Volunteering at Citizens Advice gives you experience and a sense of achievement!
It’s Student Volunteering Week and we have asked our student volunteers what is like to volunteer with us!
Umar joined Citizens Advice Sandwell and Walsall as a Social Media/Marketing volunteer as part of his University Placement. Within weeks, Umar was offered a training contract but also continued volunteering as he enjoyed it so much! Read about this amazing experience…
I thought the marketing and social media volunteer role was perfect for me…
As part of my Marketing Degree we have to do a placement on the 3rd year. I had heard about Citizens Advice before but didn’t know exactly what the service was. One of my friends started as a volunteer adviser and told me about the role and what Citizens Advice did. I thought you could only volunteer as an adviser but I noticed that on the application form there was a marketing role and I thought “that would be perfect for me”.
The Marketing and Social media volunteer role is a great opportunity to gain experience that relates to my degree and do something with an organisation that helps people.
I submitted the application form and had an interview and started very shortly afterwards.
I get to do more than I thought I was going to be doing and it is such a great experience.
My volunteer role is in marketing and social media. I am involved with posting the content for Citizens Advice Sandwell and Walsall social media accounts such as Twitter and Facebook and I am just starting with LinkedIn.
I also get involved with other things such YouTube, updating printed materials and PR work. When I started I went to a recruitment fair at Aston University- it was nice because I was able to meet other students. Because I am a student myself it helps connect with other students as I am able to relate to them and what they are going through. We did quite well and received over 100 emails following the fair.
I will also be learning how to update the website…so things get more exciting as I take on more work.
I am learning a lot and It’s actually fun because you can see the difference from when you first started.
I have done a bit of work on social media before but it was never on a business or organisational context.
I find the research that goes behind social media really interesting. I was just posting things but now I am doing quite a lot of research about the profile of people who read our posts, the best times to post, when people are engaging with the content and what content people engage with. As a result of this work there are lots more people engaging with our content and it is good to see the impact of my work. It’s brilliant! I really like the research part behind everything,
Through this work I have developed great skills which will help me a lot in the future. As part of my degree I have to present a reflection portfolio based on everything I have done in my placement. All the experience I was able to gain it’s just going to help me.
It is good to gain work experience but finding an organisation where you feel comfortable is even better.
I am really enjoying this experience and it’s a lovely environment as well.
You always get help from everyone in the office. If I have any questions about anything there is always someone to help and I am given access to all the resources I need to do my work.
Citizens Advice is very flexible and volunteering works around my schedule. I can do things in my own time as long as I get the work done and I can work from home sometimes. I am also given autonomy in my work. A lot of people who are doing placements or internships sometimes just sit on the side but I have been allowed to go on the front seat and manage my own workload.
I was working full time when I started volunteering for 2 days a week. It was difficult at first not getting paid but when I volunteered this was the last thing that came to my head because I was having such a nice time and getting a lot of satisfaction from the work I am doing.
I am doing things I enjoy and helping people as well.
I have now taken a role as trainee adviser as part of a training contract. This means I volunteer 2 days and I am a trainee adviser on a paid training contract for 3 days in an organisation I feel comfortable in.
I am completing the adviser learning programme and I visit different offices. It is a great experience because I only knew the service from the research I was doing for our social media pages. I am now interacting with clients and this gives me a better perspective of the service.
There’s lots of things you gain from volunteering at Citizens Advice
I always wanted a career in social media. It’s something I have always loved.
I am getting work experience I never really had a chance before. It gave meaning to my degree as I can put things into practice.
Volunteering has helped develop skills and gain experience in social media and a bit more. I have met new people and this is helping build a professional network which I would not be able to without volunteering.
I feel a lot more confident and it’s great to see what I am achieving. When I made my first ever video thumbnail I just sat there so happy and felt “I am able to do this”. It’s just a sense of achievement.
It is an advantage to have this experience on your CV for the fact is such a big and known organisation that you work with.
When people ask me what I do and I mention Citizens Advice you can see that a smile comes to their faces.
