My name is Julien. I'm 27 years old, originally from the Gold Coast, and now call Melbourne my home.
By day I work as a media lawyer for Channel Ten, reviewing broadcast content for legal risk for TV shows such as The Project, Have You Been Paying Attention?, as well as 10 News First bulletins and the 10daily website.
But, by night, I volunteer my time as Partnerships Manager for Goodie. This year, I’m excited to be stepping up as Managing Director, while our original founder, Will Zhong, takes up a new and exciting role as Aide to the Governor of Victoria!
My Story With Volunteering
When I first started university, I had more passions than I could count! But the thing that has always stuck with me is my desire to create positive change in society.
While studying languages (French and Spanish) and Law, I actively volunteered for different organisations, such as helping out at Clean-Up Australia events around the Gold Coast. Although volunteering only took a small amount of my time, I really enjoyed the feeling of doing good for someone else or the environment. I could also see how these opportunities were helping me develop problem-solving and communication skills; an experience I was incredibly grateful for once I entered the workforce!
The more challenging the volunteering event, the more rewarding it became.
A few years later I ended up leading a university-sponsored volunteering trip to help build stone bridges for a rural community in China. The chance to combine my love for travel with volunteering made me realise there was a whole world of opportunities out there to do good.
How Volunteering Has Helped my Professional Career
The two most powerful things you can gain from volunteering are problem-solving skills and time management skills.
As someone who wanted to start off their career in law, I knew that employers were on the lookout for individuals with practical experience who could show off how they used these skills in the workforce.
I didn't have the benefit of part-time work in a law firm while studying, so I had to think outside the box and find a way to demonstrate that I would be a great addition to any workplace.
I was lucky enough to volunteer at a community law clinic for several months, where I refined my communication skills, learnt to be proactive, and demonstrated my ability to work hard.
When I started interviewing for full-time work, I was surprised at how often potential employers would ask me about my volunteering experiences on my resume. As more and more people commented on my experience, I started to link the dots between volunteering and the opportunity to showcase yourself in a working environment.
One question, in particular, came up time and time again:
Why was I so passionate about volunteering, and why did I keep going back to more
volunteering opportunities?
The Personal Benefits of Volunteering
The answer to this question comes in two parts:
1. I really enjoyed the opportunity to create some kind of positive change in the community, no matter how big or small.
2. I really enjoyed working in teams of like-minded people and loved any opportunity to practice taking on responsibility, delegating tasks, and negotiating with others.
It was the team-work aspect of volunteering that employers seemed to focus on so much.
Now, several years into my professional career, I can't stress enough how beneficial team-work is. I’ve even been shortlisted for jobs simply based on my ability to seamlessly fit into a new working culture.
Now that I'm managing a team, I fully appreciate how important it is to have people on board who are able to work well together and live and breathe what we are trying to achieve here at Goodie.
Volunteering is also a great way to meet like-minded people! I have an awesome network of friends I've developed across different cities from volunteering experiences. And if you're a travel enthusiast (like me), you never know when those friendships will come in handy.
I hope you take the opportunity to get stuck into many amazing volunteering opportunities, make new friends, share awesome experiences and get a taste of different working environments.
Julien Rosendahl is the Managing Director of Goodie and a media lawyer for Channel 10. When he's not working on securing more amazing volunteering opportunities for Goodie, you can find him at the gym or cooking really good food.