Thing 22. Volunteering to get experience

OK - I haven't volunteered to get experience but I have given up a paid post to free up my time to do potential extra work.

I was working as library assistant part time and secured a part time professional post. I could've worked both jobs in permanent capacity but I wanted to be able to say yes to any overtime at the professional post. I had been promised any overtime as there were 3 professional people (including me) and our combined contract hours didn't meet the hours we needed. The other librarians, thankfully for me, had young families and didn't want to do anymore than their contracted hours on a regular basis. I was very lucky, my contract hours were 20 hours, I rarely did less than 25 hours and I was able to continue to work as a library assistant for a maximum of 12 hours a week. My employers were in the same town and only about 20 minutes drive apart.

When I secured my first full time post I technically took a pay cut as I was moving from public to FE libraries. In fact given that the new post was 10 minutes from home rather than a 45 minutes drive like my other posts, I probably came out with about the same wage. Even if I didn't though, it was worth it, as this is when my career really started to move.

I can see both sides of the volunteer argument but I would volunteer to get experience.