Volunteering offers a wide range of benefits beyond just helping a good cause. It can also significantly boost your resume and open doors for exciting job opportunities. By showcasing volunteer work you are passionate about, you demonstrate valuable skills and experience to employers. You also expand your professional network and gain insight into industries and roles that interest you. This article explores how strategic and meaningful volunteering can advance your career.
Benefits of Volunteering for Your Career
Volunteering offers many professional development opportunities to equip you for future jobs. Here are some of the top ways it can benefit your resume and career prospects:
Develop New Skills
As a volunteer, you often get to try your hand at challenging new tasks and projects. This allows you to develop practical skills that translate into the workplace, like project management, research, budgeting, public speaking, problem-solving, communication, and more. Highlight these on your resume.
Expand Your Network
When you volunteer, you collaborate with diverse people, including professionals in your industry of interest, mentors, community leaders, and like-minded volunteers. Building your professional relationships and connections provides more people to learn from and refer you for career opportunities.
Gain Work Experience
Hands-on volunteering is a great way to get relevant experience in your field, even as you are just starting. You can include significant volunteer roles directly in your work history on your resume, just like paid jobs. This shows initiative even in unpaid opportunities.
Stand Out to Employers
Showing a commitment to volunteering makes job applicants stand out by demonstrating self-motivation, work ethic, passion, and values. Responsible civic involvement appeals to employers seeking dedicated workers concerned about more than just a paycheck.
Discover New Interests
Trying out different volunteer roles lets you explore emerging interests you may wish to pursue through higher education or new career paths. Even if you decide it is not for you long-term, you still gain exposure and new perspectives.
Great Places to Volunteer in Calgary
If you seek meaningful volunteer positions to elevate your resume, Calgary offers many great local organizations seeking volunteers across diverse sectors. Here are just a few top options:
Calgary Catholic Immigration Society
The CCIS provides integral settlement services for immigrants and refugees adjusting to life in Calgary. You might fill roles like language mentoring, childminding, and administration as a volunteer. This allows you to build teaching, childcare, and clerical skills.
The Immigration Education Society (TIES)
TIES prepares refugees and vulnerable immigrants for Canadian schools through tutoring and family literacy initiatives. Volunteering as a tutor, teacher’s assistant or program coordinator lets you strengthen skills like instruction, lesson planning, and education administration.
Calgary Immigrant Women’s Association
CIWA empowers immigrant women through language development, career assistance, and violence prevention education. Volunteer roles in administration, events, language instruction, and counseling all provide a versatile professional experience.
Tips for Getting the Most out of Volunteering
To truly advance your career through volunteering, be strategic and maximize every opportunity. Here is some advice:
Volunteer Consistently
Sticking with a long-term volunteering commitment demonstrates extraordinary dedication and lets you take on more responsibility to gain experience. This gives you more material for your resume over time.
Track Your Hours
Keeping detailed records of what tasks you worked on and how many hours you volunteered to do them provides quantified achievements to add to your resume and reference letters.
Get Letters of Recommendation
Make valuable connections with organization leaders by asking them to write you customized letters of recommendation highlighting your volunteering accomplishments and positive qualities exhibited.
Update Your Resume
As you gain more volunteer experience, continually update your resume to incorporate new responsibilities, skills, and quantifiable achievements. This keeps it fresh and comprehensive.
Showcasing Your Volunteer Work to Employers
Once you have established a track record as a diligent volunteer through reputable organizations, it is time to feature those experiences prominently as you apply for jobs. Here is how to do this effectively across application materials:
Resumes and Cover Letters
In your resume, incorporate significant volunteer roles like paid work experience in reverse chronological order. Emphasize transferable responsibilities and skills gained. Highlight quantified impact on your cover letter, like hours contributed, people helped, etc.
Interviews
Draw on examples of challenges faced and initiatives spearheaded as a volunteer when answering behavioral interview questions about prior experiences demonstrating essential qualities employers seek.
Professional Networking
Cite relevant volunteering when introducing yourself to professional contacts to establish common ground if they are involved in related causes or organizations. Help them associate your experience with your capabilities.
Job Applications
Some applications specifically request details regarding community involvement or volunteering. Thoroughly fill these sections referencing organizations, responsibilities, and skills aligned with the role.
Making a Difference While Advancing Your Career
Volunteering offers an advantageous way to support meaningful causes in your community while gaining valuable professional experience to impress hiring managers. Strategically selecting volunteer opportunities that align with your capabilities and career goals allows you to demonstrate your expanding skill set while making a positive difference. Tracking your achievements and then actively featuring them as you network and apply for jobs ensures employers fully appreciate the relevance of those accomplishments. By showcasing your volunteer work thoughtfully across all application materials and interactions, you can open up exciting doors to new career opportunities that fully leverage your capabilities and passions.