Volunteer Diaries: Vaish

We speak with Vaish, a volunteer digital marketer who shares her volunteering experiences with Empower2Free and Skills for Good.

Vaish’s Story

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, many undergraduates had a difficult time securing internships and part-time positions. Vaish, being a NTU Sports Science Management undergraduate at the time, was no exception. Recounting the situation during the pandemic, she tells me that finding part-time internships was difficult as many companies chose not to hire during those tough times.

Being an aspiring marketing student, securing internships was crucial to honing her skills and gaining experience. Therefore, when she saw the opening for digital marketing with Empower2Free, she jumped at the opportunity and applied. Other than being closely related to her career aspirations, the level of commitment required was also relatively within her capabilities. Vaish tells me that the longest she had ever spent on the project in a week was 4 hours, which was quite manageable.

Vaish further explains that her job scope involved digital marketing and doing marketing research for the organisation. At the start, she was paired with another volunteer, but both quickly found themselves having to face their first challenge: applying the marketing theories that they had learnt in university to their work with Empower2Free.

“I think for both of us, we [have] learnt all these theory-based marketing stuff, [but] the challenge was applying it; I think it is the same for most courses as well. So, I think initially the challenge was that we didn’t even know how to start at all…”

Vaish’s supervisor, Cynthia, played a key role in helping the two of them overcome these challenges by providing them with a good amount of guidance and correcting them when they made mistakes. Vaish also recounts how she found it relatively easy to work with the relevant stakeholders, as they were understanding of their working hours and commitments.

She notes a particularly heart-warming moment when, 2 years after she had completed the project, her former supervisor contacted her to break the good news that the organisation had implemented the findings from their market research and surveys.

“I think that was very nice, like 2 years on she still remembers me.”

From Volunteering to Career Building

Vaish’s volunteering efforts most certainly paid off in the long run by allowing her to gain the necessary practical experience and skills needed to excel in a marketing career. This was also especially crucial in landing her a job offer, as she had no prior experience working in marketing related roles prior to her time with Empower2Free.

“I did mention about this voluntary thing [when applying] to my internship, which I got after and converted to my full-time job. So, I think it was really very helpful, and this was the only experience I had.”

Working with Empower2Free also allowed Vaish to learn some key tips and tricks that would prove useful in her future career. One of these being the use of the HubSpot platform to learn more about social media trends and market analytics. Vaish tells us that this platform was extremely helpful in allowing her to better understand complicated marketing concepts and knowledge, concepts which are key to a brand’s success and how they measure it.

Advice for Others: Just Do It!

Lastly, Vaish shares with me that the one piece of advice she would want to share with others would be to give volunteering with Skills for Good a try! In her own words:

“I think the commitment is very low but you’re able to take away so many things in that short period of time, it’s not like an internship where you have to invest long hours or go to the office…you won’t know now but when you go into the working world, you’ll really find it very useful.”

On a concluding note, she also emphasises the positive experiences of her friends who have worked with other organisations, and how smooth and easy the onboarding process was. More importantly, there are many different roles catering to different skillsets that are highly in demand in today’s job market.

Has Vaish’s story inspired you to contribute your skills for a good cause? Head down to our website today and join our community of passionate volunteers making a difference in society!

About Skills for Good

Skills for Good is a local volunteer-matching organisation which seeks to empower volunteers through convenient and meaningful skills-based volunteering opportunities that help social organisations to achieve their missions.​ Volunteer with us today and wake up tomorrow with the warm and fuzzy sensation of ‘volunesia’.