Why do people think unpaid work doesn't count?

[city_data91]

Originally Posted by TKramar

Maybe he thought that work was more important than school athletics.

I volunteered a while back--but it isn't anywhere near as important as working for compensation. I did it only out of boredom though.

He stayed on the team, though. But he was more like a part time athlete since he sometimes missed track to work.

I can understand quitting a sport entirely to work. But you shouldn't have the approach of: "I want to work and be on the team. If I have to miss practice or a meet, it's not the end of the world." You can't have it both ways.

[mainelander]

Originally Posted by city_data91

I've never had a paid job. Some people I know with paid jobs look down upon me for this. However, I have done a lot of volunteer work. Why do people think volunteer work isn't real work?

what "people"?
secondly to many employers they feel that volunteer work has virtually no requirements for being "hired" so to speak, so they can not establish your history of being acceptable as a worker.
you can volunteer for lots of things, but that doesn't prove you were any good at them

[annerk]

Originally Posted by jcinsov

what "people"?
secondly to many employers they feel that volunteer work has virtually no requirements for being "hired" so to speak, so they can not establish your history of being acceptable as a worker.
you can volunteer for lots of things, but that doesn't prove you were any good at them

That's so true. I was the volunteer coordinator for a not-for-profit that I volunteered at a few years back. People would commit to doing things and then not show, or would show and decide they wanted to do something else, or would be completely incompetent, even though they had sworn up and down that they had done it a million times in the past.

Granted, some were terrific, but for everyone that was reliable and completed what they put their name on the list for, there would be two that didn't. Anyone who has ever managed volunteers knows that you need to have two or three for each position that should only require one.

And there is no formal review process, so it's hard to really give much more of a reference than "Mary Smith did volunteer work for us in the food pantry."

[charolastra00]

Try to work with the organizations you volunteer with to get your position labeled as an internship. In many cases, there is no real difference between a regular volunteer spot and an internship. Particularly with nonprofits, an internship would be unpaid anyway. In some cases you get school credit but I have worked internships with no attempts at gaining credit as well.

The skills I have learned working unpaid internships for nonprofits and the government are far and above better than the mundane tasks I have done in paid jobs. At present, I can't find a paid job so I've taken on an internship for credit that will get me an extra minor.

Really, volunteering doesn't hurt- particularly if you are doing things directly correlated with the career you want. In particular, for college students, volunteering and internships are a pretty normal part of a resume.

[artsyguy]

Yes you are. You are trained and then supervised. If you stink at volunteering then you are fired.

Originally Posted by LauraC

I'm going to go with "Because you're not evaluated as a volunteer."