Volunteering and Your Resume

Volunteering is a great way to get involved in your community, give back to it, and be part of something bigger than yourself. However, it's easy to forget that volunteer work is important to include on your resume. While volunteering, you devote your time, learn a variety of skills, and enhance existing skills: all of which prepare you for a paid job. Employers understand this, which is why it is important to include volunteer experience on your resume.

Whether you have little work experience or are an applicant with gaps in your employment, adding volunteer experience can help build your resume and fill these gaps. You can even include volunteer jobs alongside paid jobs in your "experience" section.

Reasons

Why should you add volunteer experience to your resume? First, for those with little experience or youth job seekers, volunteering is a great way to show you have work experience outside of paid jobs. Here are a few reasons you should include volunteer work on your resume:

• It shows your work ethic.
• It shows that you have important skills like teamwork, leadership, and problem-solving.¹
• It may show you have experience with the career field. (If the type of work you did is relevant to the job you're applying for, you should definitely include it.)

With that said, here are a few items you should provide on your resume from your volunteer work:

• Skills and experiences.
• How long you have volunteered with certain organizations.
• Any leadership roles you may have held.
• Names of projects or initiatives you were part of.
• Contact info of the organizations you volunteered for.

Filling the Gaps

Gaps in employment can be challenging when you are searching for a job. Employers may spot these gaps and get suspicious. They may think that there is a problem and be discouraged from hiring you. You can fill these gaps with your service work on your resume to avoid this problem.

Here are a few ways to fill these gaps:

• You may have volunteered continually for an organization or two. In this case, you can include them under "work experience."
• Include any leadership roles or job duties you had.
• Include skills you gained.

When they see your volunteering experience, employers will not focus on your paid employment gaps. They will see that even though you were not working for pay, you were still growing as a worker. You were giving your time, skills, and experience to work with others and provide a service to your community.

Using your volunteer work can help you build a stronger resume. Fewer gaps and more experience will help draw the attention of potential employers.

Sources

^{1https://www.themuse.com/advice/the-secret-job-search-weapon-you-should-be-using}