Written by: Rana Khaled Awwad

Edited by: Yara Mohamed

Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.”

Edgar Allan Poe

When I was a teenager in high school, I used to think that life is all about education followed by work, with no transitional phase; phases, you get you get your “academic” degree from school, then this knowledge is sufficient to qualify you for practical life. Afterwards, I figured that it is a misconception and, unfortunately, also a fatal illusion.

In high school, there were a lot of extracurricular activities; and in order to raise my GPA, I had to join at least two of them. I was an academically advanced student, so I did not have any aspirations to lower my GPA due to my lack of interest in these extracurricular activities, so I found no other option than to join these activities. I did join the Broadcast team for one year. Through this year, I learned what public speaking means; what presentation skills are; and how it feels like to talk confidently in front of an enormous number of people of different ages. This was something I never gained from attending academic classes, and my academic progress did not fill me with these simple, essential skills. I realized how important and essential these skills are: What is the benefit of knowledge if I do not know how to articulate it and pass it on to other people, which simply requires powerful presentation and communication skills. The year after, I became the leader of a team and trained a lot of students from lower grades. Ever since, I became more passionate about volunteering even after school, that’s how I found my way into civil work.

Based on my perspective and experience, civil work is greatly related to practical life; it seems like a simulation for the professional life you are going to have one day after you graduate. I came to join different positions in the HR Committee. However, people at civil work – and any other field – have a false, negative impression about the role of HR: The HR member is portrayed as the one who observes people’s behaviors to write a report at the end of the day, takes notes about their attitudes, and is usually poker-faced. And yes, the HR member is the one who takes notes, but for your own benefit, so you could know your points of strength and be provided with more opportunities to use them. They also focus on your points of weakness to develop them into powerful and advanced tools, so that they would not become obstacles in the future. Moreover, it is just PART of the committee’s job description to take notes to and from participants and staff members to ease communication and help deliver feedback from different angles, which is called the 360 degree feedback. And this system is more commonly known in companies as “performance appraisal”. When the HR are done with their feedbacks and observations, the “Training and Development” part comes into play.  How is it possible to aid to the development of someone without knowing him or her in the first place?

After the HR receive the feedback from participants of staff members and vice versa, both participants and staff members become aware of their points of strength and weakness. Besides, staff members will be more aware of which points specifically need to be developed in each participant. The benefit of civil work is that you are driven by values—you never ask for money or any financial exchange for what you achieve, as they are value-centered: a participant joins specific projects because he or she is truly eager to develop, and the staff member joins them to train and help develop other people without waiting for anything in return but the progress of development. I have a friend at college who suffers greatly when it comes to presentations or any activity that requires public speaking skills and teamwork because she has never joined any civil work where she could develop these skills.

But why do people volunteer in the first place?

Stephan Covey wrote in his best-selling book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People that what justifies most of our actions is that they are value-centered. When you ask yourself about your objective, you start doing what feels right spontaneously. If you are a natural leader; if you aspire to lead and train people for the sake of the “value”, you will find your way to civil work. Covey also illustrated in his book the method that helps you identify your values: write a mission statement and ask yourself: if you are dead and different people who know you well – a close friend, friend, husband/wife, children, boss, and colleague – are at your funeral, what would you like them to say about you? That should be your objective in different aspects of your life. Besides, your achievements as a volunteer play a great role in your life, because it brings positivity to influence other people.

In the civil work field, you widen your scope not only about professional life, but also about yourself: it helps you identify your passion, skills, and personality, and develop them. That is the transitional phase between education and practical life, where you get all the required professional development and become ready to face practical life; not to be qualified, but to be unique in whichever place you aspire to be; to leave your own fingerprint. Do not aspire to getting a job afterwards, but to succeed in whatever field you choose. How could you do that when you are like a blank page – not devoid of experiences – but of passion. And that is the difference between civil work and practical work; in professional life, you are asked about your previous experiences; in civil work, you are asked, “Are you eager to join us?”

If yes, if you have a desire to learn and explore yourself, it is the place for you.

You have everything and all the tools that qualify you to be where you want. There’s a quote from the movie Sucker Punch that is strongly related to the point I want to deliver:

You have all your weapons, now fight!