Why Volunteering Is Important In Getting Your First Job

By Brandon Grondwrint on October 23, 2017 - Fact checked by Dumb Little Man

by Brandon Grondwrint October 23, 2017

If you are a college graduate and still don’t have enough experience, volunteering can be a great start for your future career. It can show your strongest sides and develop your skills. These may be useful depending on the field of work you want to be in.

Just spend some time analyzing your interests, hobbies, and previous experience to select the most interesting area. After that, you can go ahead, make new connections and discover all the benefits the volunteering world has to offer!

Benefits of Volunteering

If you are still doubtful whether volunteering can actually help you to promote yourself, here are the three main reasons why you should definitely give some free time to non-profit organizations and devote yourself to a bigger cause:

It will show your interests. It is quite easy to get lost in a boring and academic resume, providing brief information on your college achievements. Volunteering experience may add colors to your CV and make your individuality much brighter.
Present yourself in the best way. You will be able to show your strongest sides and concentrate on the key features, which will help you stand out from the rest.
It will help you to promote your soft and hard skills. It is not surprising that volunteering work is so popular as it allows students to gain and develop transferable skills applicable to any career. Such skills include teamwork, leadership, and much more.

However, if you still don’t have volunteering experience, you can always contact your local student organizations or various volunteering websites to choose a project. Usually, such companies are always searching for volunteers, so you will easily find a project that will fit your tastes and preferences.

See Also: The Power of Volunteering

Spheres to Choose from

Before you apply for any volunteering project, you need to make sure you know what area to choose. Try to make a list of things that interest you the most and imagine yourself being a part of such a project. You can also contact local organizations or volunteers to find out more about the activities they perform.

If you still don’t know what area to choose, try to answer the following questions:

Do you like working with children? If you love children and want to become a teacher one day, it will be a great option to work in a camp, various church or school groups and so on. It will show your potential employer that you are well-organized and can engage a large group of people.
Do you like movies? Then you can assist with various tasks behind cameras and work on behind-the-scenes projects.
Do you like working with animals? There are always many stray animals and organizations which require help and attention. You can contact zoos, shelters or clinics to offer your help. It may be a bit messy, so you need to be ready to get your hands dirty.

Do you want to learn more about medicine? If you like helping others and are compassionate enough, there is always a huge number of projects which help ill and elderly people. You can play various games or simply talk to them, feed and do simple tasks at hospitals.

Useful Tips

If you are planning to do volunteering work, there are a few tips which may greatly help you to achieve all of your goals and obtain your first job:

Stay tuned. It is important to build relationships and stay connected with people even if you leave the project. The whole point of volunteering is creating networks and engaging everyone to achieve bigger goals. Don’t neglect personal meetings, phone calls, various events and lectures to exchange experience and make useful contacts.
Learn more about the company. It is always important to possess as much information as possible to be able to understand the goals and missions of the organization. That is why you need to spend some time researching and analyzing information before having your first interview. It will be useful to learn about the organizational structure and the culture of the company.
Be passionate. If you want to do volunteering simply to attract attention and get your first job, you will most likely fail. Be sincere and find a project which will get you involved.
Think about the skills you can use. If you find your place, it will be much easier to move along the career ladder and show your potential to the fullest. Spend some time to make a list of things you can do better than others and choose a sphere that can reveal your strongest sides.

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Author: Brandon Grondwrint

Marketing specialist, account manager at ResumesArea, who provides graduates and those, who want to change career, with useful information on volunteering and recruiting.count manager at ResumesArea.