Volunteering Can Accelerate Your Career
Have you been looking for ways to increase your chances of getting a job? Are you a first-time job seeker or new to a profession?
You should know that volunteering can help you in many ways, personally and professionally. Mentioning your volunteering efforts on your resume and LinkedIn profile will increase your chances of getting a job drastically. Let’s break this down further.
Employers Value Strategic Volunteering As Work Experience
Most employers value volunteering in a related professional environment as real-world work experience. For example, if you studied management and you are organising your sports club on a voluntary basis, this will count as experience even though it isn’t a paid job.
Therefore, make sure you mention it in your resume and LinkedIn profile!
Just as important as the experience from volunteering are the soft skills you gather through volunteering. Voluntary work also demonstrates your values by doing something for someone in need without asking for something in return!
Volunteering shows that you have a great level of commitment, dedication, social responsibility and motivation. Your potential employer will value these personality traits highly.
Some Skills You Might Gain During Strategic Volunteering
Volunteering will boost your confidence, as well as give you opportunities to develop and refine your skills. This could be your soft, technical, or transferable skills.
When volunteering, you most likely will speak in front of a crowd eventually. Even if it’s just a group of friends, you will practice public speaking as well as your presentation skills. Make sure you mention these skills that you’ve developed in your next job interview!
Depending on what type of volunteering you are doing, you can gain technology skills, knowledge about how to use social media in a business context, project management skills (for example, when you are organising the next sports event), training and leadership skills, and many more.
By choosing a specific area of volunteering, you can gain any desired professional skill.
You Will Meet New People Through Volunteering
#Networking: If you have been following us even for a short time, you have probably heard about the importance of networking!
By extending your social network, you are gaining new potential business relations at the same time. A senior sportsman who you are organising an event with might be your next employer or refer you to your next employer.
You will meet many people with different networks when volunteering. One day they might find you your next job!
Determine Your Personal Career Goals Through Volunteering
Is your dream to work on the management level of one of the big companies? If so, have you tried managing even a small project?
When volunteering, you have a low to no pressure environment to try out new things. You may also discover you enjoy working for a small non-profit organisation way more than working for a big static company.
Do you enjoy delegating and managing tasks for other people or do you rather complete tasks yourself? Also, do you rather work on your own or as part of a team?
You can answer all these questions and more by gathering experience through volunteering. And no doubt, you will need to know what makes you enjoy work the most at some point soon!
If you are already volunteering, make sure to mention your volunteering activities in your resume, LinkedIn profile and at your next job interview! If you are not, now it’s time to consider volunteering. You may be part of a club already that needs help in an area where you want to gather experience. Otherwise you may want to volunteer at the next Rotary event in your area or find another purpose that your heart beats for.
If you’re struggling finding a job, start volunteering now!
Leonie is our Content Coordinator where she helps create content to empower better employability outcomes for international students and provide host companies with diverse and passionate interns.
Once an international student herself, Leonie is a bilingual content creator who also enjoys playing the Australian sport, polocrosse (a mix of polo and lacrosse).
If you have any questions...
The Outcome.Life team are always here to answer any questions or help with any problems you might encounter during your internship.
You can contact us between 9am – 5pm, Monday – Friday at:
Phone: 03 8899 7424
Email: hello@outcome.life
