PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - I need your advice regarding volunteering
Old 18th Jan 2013, 09:19
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vancouv
 
Join Date: May 2002
Location: uk
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I wouldn't normally reply to something like this, but I thought I'd just add my experience, for what it's worth.

The first 'proper' job I got was washing up in a small family run restaurant. I was 15 and paid 25p an hour plus lunch (it was a long time ago ). I didn't particularly like washing up, but I think it taught me lots of useful stuff about responsibility and organisation - at 15 I'd never had to be responsible for anything, really.

Since then I've worked or volunteered in a number of situations where you have to 'muck in' - ie you do whatever needs doing, often things you might not really want to do. These things can lead on to other more interesting opportunities you wouldn't have got otherwise.

You just need to weigh up what you're getting out of something in the long term. Being forced to do something you wouldn't normally do is nearly always a good thing, in my experience, as it frees your mind to encompass all sorts of new experiences.

Having said all that, there's always a point a which you think 'Mmmmmm, I don't think is going anywhere' and it's time to move on. The skill is trying to work out when that point arrives.
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