Volunteering

kaudbron said:
I would love to know when a regional airline/ Guardsmen or Reservist with a family is going to volunteer....13 days off (if lucky) and 3-5 days of Drills/FTPs to maintain currency?
Also don't list something to check a box? So the soup kitchens that you make meals every other month for doesn't sound good enough...
Yea I volunteer but its not going on my resume or app, mowing the neighbors yard with Alzheimers doesn't exactly sound organized enough.
I think thats called being a good human being... How did we get to the point where being a contributor to society gets you points on a job app?
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And that's what I have an issue with. There are opportunities/ways that one can show kindness and help someone, that happen almost every day. One just has to be into it, open and aware. There are very kind people who stop, who will take a moment, who will help someone, and more given the opportunity, many people who do this on a regular basis and it's just second nature to them.

Being the best Dad you can be, the best husband, serving in the Guard, all the selfless acts that you perform to help others are of great value, important and meaningful. You are making a difference. Don't let anyone ever tell you differently. It's all the acts of kindness and help that can lead to positive changes large and small and make a real difference to the lives of others. You never know how many are influenced by what you do either. Ripples in the pond.

Being a decent human being is what matters. If one has time to volunteer more, then great. If they don't, they can still be that person who stops for an accident, speaks to a homeless person and buys them a meal, helps a senior, helps a neighbor, smiles and finds something nice to say to everyone and a million other such acts. You know in your heart who you are and what you're about. Screw having to prove that on a resume.
 
daydreamer said:
I did something similar in '05 at my local library. This was more of a ESL thing
volunteers from different speaking languages including me had students that needed help in the English language. It was a great experience.
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ESL is a huge part of literacy centers these days, if mine was any indication. I always felt so stupid trying to educate anyone on english, I knew the parts of speech for Spanish better than my native language. Que mala! No joke, honestly didn't realize how little English I knew.

Math is a little more universal.
 
I've been getting plugged in at church. Started volunteering there. Have another oppurtunity to serve at a local canned food sorting facility that then goes to families in need. Literally have not had enough time off to pursue that endeavor between these 5 and 6 days of nonstop work, but I plan to start doing that once I get to a stretch of time off long enough to do so.

There are definitely responsibilities at home, but surely there is an hour or two a week somewhere in your life to help someone else out. My life has been so sparatic as I've been moving all over the place. I've finally settled down and it feels good to finally be in a position to volunteer my time to help others in need.

@B767 I'm based there as well.
 
B767 said:
Nah. I ain't there. I'll give you a hint. I'm in an MX base (very early shows and late finishes) that has 40 CAs and 34 FOs. There have been 2 months since April of last year with a (and I mean "a," one, uno, une - the rest 0) reserve line available for bid. And in November (maybe December) there were 31 targeted line holders with only 30 FOs bidding.

Suffice to say, I don't even care when 8PM MST/MDT on the 24th rolls around anymore. ;)

Can't do anything with my schedule for job fairs. Not about to call in for a trip to attend - just not me. Can bid the days off but I most assuredly get CNed to "cover more coverage dates."

And if that hint doesn't help, we are a UA dedicated base that has 2-3 directs to SLC that we can't take to recurrent, and I'm not in CA or AZ.
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Noted.

kaudbron said:
How did we get to the point where being a contributor to society gets you points on a job app?
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See, that's the great thing about volunteering. If you find something you truly enjoy doing, it's a win-win-win. It's a win for you, because you feel good about doing something that makes a difference. The person you're helping gets something they need/want. And as an aside, you get to put it on your resume to let your prospective employer know that you're the kind of person that lives a life outside of work.
 
Anyone have experience with Habitat for Humanity? I've been known to swing a hammer in a constructive fashion, occasionally
 
Coached lacrosse. High school offense coach, then started the middle school team as head coach. High school team was drama. Star attack player was pulled off the team by his parents right before our first ever playoff game. Got caught by the MPs skinny dipping with his girlfriend in a creek on post. Jerks actually hauled them to their parents houses- the girlfriend's first.
Middle school was fun, though like herding cats at times. Middle school kids are great.

My daughter and I got our golden retriever trained as a therapy dog. Our dog loves it.
 
Something most people don't think about, but go down to your local public radio station. I did radio shows once or twice a week, and reviewed new cds. It was awesome, and a great way to learn about music. What is fun is volunteering to do a show on the genre you know little to nothing about. It's a great way to learn a new genre.
 
I don't know if it counts but I donate money every month to the Humane Society in the states and PAWS in PR. I foster a cat when I can, but being off the island all day is tricky with a cat even. Especially since I already have one that's pretty territorial with some of them. Cats can take care of themselves anyways, but getting a feral cat kind of used to human contact does smooth things along.

I'd rather do dogs since that is a MASSIVE problem down here, but it's impossible with my work schedule. There'd be a lot of "DON'T EAT THE CAR, NOT THE CAAAARRRRRRRR!". haha
 
I am the Director of Sponsorship for a nonprofit that sends families who have members with autism on respite/retreats. I go seek out sponsorships and donations for an endowment that grants families vacations that can't afford it.

I have a son with autism, and I went on a special-staffed cruise with this organization about 5 years ago, and it was a life-changing experience for my son as well as our family.

