{"id":308165,"date":"2025-10-16T13:41:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T13:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/308165\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T13:41:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T13:41:13","slug":"verizon-exec-tells-unemployed-gen-z-they-can-always-volunteer-to-stand-out-in-the-current-bleak-job-market-no-ones-going-to-say-no-to-free-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/308165\/","title":{"rendered":"Verizon exec tells unemployed Gen Z they can always volunteer to stand out in the current bleak job market: \u2018No one’s going to say no to free work\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Young millennials and Gen Zers are having a hard time breaking into the world of work. Millions are unemployed<\/a>, many are questioning whether their expensive college degree was \u201cpointless<\/a>\u201d, and they\u2019re quickly realizing that in today\u2019s economy, you need work experience to get experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where Verizon\u2019s chief talent officer Christina Schelling has some advice: Stop thinking you need to have something snazzy on your resume to catch the attention of prospective employers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe work experience piece doesn\u2019t always have to be traditional and paid,\u201d Schelling exclusively tells Fortune. \u201cYou know, you could do volunteer work, and that builds skills, that also builds your resume when you\u2019re early in your career.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI always tell people to do a stretch assignment or volunteer to be a part of a project,\u201d she adds. \u201cNo one\u2019s going to say no to free work and turning down additional resources\u2014and you\u2019re, again, collecting experiences and building your resume\u2026. That gives you the experience that is required to set you up for the next job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schelling would know: She is in charge of the hiring and career growth for over 100,000 at the Fortune 500 (#31) firm. She\u2019s previously led the people teams and Estee Lauder<\/a>, Prudential, and American Express<\/a> too. And she says any experience or proof that you\u2019ve built up skills in an area, is better than none.<\/p>\n

You can volunteer your way to a promotion too<\/p>\n

Even for those already in jobs, volunteering to do extra work within your business or externally, could help secure your next position. Especially for those looking to pivot into a new industry or job function.<\/p>\n

\u201cEmployee Resource Groups are also really good for that. So at Verizon, we\u2019ve got a lot of employee resource groups. We\u2019ve got 25,000 employees that participate\u2014that is above and beyond their day job and very much volunteer\u2014but they do things for development, for community, for career advancement,\u201d Schelling says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re building their network, but they\u2019re also learning leadership skills, project management skills, influence skills, relationship management skills,\u201d she adds. \u201cDon\u2019t underestimate the power of the non paid parts of your life too.\u201d<\/p>\n

How to express to employers that you have zero work experience<\/p>\n

If you do find yourself interviewing for a job\u2014be it voluntary or paid\u2014and you\u2019ve got no previous work experience to talk about, don\u2019t sweat it. Schelling says honesty and openness trump awkwardness or evasion. She urges job seekers to embrace transparency while focusing on the assets they do bring to the table.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have a hiring manager who says, \u2018how was your experience been?\u2019 I do think it\u2019s okay to say I\u2019m having a tougher time than I thought, and here\u2019s what I\u2019ve learned.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

While she wouldn\u2019t recommend leading the conversation with your lack of experience, she says it\u2019s \u201cokay to be transparent and honest\u201d when the question around employment history naturally arises.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And don\u2019t dwell on the experience you don\u2019t have, instead reframe the conversation to share the skills, knowledge, and qualities you\u2019ve developed elsewhere, whether through school, hobbies, sports<\/a>, reading up and learning about the field online or even personal life experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would position it more as you, as a hiring manager, should know this,\u201d Schelling adds. \u201cDon\u2019t take too much time away from you getting to talk about you, and you getting to showcase why you\u2019re so great for that job.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Young millennials and Gen Zers are having a hard time breaking into the world of work. Millions are…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":308166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[64,17900,16778,263,3991,7414,70065,1815,420,39623,126013,155976,766,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-308165","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-career-advice","10":"tag-careers","11":"tag-employment","12":"tag-gen-z","13":"tag-hiring","14":"tag-hr","15":"tag-interview","16":"tag-jobs","17":"tag-millennials","18":"tag-the-interview-playbook","19":"tag-the-promotion-playbook","20":"tag-unemployment","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115384135405056144","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}