It’s
important to use your volunteer efforts and experience to your best advantage.
Volunteer experience can be a benefit to job seekers. This is especially true
for students, recent graduates and other job seekers who lack professional
experience in the desired field. Although volunteer service isn't considered
equivalent to employment, it does help build your résumé. AmeriCorps says that
volunteer service shows your ability to handle tough tasks and commitment to
seeing things through. Thoughtful and creative presentation of volunteer
experience on your résumé can bolster your qualifications, catching the eye of
potential employers.
Instructions
1.
Gather details about your volunteer work, including the skills, values and
experience you gained, as well as the association / organization name,
location, contact information and project type.
2.
Detail your volunteer work. Think about what you actually accomplished as a
volunteer. List the specific activities and tasks you were responsible for and
write a concise description for each activity. Use action verbs to begin each
description.
3.
Name the volunteer position you held if one wasn't provided for you by the
organization. Simply listing "volunteer" isn't specific enough to
stand out on a résumé. Use the title to describe your role. For example, if you
helped plant and weed flowerbeds, "volunteer gardening assistant" is
a descriptive title that stands out more than the generic "volunteer"
title. Specify that you volunteered your time in the position description.
4.
Show how your volunteer experience correlates with the desired position. This
determines where on your résumé you'll need to include your volunteer work.
Divide volunteer experience into two basic categories: volunteer work in a
similar profession or position that mirrors the job you're seeking and
volunteer work in a different field or position.
5.
Organize volunteer information in order of relevancy along with other work
experience items in your résumé. List more relevant items first. You may choose
not to include all volunteer experience. Unless you want to demonstrate
long-term commitment to an organization, don't include volunteer work that
doesn't relate to the position you're seeking.
6.
Format the sections of your résumé to include volunteer experience.
a. Highlight the strong relationship between
your volunteer work and the targeted profession or position.
b. List volunteer work in a related
profession or position with previous work experience. Name this section
"Relevant Experience" instead of "Relevant Work Experience"
to accurately represent the information included in the section. Even if the
volunteer position isn't relevant to the position, promote that you've
developed valuable skills and exposure as a volunteer.
c. If the volunteer work was in a different
profession, but you developed skills relevant to the position, include a
section titled "Community"or "Extracurricular Activities" if you are a student.
Thanks
to Eileen Pfefferle for this material.