Once I left the military, I was looking for an avenue to continue community service, and this was a no-brainer.

http://www.autismontheseas.com/aots-foundation/about-us
 
Perfect. Remember, everyone qualified for the job has the same upper 2/3s of the resume, plus or minus a few hours. The discriminators are at the bottom.

"Oh look! This guy's got ACTUAL! Notify HR straight away!" :)
 
JustinS said:
I've been getting plugged in at church. Started volunteering there. Have another oppurtunity to serve at a local canned food sorting facility that then goes to families in need. Literally have not had enough time off to pursue that endeavor between these 5 and 6 days of nonstop work, but I plan to start doing that once I get to a stretch of time off long enough to do so.

There are definitely responsibilities at home, but surely there is an hour or two a week somewhere in your life to help someone else out. My life has been so sparatic as I've been moving all over the place. I've finally settled down and it feels good to finally be in a position to volunteer my time to help others in need.

@B767 I'm based there as well.
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That you are. Hopefully I'll be moving on soon and you can move up in seniority ;)
 
Like many others have said DO NOT get into volunteer work if it's JUST to make yourself more marketable. Unless you're completed dedicated to the cause it's likely that you'll quickly lose interest and be less reliable and actually end up being a detriment to the others that are more committed to the cause.

I volunteer at my state's SPCA shelter on a weekly basis because I'm passionate about animal welfare. What I didn't expect going in to it was how many wonderful like-minded people I've met and become very close friends with. Also having a legitimate sense of responsibility for the animals has been incredibly rewarding. At this point I think I'm getting much more from my time volunteering than the critters are! I always joke that my time at the shelter is "free therapy" for me since I'm always stress free and happy for at least the next two days after a visit :)

I've got 10 horses, 8 goats, 6 alpacas, 2 pigs, a bunch of chickens, roosters, ducks and geese all counting on me tomorrow to watch over them, feed them and put them to bed at sunset. I already can't wait to get to it! That kind of responsibility is what keeps me going when I don't have anything else to worry about lol...
 
kaudbron said:
I would love to know when a regional airline/ Guardsmen or Reservist with a family is going to volunteer....13 days off (if lucky) and 3-5 days of Drills/FTPs to maintain currency?
Also don't list something to check a box? So the soup kitchens that you make meals every other month for doesn't sound good enough...
Yea I volunteer but its not going on my resume or app, mowing the neighbors yard with Alzheimers doesn't exactly sound organized enough.
I think thats called being a good human being... How did we get to the point where being a contributor to society gets you points on a job app?
Click to expand...

This post is full of #winning.

Living the exact scenario you mention in the first sentence. However, I do list the things I organize and participate in during my reserve UTA's or AT. As much as I find it ridiculous that wearing the uniform for a career is not enough volunteerism for specific airlines, I also realize that I have to play the silly game if I want to accelerate my civilian career.

So, that's what airlineapps.com gets. Otherwise my time off is spent with my kids, family, and friends trying to enrich their lives so that they know I'm a good father, son, brother, and human.
 
Making the rules, I am not.

Reporting, I am.

Remember, we're all pilots and most of us parents.
 
Roger Roger said:
I volunteer and donate money to a worldwide program to provide income to farmers in various tropical areas of the world such as Hawaii and parts of South America and Africa.


Ok, I drink coffee.
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Spin it! :)

Hell, a good percentage of things was stuff that I did in college for fraternity philanthropy so the Po-Po wouldn't bust our parties.

"Oh, you kids did the MDA Miracle Mile, keep the noise down. I'm off at 2330, I'll come by for a beer, that cool?"
 
Derg said:
Making the rules, I am not.

Reporting, I am.

Remember, we're all pilots and most of us parents.
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I wonder though... We (the rhetorical one) didn't make the rules about paying for a job either but over time we certainly rose up and put an end to that practice.

I agree that volunteerism gives an interviewer one more data point to use when trying to make a decision, but at the end of the day it is unfortunate that it has become an (almost) required check box to get a big boy job.

Interesting personal story... Prior to being hired at a major I had about 12 days off a month plus I lost about 4 or 5 of those every month due to ALPA stuff. There was not much in the way of volunteer related items on my resume. Sure, I helped at a soup kitchen around Christmas time and I donated to a few charities. And once I helped a friend walk dogs at the Humane Society for an afternoon, but that was it.

Somehow, despite that, I manged to get a major job and suddenly my schedule was much better. I had more days off, and instead of spending what free time I had updating my applications and doing interview prep, I had more time for volunteer things I wanted to do. I'm on the board of two non profits (a SAR group and a decentralized environmental cleanup group), walk dogs at the Humane Society a few times a month as we as still do ALPA stuff.

My point is, it's kind of a catch22 problem a lot of the time and I wish there was a better way for HR and recruiting departments to quantify that.
 
Derg said:
Perfect. Remember, everyone qualified for the job has the same upper 2/3s of the resume, plus or minus a few hours. The discriminators are at the bottom.

"Oh look! This guy's got ACTUAL! Notify HR straight away!" :)
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That's why I moved my stuff up above my work history, they have to read it to get to the meat. I noticed at a job fair talking with a recruiter he didn't even see any of my extra "stuff", never made it down there. I brought it up and he acted surprised so I made the adjustment.

As for volunteering/ extra curriculars I coached hockey for a long time, work at my local food shelf, ALPA, as well as some company functions. New company now and haven't had much time to do some of the other stuff but I do whenever I can.
 
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