Volunteering Today: A New Way to Kickstart the Career of Your Dreams

Getting your first break requires you to build credibility and get the right experience for the job. But how are you supposed to get the right job experience if you can’t get hired because, well, you lack the right job experience?

Volunteering is a surefire way of building credibility and key skills like critical thinking and teamwork, which puts you a cut above the rest. Here are some of the many ways volunteering can help people discover their perfect career choice, and how to get to that goal.

Personal and Professional Benefits

Volunteering comes with a score of personal and social benefits which can last you a lifetime, and it can also work wonders for your resume. Aside from proving your dedication and a specific skill set, volunteering is a testament to your character which allows employers to get a personal feel for you, and trust that you’re reliable and authentic. Volunteering exhibits enterprising spirit and leadership qualities. It’s also a great testing ground to find out what you’re really good at and what you really like, a process which might take you much longer in the job market. Becoming a volunteer overseas is a great way of challenging yourself and becoming more worldly.

Spicing Up Your Resume

Your resume is your foot in the door, what separates you from other applicants. Whether you’re a student seeking a new job, a recent graduate, changing job or returning to the workforce after a period of absence, volunteering can shore up your resume and skill set. The most important quality any resume can have is that it proves you’re the right fit for the role, and the evidence for that is job skills. Where paid work is absent, volunteering is the next best thing – and sometimes it’s better! Several months in a senior volunteering position with a highly organized charity, for example, may take you farther than a couple of months with a minimum wage job.

Networking and Promotions

Volunteering can also lead to paying work through the contacts and references you build up on your resume. It can be great for networking, either by helping you find your future employer or else by gaining the necessary reference. Volunteering shows your employer that you’re willing to take risks learn something new. Make sure you ask for lots of training, work alongside professionals and ask questions. Take any chance at a promotion in your volunteer organization you can get: the more work you’re organizing (especially if you’re organizing a team of people), the better.

How it Fits on Your Resume

A “Volunteer Work” section can be used if you want to highlight the volunteer nature of the work, or just include it under “Work Experience”. Make sure to capture your employer’s interest by using a job title which describes the work you did, such as “Event Organiser” or “General Assistant”. Describe your highlights and achievements, as evidence of what you learned. Are you forgetting anything? Any public speaking, writing, planning or accounting can be listed.

Now that you have an idea of what role volunteering can play in your career path, consider your options. What kind of volunteering job would best impress your dream employers? How can you get it?