The best way to get a job? Volunteer

Recent graduate Jennifer D’Allaire has a piece of advice for future Concordia interns. “Treat your internship, paid or not, as you would the best job you could have,” she says. “It’s an opportunity to prove yourself and create relationships.”

That philosophy helped her jump from an internship to a full-time position at Habitat for Humanity Canada (HFHC). D’Allaire, who earned her BA in 2013, took over the role of volunteer services coordinator for the organization’s Quebec affiliate on November 18.

HFHC is a non-profit organization that organizes volunteers and partners to build and renovate affordable housing for low-income families. It also promotes awareness of the need for homeownership in order to break the cycle of poverty.

As volunteer services coordinator, D’Allaire is in charge of the recruitment and management of volunteers for the ReStore, HFFC’s retail outlet on Notre-Dame Street in Montreal. She oversees some fundraising for Team Builds, which enables corporate sponsors to donate and afterwards send a team of employees to an HFHC construction site to help out for a day; she’s also responsible for further developing a volunteer program that she worked on during her internship.

D’Allaire originally interned at HFHC from October 2012 to May 2013 as part of her BA in human relations program requirements. Those included volunteering 200 hours at an organization planning activities and interventions to bring about a positive change. She then stayed on as volunteer over the summer.

D’Allaire clearly made a good impression. On November 1, her site coordinator stepped down and recommended D’Allaire as her replacement.

The former Concordia student believes her time at the university prepared her well for the internship and, subsequently, job. “Over the course of the program, whose focus was not merely theoretical but practical as well, I gained a greater self-awareness personally and professionally,” she says.

Diane Demers, a lecturer in the human relations program in Concordia’s Department of Applied Human Sciences, has supervised interns for the past eight years. She was impressed by D’Allaire’s diligence. “Jennifer approached Habitat for Humanity hoping to be an intern there mainly because she admired the work they do,” Demers says. “She was inspired by them.”

Demers adds that the internship phase “is an exciting time for our students. This is where they put into practice what they have learned in our program.”

D’Allaire agrees. “As an intern, I was given the opportunity to demonstrate my work ethic and apply my studies concretely and creatively,” she says.

Don Deguerre, chair of the Department of Applied Human Sciences, considers internships important not only as a step towards graduation, but for personal development. “You get immediate feedback of the real world by being thrust in it,” he says. “That not only helps you with your courses at Concordia but also in understanding yourself.”