved access and affordable tuition for public, post-secondary schools.

She started at the end of August as the association’s communications director, a position that combines her studies and her career interests.

The search Brooks returned from England when her visa expired, but in Portland she wasn’t able to continue in publishing. In addition to freelancing, she did an occasional temp job. She aligned her volunteering with her career plans to ensure appropriate references on her resume.

After she heard about the association position, she called the executive director, who suggested she look at the Web site. The site provided guidelines for the types of writing samples to submit.

She interviewed with the director and student government officers. She got the offer a week later.

Biggest obstacle Brooks’ lack of corporate experience made it harder to compete for scarce public relations and advertising jobs. She said she was up against industry veterans applying for positions they were overqualified for.

What worked Brooks’ nonprofit, freelance experience qualified her for the position, but her proximity in age to the students she’d be working with and her status as a student made her a good fit.

"Education is a really important thing to support, to make sure the next generation is economically contributing to the state," she said.

Lessons learned Brooks, of Southeast Portland, recommends maintaining a survival job, which afforded her the time to concentrate on the job she really wanted.

Volunteering and consulting helps build a portfolio and stay current with the latest software, as well as providing contacts and job leads, she said.

"Make sure that everybody you know knows you’re looking and exactly what you’re looking for," she said.

If you’ve started a job in the past few weeks and are interested in sharing your job search experience, contact The Oregonian Business News Department at 503-221-8200 or send e-mail to [email protected].

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