Why Don't Job Banks Include Volunteer Management as a Profession? (Applying My September Hot Topic to Real-Life Situations)

I agree that it would be very interesting to examine how our colleagues hunt for jobs in our field, but who is responsible for the omission in the job banks?  Bridgestar and  CareerBuilder.com seem to have nothing under the key words “volunteer management,” though Monster.com does.  Why no consistency? Is the real problem that employers do not post job openings with a title such as “volunteer resources manager” or “volunteer program coordinator”?  Perhaps job banks have the same problem that we have ourselves in identifying how to classify where volunteer resources “fits”:  In general management? Membership development? Human resources?  

So this is a good situation in which to practice my Hot Topic advice. Sometimes, on behalf of our profession, we need to go public in asking “why?” Every one of us can send a message to the source of any omission such as this – or inappropriate reference to volunteers in a news story or whatever – and simply challenge the rationale. Get the source to explain why the situation exists or the comment was said.  Or at least put them on notice that someone is paying attention and can identify thoughtless or uninformed actions.

In the meantime, it would be helpful to the rest of our field if each of you could share how you found your current position as a leader of volunteers or volunteer engagement.  Was it thrust upon your already busy workload?  Did you discover it in an online job listing?  If so, which one? 

P.S.  Energize has been posting volunteer management job opportunities to our Web site for 15 years (at no charge to employers).  We are happy to spread the word about openings and internships specifically related to leading volunteers!