Volunteer - There is more in it than you think you know!

The fine morning when Ashok goes out with his file that has the collection of all accomplishments of his during his school and college years, certificates, appreciation and letters and everything that could get him a job, he realizes that all of that isn't enough by evening as the day passes by, when he isn't offered a single job that he applies for. The shock comes to him with trauma, disgust, sadness and a feeling of having gotten fooled all the years of college life. He gave it all for making sure he would get settled, clear his loans or pay back his parents or family by standing as the earning pillar for his people by getting a good job after a solid degree he held.

None of his certificates and appreciation letters could help. He knew something had gone terribly wrong. He came over to meet me up and asked me "Sir! I have done everything at my best during my education whatever i asked to,why am i not getting placed?". I answered "Champ! This is not the first time I am listening to something like this. This is something I deal with, almost on an everyday basis. The scenario in the market has become pretty scary. Institutions are opening up in large numbers in cities, in almost every other lane, but they aren't preparing the students for the industry."

The relatives and elders aren't able to coach us right, because the generation they belong to and the one we belong have a huge divide. The gap is in terms of the types of opportunities in the market, the skills expected, the work hours and the overall work scenario besides the drastic transformation in the size of dreams they held and the ones we hold. Our skill-sets and abilities have down-sized while our dreams have up sized manifold, this mismatch is leading to depressions and suicides.

The solutions aren't new or drastically different but we must understand one thing VERY clearly - "We need to work harder than ever to match our expectations or down-size them drastically and get pushed to lower strata of society. Since we aren't ready to not fight for our dreams, we must know we must begin the extra miles and responsible journey of life early on and must meet the demands of life head on. Life doesn't offer us a cushion ever, but parents are able to give up their earnt cushions to us and allow us to live 18 years of life, like nothing ever matters and we are going sail through the rest of it with similar ease.

We need to get out of that comfort zone and begin the journey to being accountable right from the first year of our college. Each of us must get into volunteering for organizations and projects. Businesses or NGOs could give us a terrific experience of working with people, understanding market response, understanding ourselves better of what roles suit us and what don't, developing skill-sets which we never had and enhancing the ones which we already do. Volunteering has the capacity to allow us to experience innumerable options available in the market. The organization needs cheap labor, a labor that costs them less and allows them growth. Your volunteering act allows them to receive labor at low costs, build their organization faster and better, in return giving you a platform, experience and better employability while you efforts lead to organizational growth which leads someone else's employment in that company/org (sometimes yours too).

The win-win situation and advantages that volunteering is able to offer is an eye-opener and keeping our eyes closed to this might lead us into a future of dire consequences we are building for ourselves, with lot of despair, unrest and pain of unemployed, unskilled and unfit youth. We need change and we need volunteering!!! Say YES to it and BUILD YOURSELF NOW!!!