My Question of the Day: Sometimes the direct route isn’t the only way to get to your destination. With that in mind, would you consider working your dream job as a volunteer if there was a better-than-great possibility that you’d get hired for pay when a position opened up?

My 2 Cents: Because of my sister, I’d have to say yes, because she did this and it actually paid off for her.

My sister, Tammie Fields, majored in Radio, TV and Film in college, and she set her mind on being a television news anchor.

To this end, she had to make resume tapes and send them out to different television stations. Buying tapes, shipping materials and postage was expensive, so sometimes she worked one or two part time jobs in addition to her full time job as videographer in the Athletic Films department for the University of Oklahoma football team.

In addition to her full-time job and part-time jobs, she volunteered at the local television station, learning all she could about producing, editing and camera work. Her single-minded focus to achieve her goal of becoming a television news anchor spearheaded her resolve to do whatever it took.

When a paying position opened up, Tammie was the obvious choice for the job. Since then, she’s moved up and up in the news industry, starting her career in Oklahoma and steadily going into bigger markets. You can watch Tammie, and the other personalities at WTSP live:

Since I know first-hand that volunteering to do what you love isn’t always in vain, I would definitely consider doing it again.

Truth be told, the job I’m working now as a computer applications trainer is a dream come true, and in order to get my foot in the door I had to volunteer to teach several classes to get paying jobs. That volunteer work didn’t put any money in my pocket at the time, but it was a great investment on future returns.

If you’re interested, you can follow my sister on Twitter. Tammie’s also on Facebook.

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The commentary doesn’t have to end!

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