---
title: Service and Your Career
osem_url: https://osem.seagl.org/conferences/seagl2023/program/proposals/982
beginning: '2023-11-03T14:50:00.000-07:00'
end: '2023-11-03T15:40:00.000-07:00'
resources:
  internet_archive_identifier: SeaGL2023-Service_and_Your_Career
presenters:
- name: Lori Barfield
  affiliation: RaiseMe IT
  osem_url: https://osem.seagl.org/users/1109
  gravatar_id: 277db9649a206c4da8d7368da39b2dee
  biography: |-
    Lori Barfield joined her first Internet startup during the original .com boom as a Senior System Administrator, at a company that eventually went public. After moving into leadership there, she started an international executive consulting practice.

    Lori’s volunteer career began as a Chair for the Southern California Linux Expo. She has been a conference organizer and speaker in the Open Source world for 15 years. She also co-founded the cyber security conference ShellCon in 2017, and RaiseMe IT along with that. Through RaiseMe she has spoken and taught about career development at dozens of technical events across the country. Five years ago, Lori answered the call to duty and joined the Coast Guard Auxiliary. She is a Division Vice Commander and serves on the National Cybersecurity Penetration Testing team.

    Lori is married and a mother of five grown kids. Most of them have unsuccessfully avoided careers in engineering. :-)
---

### Description

There’s a crushing Catch-22 in the technology world that keeps people from realizing their career dreams. Career consultants often hear this exasperated plea for help: “How do I get experience doing something new, when the companies I am talking to only want to hire people who already have experience?” Lori is a former computer engineer and technology executive who will explain how candidates can gain key engineering work experience by volunteering. Volunteers participate in a very wide range of opportunities, from technical conferences like SeaGL, to open source projects, to service to the country. This talk will explain how to leverage any volunteer accomplishment with strategic integration into resumes and job interviews.

### Learning Objectives

Lori will share real life examples of enhancing engineering and leadership careers by engaging in volunteer work which offers strategic experience. This talk provides actionable advice about how to integrate that experience with resumes, interviews, and career networking. Here are selected topics:

- Advantages of Volunteer Work over Compensated Work
- Tie Your Volunteer Work into Your Profession
- Volunteer for Conferences Instead of Just Attending
- Contribute to Open Source Projects
- Hackathons and Competitions
- Speak at Meetups & Events
- Maintain Multiple Social Spheres
- Find a Mentor, Be a Mentor
- If You are in Between Jobs, Get Busy

### Additional Comments

In your professional life you may face limits imposed by the company you work for and the outlines of your job description. Working in a volunteer organization may enable you to break out of that box. Everyone starts out as a beginner, but if you’re motivated to excel, you might quickly find yourself running a volunteer team. That experience could be a key factor to getting your next promotion or a new job.

This talk content was originally developed with Paris Pickard. Even though Paris isn't available to be a co-presenter, her contributions are included, with her blessing.
