In this series of blogs we'll hear personal stories of how people started their careers in the charity and voluntary sector, and what they most enjoy about working in the sector.
In this blog, VONNE's Membership and Communications Support Officer, Gemma Broadhead talks about her journey from volunteering to working at VONNE.
Coming from a working class background in the North East, I was the first person in my family to go to university. For generations, the emphasis on education seemed to have been to prepare people to go straight into employment from the day they left school, with few opportunities for further education and even less for women. But this isn’t a history lesson.
I enjoyed my studies and had the regular student rites of passage – learning to budget the Student Loan, failing at it miserably, and then taking on a few summer jobs in pubs and bars to tide me over. When I graduated, I decided I wanted to get a permanent job and continue part-time at university, studying for a masters degree, and that’s when the job hunting started to get frustrating.
I applied for various office, reception, customer service, junior roles, jobs that I thought would help me develop my skills set, hours that would tie in with my studies.
I lost count of the amount of job interviews I thought had gone really well but then didn’t get a result. And the feedback was always the same:
‘You’re great, just not experienced enough for the role’
‘You were a really strong candidate, but someone else had more experience on the day’
So how do younger people get themselves onto the career ladder when no one will give them an opportunity? For me, it was volunteering.
I began volunteering at my local PDSA charity shop – most of my lectures were late afternoon and evenings - and I soon discovered it was a great way to gain a variety of work experience, whilst feeling valued and doing something worthwhile. I learned COSHH and Fire Safety regulations, GDPR, banking procedures, office admin, retail, a very wide range of transferrable skills and knowledge. My first foray into the sector opened my eyes to the variety of the work available, even in a voluntary capacity. I also found out that you can still be promoted in voluntary roles, and I became a Key Volunteer, which meant that I could essentially run the shop in the manager’s absence when needed.
Eventually I got my big break, and I became a paid employee, taking over as assistant manager. It was a temporary contract to cover maternity leave, but when a permanent opportunity later came up in another department in the organisation, I felt I at least had my foot on the ladder this time and applied. I got the job and stayed at PDSA for another 9 years.
When I decided to spread my wings for a new challenge, I didn’t fly far and remained in the sector, working for charities in both Newcastle and Sunderland before landing at VONNE more than two years ago. I’m now working for a charity supporting other charities, which in a way feels like I have gone full circle, and I hope I’m giving something back to the sector as a result. It took a VCSE organisation to give me my first career and development opportunity, supporting me into work, for which I’ll always be grateful, and after 17 years of working in the sector I see no reason to fly the nest any time soon.
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