Exploring micro-volunteering as a flexible pathway for career development

I've only just seen this, it's a really good question. Taking an IET volunteering angle, it's something I've felt for a long time - when IET volunteering opportunities are being developed they do need to take into account the time constraints of mid-career engineers. Scheduling in a regular "half day meeting once per month" in working (or non-working!) hours can be impractical for those with high pressure day jobs, and, as mid-career often also means mid-family, busy home lives as well. Which has meant in the past that IET volunteering has been disproportionately represented by retired or semi-retired engineers.

Micro volunteering is a really good term for this. In the IET world, the role I regularly recommend for this is Professional Registration Adviser, advising potential EngTech / IEng / CEng registrants. The great thing about this role is that you can take on as much or as little volunteering as you have time for at the time. And the only meetings you have to arrange are between yourself and the applicant (often only a single meeting), which can be arranged absolutely to suit you. Having done a lot of volunteering for the IET over the years this has been by far the most practical to fit around Life.

Outside the IET world, my favourite is the Repair Cafe. As a repairer, I simply turn up on one Saturday morning a month, if I'm not doing anything else, and try to mend things that people bring in while they are there. And if I can't, I can't. No preparation, nothing to do between sessions. And a really nice crowd of people there. (In that example I am also a Trustee of the Cafe and the lead repairer, so actually I do do a bit more than that, but that's my fault for getting persuaded to take on those roles.)

What's interesting in the context of the post is that none of my volunteering involves fast-moving areas, in fact quite the opposite! However, I would say that the widespread acceptance of video calling since lockdown has hugely helped in micro volunteering. Volunteering which I would have been doubtful of doing before, because of the time taken to travel to and from meetings, has become often much more practical.

In terms of career development, I'd say that the most important thing that any sort of volunteering brings is making you work well with others - if you don't, you'll find the other volunteers will simply move away from you. When it comes to gaining technical skills or networking then micro volunteering will probably only work if it's continuous - so you may only be doing small pieces of volunteering, but they link into a bigger whole. Again the PRA work is a good example of this, every candidate you work with gives you bit more insight into UKSPEC in regards to that applicants place in the industry, which in turn gives you a bit more insight into the industry as a whole. In my last few years as a STEM ambassador, when I was only maybe doing 1 or 2 events a year, that still kept me in touch with other engineers doing those same events. But a single short volunteering event is unlikely to give you a career gain - but you never know, luck sometimes happens.

Overall, I'd love to see the IET promoting micro volunteering activities to enable more of those busy engineers who are at the top of their game to get into volunteering. It would be good for members, good for the IET, and good for the wider community.

Let alone the fact that some of us just hate committees, we get enough of that in the day jobs...we just want to be helpful.

From an IET viewpoint, I think the nearest activity we have to micro volunteering is as a Registration Assessor. At the pre-interview stage this involves reviewing applications to determine whether there is sufficient evidence of the UKSpec competences to warrant an interview, and writing a short summary report (usually 2 or 3 paragraphs). Everything is done on-line and a panel usually has 5 or 6 applicants in a batch with 3 weeks allowed to complete. All done as and when you can fit it in.

At post interview it is a case of reviewing the interview report and an overview of the process to ensure that the result is fair and correct.

You have to have training which involves a day in London every 3 years or so, and it all counts towards CPD.

How do one go about registering an interest and any link to that effect 

How do one go about registering an interest and any link to that effect 

For Registration Assessor see here:

https://www.theiet.org/involved/volunteering-with-us/volunteer-roles/professional-registration-and-fellowship-roles/registration-assessor

For Professional Registration Adviser see here:

https://www.theiet.org/involved/volunteering-with-us/volunteer-roles/professional-registration-and-fellowship-roles/professional-registration-advisor

Personally I'd say that Registration Assessor is more like milli volunteering (which is personally why I've never done it - although I'd absolutely agree with David that I'd strongly recommend it to others who can mange the very small time commitment) whereas Registration Advisor is more like micro volunteering! But all the details of the time commitments are on those links.