'Volunteer for the best jobs of the future.' - trabajo voluntario en el desarollo de la comunidad será importante en obteniendo el gran empleo - TA: volunteer work will be key to securing a dream job

The best jobs of the future will most likely be taken by people who bring something extra to the job interview and the job. "Getting a better job of the next promotion can be greatly influenced by your extra curricular activities, particularly if the word "volunteer" is an active verb on your resume." So says Top Gun recruiter, career strategist and motivational speaker Valentino Martinez of CareerTrek, a St. Louis based career and human resource development company.

Martinez has facilitated the hire of many thousands of professionals, directly and through teams, over the past 25 years. Among them: Top Gun fighter pilots, aerospace design engineers, accountants, agronomists, buyers, MBAs, ag sales reps, toxicologists, tube benders, electricians and veterinarians--even an astronaut. Martinez recently delivered the opening address to the New Mexico National Guard's annual Family Support Program training conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico, last March.

The attendees, all of them "volunteers", heard Martinez's high praise for their efforts. "As a bonus on top of the critical and beneficial work you do as volunteers with your organizations, in your communities--you are also doing the best thing for your career and your career advancement in a time of high anxiety in the workplace." Martinez asserted, "job insecurity caused by an ongoing effort to find the best people, the right size and the most cost effective processes for delivering customer satisfaction, quality products and services for a profit, continues to be the forecast for,employers throughout the world." He went on to say, "today's employee is expected to do what it took 2-3 employees to do 5 years ago and 10 employees to do 15 years ago. New high-tech applications, employee empowerment and aggressive team participation are making this happen easier, but employers still must seek the kind of employee who will actually "make it happen" for customers and stock holders.

As organizations become leaner, competition gets tougher and the customer becomes even more demanding--employers will become more dependent on the type of employee(s) who is willing to "do extra" and not necessarily for extra compensation. Management will gravitate to employees who see the bigger picture and take on an "ownership mentality" about the job at hand and the results required. It is this employee, working with the fervor of a true volunteer, who will become the company's most valuable player and valued asset. Such MVP's will be well compensated and beld close.

"Committed people ate noticed because they standout," reflects Martinez. "Employers will invest in such people because they bring a dramatic return on investment. They bring the right stuff to the job and to organizations they volunteer with--I call this phenomena the "Volunteer Factor," Martinez expounded on this issue in his speech entitled "Face of the Future: Careers for the 21st Century--The Volunteer Factor". He predicts that when this factor is present in individuals and in teams--it will be the essential ingredient that provides for a competitive edge and advantage in meeting the demands of the changing work environment."

As CareerTrek's president, with over two and half decades of experience and observation, Valentino Martinez concedes that good work experience and a good education are always prequalifiers to be an attractive candidate for hire. But "when the going gets tough hiring managers and recruitment teams are going to also seek that extra advantage really committed people bring to the job." Martinez went on to say,

Accept the fact that for today and tomorrow your career witl be prone to much change and high stress. Embracing Value Added, Customer, High Performance,Quality, Return on investment, Team Process, High Potential aud a willingness to volunteer for new and demanding responsibilites will dictate whether your career trek will be slow and difficult of hot and exciting. Plan on it being a bit of both.

Martinez describes the volunteer factor as a big plus factor. "It is the driving characteristic employers, sooner or later, recognize as a distinguishing advantage in a person regardless if they are executives, middle management, accountants, forklift drivers or college student interns." "It essentially means you care enough about certain things that you get involved--on a personal level," said Martinez. He added, "your incentive is not pay of recognition--it is because you care enough and want to help make a differece--in special causes that impact others: people, animals, literacy, the environment--causes that matter."

Major Jose Sena, who directs the New Mexico National Guard's Family Support Program effort from Santa Fe, coordinated the weekend workshops. Sena was delighted with Martinez's message, "it heightened our awareness on volunteerism's impact on a career and in getting the job done." Sena added, "the volunteer's personal initiative is really about having a positive attitude. Making things happen for the benefit of others is the best definition of a team player."

Major Sena further commented, "In New Mexico we liken the National Guard to a family with a mission. Everyone benefits when various kinds of assistance for members and their families are available and provided by volunteers. Our readiness is up, retention rates improve and our attractiveness as a service is embellished." Major Sena concluded that the Face of the Future: Careers for the 21st Century--The Volunteer Factor presentation given by Martinez really hit the mark on the value added and strategic advantage aspect of volunteer work. General Melvyn Montano, New Mexico's senior ranking National Guard officer, commended workshop attendees, praising the volunteers for "doing work essential to the readiness and well being of the New Mexico National Guard family and the country it serves."

"Employers, the smart ones, will work to harness the volunteer's core enthusiasm to their concerns--their products, science, services and bottom line issues. The hope would be to attract and to harness that "volunteer energy and commitment to the task(s) at hand," said Martinez. He concludes that, "the smart companies will, therefore, offer the best jobs of the future to the best employees of the future. The ones with high potential and dependability. The committed, dedicated and energized ones. The ones that care about positive outcomes. In the 21st Century--we will all be concerned about positive outcomes," mused Martinez. "The more positive the better, because in the end, we're all beneficiaries."

Excerpted, with permission, from "Face of the Future: Careers for the 21st Century--The Volunteer Factor," Valentino B. Martinez's speech to the New Mexico National Guard, Family Support Program, Training Conference, March 1996. The complete text appears in the CareerTrek Monthly Newsletter, Vol. 1, Number 2, February 14, 1996, a monthly newsletter published in St. Louis. Subject matter is also featured in a soon to be published book, The Career Trek: A 21 st Century Travel Guide. For more information call (314) 394-8155, fax to (314) 394-5688., or write The Martinez Group Communications, P. O. Box 1015, St. Louis, MO 63022.

COPYRIGHT 1996 Hispanic Times Enterprises
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group