Ask HN: What kind of volunteer jobs have you done that have changed your life?

An eye opener for me was Junior Achievement (www.juniorachievement.org). I volunteered until recently for two years in a public school in a low-income neighbourhood. It&#x27;s a program where volunteers go to primary and secondary&#x2F;high schools to <i>&quot;...foster work-readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy skills, and use experiential learning to inspire students to dream big and reach their potential.&quot;</i><p>I had done volunteer work before, initiatives organised by my past employers, but these where one-day &quot;lets paint an entire community centre&#x2F;chapel&#x2F;etc&quot; initiatives, with no real exposure to people and issues. This was the first time I volunteered by my own initiative and the experience was nothing what I expected, for good and bad.<p>All I can say is go for it.

5 years ago I joined my local fire brigade. It has changed my life in multiple ways:<p>- I met a lot of new people who I am mostly good friends with - you learn to trust people and understand their strengths and weaknesses - you feel better about yourself because you help others - my life got more balanced as I have an office job and operating heavy machinery is totally different. I also made my driver&#x27;s license for trucks, trailers and the fire boat we have. - there is a lot of testosterone involved with fire fighters ;) so I learned to better deal with conflicts<p>If you only have a couple of days&#x2F;weeks this might not be for you as this volunteer job requires a lot of dedication. But it definitely has changed my life very much to the better!

I regularly volunteer computer time to non-profit organizations who are doing good things in a non-partisan sense.<p>Once you do one, you&#x27;ll get calls for more. Often it&#x27;s nothing more than a few hours on a weekend to set up a website, software package or network. These are generally small concerns who rely on staying small to be effective.<p>I highly recommend this. I have met some of the most wonderful people.... they have found a purpose in life that transcends its disadvantages. I don&#x27;t even know how to describe it. Not all are this way, but enough are to bring a smile to my face at the memory.<p>You will feel like it&#x27;s the last (insert string of expletives here) thing you want to do when the call comes. Computer work, for free? Just like a job but with none of the advantages, right? When you&#x27;re done you&#x27;ll feel differently, even though you will (most likely) be working with substandard hardware in suboptimal conditions around people who understand little of the technology.<p>I don&#x27;t really get an ego-boost from it and normally I wouldn&#x27;t talk about it with people who know me. But I highly recommend it. Among other things, you get a sense of power over all the things you don&#x27;t like about life, society, computing, etc. A chance to put things right and have people you respect notice.<p>If you can find an outfit like this, do it:<p><a href="http://www.volunteerhouston.org/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.volunteerhouston.org&#x2F;</a><p>They are an index of volunteer opportunities, like a Google for volunteering. Once you find your first gig, others will find you.

I&#x27;m not sure if this is strictly volunteering, but I worked as an unpaid intern for a human rights organization. The diversity there was incredible. I worked with people from five different continents, several different religious beliefs, and vastly different upbringings. Even though I went to a fairly diverse school (racially speaking, at least), growing up in the suburbs tends to have a homogenizing effect on the people you meet.<p>The work itself really opened my eyes too. I came in with the idea that human rights was basically stuff like no torture, no war crimes, freedom of religion&#x2F;expression, etc. But when I worked there I learned about the idea of social and economic rights, which in a nutshell is the idea that the human rights abuses I mentioned above are often linked to a lack of social or economic progress among certain groups, and that poverty was in a way a form of economic repression that paved the way for other human rights abuses. I&#x27;m still not sure to what extent I believe all of that is true, but I never would have thought about it if I hadn&#x27;t worked there.

Avid volunteer here, and I would say that it is one of the best gifts you can get yourself. Seriously. Get out of the echo-chamber(s) that make up life, help your community, and observe real issues&#x2F;hardship.<p>My staples are a food bank, nursing home, and a local NPR station. The first two are by far much more eye opening and rewarding. Lots of &quot;one-off&quot; volunteering as well, though these are not as good IMO. Hospital health drives, community bike races, libraries, eco-related stuff.<p>The more personal and reoccurring volunteering is what will likely impact you (and others) most. I find a couple times a month helps to keep me centered and remind me of how silly some problems are in life.

I am not sure whether this counts or not, but last year I started a TEDx event. My own motivation was that after graduation, it was so difficult to make new geek friends.<p>- Inviting people to TEDx has been a great excuse to reach total stranger, and to ask them about their work. - Organizing event is to &quot;get things done in the real world&quot;, (which I believe to be) the same skill set for a startup. - Working with people really helps me to get to know them. I have since found my future business partner.

Hm, nothing as life changing as most of the commenters below, however I volunteered with my local dragon boat team. Helped them with coaching, their site development and marketing.<p>It helped me exercise what I learn and at the same time learn to become a better leader. It also helped me get out of my shell as I am a bit of an introvert :P

I volunteer for a mountain rescue team. Holy heck, sitting at a computer dealing with bugs and other such &quot;stressful&quot; issues is pretty easy after working on the side of a mountain when someone has got themselves stuck or injured in a precarious situation. The people I get to work with are just amazing.

In high school I worked in a summer school program for the children of migrant farm workers. I used to be a math tutor at an after school program for Somali immigrants. There are a lot of volunteer tutoring programs.

I volunteered at a homeless shelter for a few weeks. Totally changed my outlook on life. I am much slower to judge, I am very careful not to waste and moan a lot less. I&#x27;d recommend it to anyone.

Hospice - helping people navigate their own impending death gave me some perspective. I did it for a few years in my early 30s and had both elderly patients and some younger than I. Pretty intense but the training was great, I was highly valued by the patients and their families, and it really made me think about not wasting the time I have on the planet, however long that should last.<p>I was a musician at the time and, like you, thought, &quot;I should do something with my days since I have so much free time.&quot;

After university I volunteered at a social centre for the blind in the UK. I had a great time helping people who were blind and being part of their social circle.

Teach music to 3rd grade students once a week...I love music but never wanted to do it professionally. It&#x27;s super rewarding when a few of the kids pick up an instrument and actually learn to play over the course of the school year.

Canadian Mental Health Association, because I had so much in common with the people there, and the local food bank, because a year later I ended up needing the service myself. It saved my life.