Opportunities to Gain Experience During the Pandemic

Finding that employers are hesitant to hire? Take advantage of this time to gain experience in nontraditional ways. Don't give up your dreams; just be willing to take smaller steps to accomplish them, if necessary. Below are some leads to help you build your skill set and resume.

Note: as is always true, you should do your own research before signing a contract. For additional information, see our Scam or Not? page, and do not undertake something that asks you for payment.

Apply for a Micro-Internship:

Micro-internships pay you to work remotely on specific short-term projects in various areas. Check out Parker Dewey, Paragon One and MindSumo for an array of opportunities.

Develop your own project: If you have time on your hands and want to develop skills while building your resume, volunteer to do a time-limited project for someone in your network. To clarify the skills you would like to develop, look up the field you hope to enter on O*Net, and click on the "knowledge" hyperlink. To identify people in the field, contact us in the Levett Career Center or search for "[your field]" + "Hanover College" in LinkedIn.

Intern Virtually:

When possible, employers are working with students to enable them to have valuable experiences while working off-site. Reach out to employers who interest you to ask about opportunities.

VSFS: The US Federal Government has offered a virtual internship program since 2009, and currently offers 950 internship opportunities for 3,000 positions. Applications are open until July 31 each year and are processed through USAjobs.gov, so you will need to create a federal profile and submit a federal resume. Contact the Levett Career Center for assistance.

Help People; Make a Difference:

Amnesty International Decoders Work to end human rights violations: AI's Decoders allow volunteers around the world to use their computers or phones to help our researchers sift through pictures and documents.

Crisis Text Line Crisis Counselors answer texts from people in crisis, "bringing them from a hot moment to a cool calm through active listening, collaborative problem solving, and safety planning."

Paper-airplanes.org invites volunteers to provide online tutoring in 12-week sessions to "bridge gaps in language, higher education, and professional skills training for conflict-affected individuals"

Upchieve Tutor online one-on-one with low-income high school students who need your help academically.

Practice your Science Skills through Volunteering or Citizen Science Projects:

Citizenscience.gov is an official government website designed to accelerate the use of crowdsourcing and citizen science across the US Government.

Citizen Science Projects lists projects curated by National Geographic for children grades 3-12+.

Oak Heritage Conservancy, a local non-profit, lists several projects that would be great for college students on their volunteer sign-up page.

Zooniverse pairs volunteers with professional researchers around the world to support over 70 online citizen science projects.

Work with Documents:

Digital Smithsonian Museum Volunteers learn to transcribe in order to make historical documents and biodiversity data more accessible.

Project Gutenburg Volunteer to digitize cultural works for Project Gutenburg, which provides a free library of over 60,000 e-books.

Expand your Skills:

MS Excel training options

Classof2020 is a nonprofit resource to help new grads by providing a wide-array of free training materials and webinars.

Khan Academy offers free lessons in an array of different subjects. Search for the specific subject you need help with.

Microsoft Support offers free online lessons in Excel ranging from charts and pivot tables to formulas and functions.

LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda.com) will give you one month free and provides short videos teaching you how to use various types of software.

Looking for Additional Ideas?

Operation Warm has a list of 25 ways to volunteer virtually.

Dosomething.org's offers 9 places to volunteer online and make a real impact.

AmeriCorps: Find listings of nonprofits seeking your help both seasonally and in one-year commitments. Search by geographical location and interest area.

Gap Year Options: The Levett Career Center has compiled a list of gap year adventure or service options for when travel bans have been lifted.

Do you Have Other Leads? If you have additional resources or ideas for ways for students to gain transferable skills through short-term experience, let us know! This page is evolving with the times.