How volunteering equals work experience on your resume.

Volunteering Provides More Than Just Help to Others – It Can Lead to Showcasing KSAs for Job Leads

Youthful job seekers don’t have much work experience per se, so don’t know what to put on their first resume. They may have a asset they don’t realize is just as experienced as ‘real’ or ‘paid’ work – their volunteer experience. Even the Boy Scout or Girl Scout troop or the little league baseball team can be a volunteer event that equates to ‘work experience.’ More mature and experienced workers don’t realize just how important volunteer work is on their resume and how their involvement can open employment doors.  A few hours a month can add up over the years.

Having this type of experience on one’s resume indicates several things.  The volunteer is involved in the community, sharing their skills or hands towards a unique cause.  They are not scared of hard work – meaning they aren’t couch potatoes with little ambition or life goals.  And they have a larger group of social contacts..

Volunteers hone their knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) in environments or industries that open their mind to different viewpoints and new ideas.  Their volunteer work provides a positive impact on their community, or a geographic location or recipients of the volunteers’ efforts.

There are many non-profit organizations (NPOs) desperate for volunteers, it’s easy to pick up the phone and call to offer your services.  The volunteer services can be simple as providing ideas in brainstorming sessions, picking up a hammer to assist in physical labor, or scouting for other volunteers with special skills to reach annual goals. Or the need could be as complicated as providing accounting certification audits for the NPO so they can go forward in applying for grants, or state and federal funding.

Volunteering has many benefits – to the volunteer or the job seeker – in many ways.  As a member of a NPO, doors are open to business or social circles that one would normally never cross paths (i.e., meeting big corporate executives at a donor appreciate event).  The volunteer can learn or develop new skills in parallel uses (i.e., a for-profit accountant can learn about non-profit financials).  The work may also open one’s eyes to a social world one might never be exposed to otherwise (i.e., health and nutrition needs for at-risk, inner-city youth and the homeless).

As a volunteer, it’s also important to share your experiences.  Talk with others about what you have learned, what you achieved for the NPO.  This opens up speaking engagements to expose yourself as a vital and experienced professional to a room of potential new employers.  Your diversity of experiences will enable future employers to study your skill sets and your capabilities to work in a broad scope of environments – including budget restrictions (getting more done with less).  Your value as a job candidate grows with your volunteer activity.

A recent study of LinkedIn members asked whether a job candidate with volunteer experience would important and 41% noted the candidate would be looked at more carefully.  The researchers indicated it was LinkedIn’s “corporate mission to connect talent with opportunity,” and further indicated “volunteer experience … showcases skills, initiative, and can … identify a shared point of passion with a potential employer or business partner.”

The LinkedIn survey of nearly 2,000 professionals in the U.S. indicated 89% of these professionals have personally had experience volunteering, but only 45% include volunteer experience on their resume, and “20% of the hiring managers surveyed agree they have made a hiring decision based on a candidate’s volunteer work experience.”  The conclusion was volunteer experience is a key piece of one’s professional identity.

Whether you are a teenager with little work experience, but plenty of time to offer charity organizations or a local NPO, or a corporate executive that volunteers on a NPO Board of Directors, the participation and experience gained is a vital and valuable work experience.  If you want to offer your time and skills, try the local newspaper or a quick Internet search to find a charity that needs your vital KSAs to get ahead in their goals and objectives.  Then add it to your resume as another ‘work experience’ bullet.  You will get far more out of the experience than you expect!

Dawn Boyer, Ph.D., is the owner of D. Boyer Consulting – providing resume writing, social media management, business development, and human resources consulting. Reach her at: Dawn.Boyer@DBoyerConsulting.com or https://dboyerconsulting.com.