I am being very serious when I say this but I approached an organisation yesterday and offered myself as a volunteer. My qualifications and experience would be relevant to this organisation and yet I was told they were not recruiting volunteers. I was shocked to say the least when they responded with that. Has this ever happened to anyone?

It was a voluntary organisation / charity.

Hard to comment without knowing more about the context, but it may simply be that they have all the help they need right now, especially if lots of people are trying to boost their CVs with voluntary experience.

Also, volunteers still come at a 'cost' to some organisations, if only in the time required to manage them/process whatever admin needs doing, so it's not in an organisation's interests to just keep on taking volunteers indefinitely.

Is there another organisation that might appreciate your skills/qualifications?

======= Date Modified 17 Feb 2012 13:38:15 =======
Thanks Hazyjane. That's another way of looking at it. I'm considering a number of options...

Hi Delta
I have experienced a similar thing myself, and when I was a volunteer with an organisation before they explained to me why it was like that. Often these organisations/charities have to apply for funding to be able to take on volunteers, paying towards training, travel expenses etc, and they have to show that need a certain amount of money to take on a certain number of volunteers. The upshot of this is, they can't take on volunteers who offer to cover their own expenses if there are any as it would negatively impact on any future funding applications, and they have to spend every penny of whatever they do get - hence why I was treated to lunch etc and required to have expenses as a volunteer so they could use the funding up - use it or lose it it seems. It's a really crap situation as organisations who could use volunteers can't take any more on if they don't have the funding, whether they need the money or not. Also, as mentioned previously, it could simply be that they already have plenty of people, what with everyone looking to build up CVs and experience these days. Simply being able to do a job isn't enough, you have to be able to do everyone elses jobs too while standing on your head juggling and drinking water....Keep strong and keep looking. I found the tutoring has actually taken off and is great extra money, if you can do that with your qualifications...

Thanks, these explanations are very helpful as I just didn't know what to make of it! Glad things are better for you AQ, I'm not sure what your subject is but I can't see there being much call for mine but worth a try I think.

Thanks all for responding - I was a bit deflated to say the least.

It's just school level biology I'm doing! GCSE and A level. It's just a matter of looking through the syllabus and some old textbooks, the important thing is being able to explain the concepts to the students and actually make them sit an learn it. I do lots of rewriting and redrawing figures and going over the same stuff repeatedly, generally making them learn the stuff. Could you do any of the sciences, or even English tuition? Still no actual real job for me though....I had a bit of a breakdown the other night at the though of having to finish writing my PhD papers, seems I managed to blank out final year quite successfully and every time I sit down to write I start freaking out, all the old panics and worries come flooding back. But I'll get there!

Thanks AQ. I was thinking about English because not a single element of my writing was criticised at Masters and PhD and it seems to be my strong point. Out of interest, do they come to you (your place), do you go to them (their place), use a library or somewhere else?

Seriously, try to get those papers finished, I know it's tough and the situation stinks but now is the best opportunity you'll get to do them. I'm not fussed on an academic career and so it doesn't matter as much for me. Keep the faith!

...and thanks. We're all in this together.(up)

just Pm'ed you with all the gory details Delta :)