Internships are looking for people who have previous work experience. How do I know? I have looked up a lot of interns for IT! I remember a time where interns were zero experience and they taught you the basics about the company whether they hired you on or not.

I agree that sitting at home does nothing, but I noticed you couldn't answer does being broke help too? I will only speak for my situation: I am unemployed (said it many times) and need an income. My social worker told me why volunteer if you have no means of getting to the place financially? Does it not still take money to go from A to B?

I do not live in a state where it is close knit, but I do live in a city and the state I live in is spread out which means you need a car to get around. Screw the bus/light rail systems that we have, they still do not travel further because the bus drivers choose not to and hate their jobs.

My important goal is to get something where I can earn an income period end of sentence. I do not understand why that is so hard for people to understand, but I have to rebuild my assets back. So, why would I volunteer if I am not getting an income? Nevermind the experience/skills, why do I want to do free work when I have debts that need to be paid off?

Now, I am not talking about other people's problems just mine. If I decided to volunteer, I am certainly not going there with an impression that I will get a job no matter how many promises they claim. You obviously have no idea what these nonprofits are doing but I have spoken to many different people about how they volunteered and never landed a job and also went through 4-6 different nonprofits and still no job.

I applied for SRP's intern for IT and couldn't believe they wanted you to "already have IT experience," this was when I was in college. I applied to it anyway showing I was taking courses in IT and got an email back saying I wasn't qualified for the job. I have an IT degree no certs too costly for me and still can not land a job.

As I said many times, the job advice can not be the same for everybody. We can't tell someone to volunteer if they are losing their home and may end up homeless. Volunteering is not on their mind, will the free work land them a new home? Will it help them pay off their debts? Didn't think so and I think our brains have been fried since 08 that we Americans certainly don't have a pot to piss in!

For me, will free work pay the gas in my car or a bus fare? Like I told people, you tell me how am I going to get there? They shut up real quick with no answer to spew out of their mouths. The state employees have no real answer and one employee that I won't ever get "hired" if I don't "volunteer." I just looked at him and asked the same questions I just said in here to him.

He scurried around the question I was hip to that really quick! I get told by career counselors to "nevermind the money issue and shouldn't be so focused on money," I told them ok, the state of AZ should write me a huge check of one million dollars and once you do, then I will have no problems volunteering!

They just looked at me with their mouths open and I thought they sucked enough oxygen because it took them a long time to even come up with an answer! I said to them come on, we cannot keep giving this meaningless "job advice" to those whose situations are not the greatest.

I am not sure if you watch Suze Orman, but her motto is people first, then things, then money. My motto is me first, money, and then things. Let's get the priorities done first before I can go worry about volunteering somewhere. I will only take the advice of my social worker nobody else matters as their opinions is meaningless to me!

All my social worker told me to do is just keep applying (yea, such a boring method) but that's all she can tell me. I do agree with her on the don't volunteer, she is one of the few people I have spoken to who makes sense.