What Color Is Your Parachute 2018 by Richard N. Bolles copy

librarian.
Temporary Agencies. Many job-hunters and career-changers have
found that a useful way to explore organizations is to go and work at
a temporary agency. To find these, put into Google the name of your
town or city and (on the same search line) the words “Temp
Agencies” or “Employment Agencies.” Employers turn to such
agencies in order to find (a) job-hunters who can work part-time for a
limited number of days; and (b) job-hunters who can work full-time
for a limited number of days. The advantage to you of temporary
work is that if there is an agency that loans out people with your
particular skills and expertise, you get a chance to be sent to a number
of different employers over a period of several weeks, and see each
one from the inside. Maybe the temp agency won’t send you to
exactly the place you hoped for, but sometimes you can develop
contacts in the place you love, even while you’re temporarily working
somewhere else—if both organizations are in the same field. At the
very least you’ll pick up experience that you can later cite on your
resume.
Volunteering. If you’re okay financially for a while, but can’t find
work, you volunteer to work for nothing, short-term, at a place which
has a “cause” or mission that interests you. You can find a directory
of places that are known to do this, in what are called “internships”
(www.​internships.​com) or “volunteer opportunities” (listed at www.​
volunteeringinamerica.​gov—see their data infographic about
volunteering leading to employment—and www.​volunteermatch.​
org). Also, you can put into your search engine the name of the city
or town where you live, together with the phrase “volunteer
opportunities,” and see what that turns up. Or you can just walk into
an organization or company of your choice, and ask if they would let
you volunteer your time, there.
Your goal is, first of all, to find out more about the place.
Secondly, if you’ve been out of work a lengthy period of time, your
goal is to feel useful. You’re making your life count for something.
Thirdly, your distant hope is that maybe somewhere down the line
they’ll actually want to hire you to stay on, for pay. The odds of that
happening in these hard times are pretty remote, so don’t count on it
and don’t push it; but sometimes they may ask you to stay. For pay.