8 Alternative Spring Break Plans Which Will Impress Employers

It’s spring break again, the time of year where, apparently, the only thing to do is drink, sunbathe and party in Cancun or Miami. You don’t have to spend it drinking caps and woohooing though. If you can’t afford the parties and want to try something different this year, try any of these ideas to be more productive and give your career prospects a boost.

1. Feed the hungry, mentor kids or promote a nonprofit near you

Do you reckon you’d enjoy mentoring disadvantaged kids, tweeting for a nonprofit or sharing a meal with low income seniors? If you’d like to lend your time to a local organization, you should search for opportunities near where you live on United Way. You can filter by skill or issue, and there’s a wide range of things you could be doing to help your community so you’ll definitely find a wonderful and rewarding gig that suits you.  

2. Get an internship and slay

Whether you have a 10-year career plan or not, spending a week interning for an employer is the way to get a feel for an industry and job. Internships are hard to come by, but not impossible to get if you’re methodical. Ask your family and uni careers team for tips and send speculative emails to your favorite brands. Basically, don’t give up because spring break is the perfect time window to carry out unpaid work experience for the company of your dreams. Grab the opportunity and you’ll also build contacts and learn skills which you’ll need to land that first job.

3. Spend a week in the woods with your crew

Support America’s national parks (they did subtweet President Trump after all). If the idea of spending a week in the woods building a bridge or restoring a trail appeals to you, check out the American Hiking Society’s website here and search for an opportunity near you.

4. Get organizing for Amnesty International

Gain a bunch of cool new skills while striving to protect human rights around the planet. Also, whatever you’re thinking of doing when you graduate, whether it’s in the charity sector or investment banking, your volunteering experience will be exactly the sort of thing you can mention during interviews when you’re desperately trying to make yourself sound extraordinary.

5. Build a family a home with Habitat for Humanity

Depending on how far you’re willing to travel – geographical distances range from anywhere between your local center to Central Asia and South America –  costs will vary. Also, while the work is physically demanding, you’d be taught how to do everything from painting to masonry by a professional builder.

6. Tape new signs in gendered restrooms because you’re a babe

As you may very well know, the state of North Carolina has been in the news recently for repealing a controversial bathroom bill that limited protections for LGBT individuals and banned transgender people from using toilets in accordance with their gender. Sadly, about 15 state bathroom bills still exist, including in Kentucky, Alabama, Texas and Virginia, so join in on existing action and sellotape gender neutral bathroom signs in your city. Find out more here.

7. Curb the HIV epidemic and some of the stigma around sexual health

There’s still a lot of stigma surrounding sexually transmitted disease testing and sexual education. Yet 19 million people are unwittingly living with HIV right now. So, help spark debate on sexual health and popularize HIV testing by getting tested for HIV and Instagramming a selfie with the word “tested” spelled on your knuckles. A small gesture but an important one.

8. Host a Wikipedia Girls Only Edit-a-Thon

It may not come as a shock to you that 91% of Wikipedia contributors are male, but it should. So, host a Wikipedia edit-a-thon to fill in the gender gap, create female-focused content and meet new people. Get tips to host a girls-only edit-a-thon here.