Annabel (26) used her vacation days to volunteer for 40 hours

Of course you worked for a volunteer work platform, wasn’t this week just a trick to get new work?

I can be very honest that I do have coffee appointments, but that was not why I was going to do it. It was rather the other way around, that I didn’t want to focus on looking for work for a while and therefore started doing this voluntary work.

I’m not going to stop right now! Even when I hopefully have a job again, I want to continue to do voluntary work on a structural basis. Exactly how I am going to shape that also depends on my new job, but I certainly want to discuss it.

Do you have any tips for people who also want to volunteer?

The first step is to see how much and when you have time. Is it in the evening? Is it daytime? Can you do it once, or could you do it a few times? After that it is important to think about what you would like to do, for example cooking, walking, doing crafts, cleaning. Some people also use their professional qualities, such as lawyers or IT specialists.

Then you also have to think about which target group you want to help. For example, I found out that I really like volunteering with the elderly, but other people prefer to work for animals or children. After that, you can of course, just like me, look for volunteer work through your network by posting on social media, but you can also find many websites on the internet that link volunteers to organizations.