How You Can Turn Volunteering Into Full-Time Work

Whether you are 21 or 45, a position as a volunteer is a smart way to improve job skills, expand corporate experience and get a foot in the door of a new company. Many companies look to their volunteers as a readily available applicant pool. Some also require their employees to serve as volunteers to broaden their knowledge base.

In this Wednesday’s episode of The Root Live: Bring It to the Table, host Harriette Cole has two guests with expertise in volunteerism and the ways it can lead to full-time employment. Spring Lacy is vice president of corporate engagement for Prudential. Her responsibilities include providing strategic leadership and oversight in the execution of domestic and global employee and corporate engagement activities. In this role, she is responsible for all employee volunteer and recognition programs. Paula Rice’s relationship with the Alzheimer’s Association’s New York City chapter spans 10 years: first as a client and a full-time caregiver for a mother suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, second as a member of the association’s speakers bureau, and lastly as the current manager of African-American outreach.

Lacy describes the skills that can be acquired through volunteering. Rice discusses her own experience with the Alzheimer’s Association in transitioning from volunteer to employee.

The Root Live: Bring It to the Table video series continues every Wednesday through Dec. 24. Other topics in the series include the following:

* whether crowdfunding can finance your dream; * LGBT partners and benefits: knowing your rights; * how to keep from going broke after divorce; * living a biblically sound financial life; * managing your children’s financial expectations.

To watch an earlier episode of The Root Live: Bring It to the Table, click here.