There is a saying that says “First impressions matter”. The first introduction to your potential employer is through your resume and let’s face it everyone wants to dazzle their potential employer. Having volunteer work experience on your work resume is one way to go about it. In this article, we will see about ‘How To List Volunteer Work On A Resume?’.
How To List Volunteer Work On A Resume?
Volunteer work experience is a vital part of your resume where you include jobs you have done that you did voluntarily and you weren’t paid for it. The reason why I said it’s a vital part of your resume is that it gives the potential employer an idea of what you are like and makes you stand out as a job candidate. It also shows the employer that you are not a person that only works for money and that you are a caring human being. On the plus side, you can add the skills you have learned in your volunteer work to the skills needed in the chosen job. There are different methods you can use when writing a resume that can make you shine on a star-like level. There are different sections to a resume from your name, address, email, cover letter e.t.c. Today I will only be focusing on how to list your volunteer work experience and how important it is on a resume. If you don’t have volunteer work experience, what are you still doing? Get up and find the fastest one to do. As you go further into this article you will see the relevance and importance of this volunteer work experience. Don’t go anywhere.
How to Write a Resume?
First things first I will briefly summarize how to write a resume and then move to the most important topic of the day. There is something you should know resumes differ depending on the job you are applying for. There are different sections of resumes and I will briefly list them and then explain them.
Header
This section is where you will put in your name, address, email, and phone number.
Professional Objective
This is mostly a sentence that summarizes your goals and accomplishments. This sentence will state clearly why you are writing the resume and what you hope to achieve after that is the type of job you are applying for. This differs depending on the type of job you are applying for.
Qualification Summary
This section is where you will be highlighting your most significant attributes will including years of experience, technology skills, languages, and highest achievements. Note the rest of the resume will have to show evidence for all the achievements you have listed here.
Education
This section is where you would list your level of education which is from kindergarten to college. Every diploma, certificate, and degree will be shown here.
Experience
This section is where you would share your contact with specific employers that are internships, summer jobs, part-time, volunteer work, special projects, military experience, etc. All in all, the experience you have is relevant to the job you are applying for.
Reference
This section is mostly optional and can be requested by the employer. The people you use for reference should have known you for over a year and are within a condition similar to the job you are looking for and will provide the strongest endorsements.
How To List Volunteer Work Experience On Your Resume?
I will show you how to list your volunteer work experience on your resume efficiently.
1. Add your volunteer work after inputting your work experiences.
When writing your resume even if you have a very substantial amount of professional experience, I advise you to only list 5 to 6 more recent and relevant professional experiences. In situations whereby you have little to no professional experience, you should contemplate adding more volunteer jobs to your professional experience.
After inputting your professional background like your key experiences and internships etc, you are to list your relevant volunteer work experience under your professional experiences. This is an important part, you should use the same structure you used for your professional work experience for your volunteer work, the only difference is you would identify your role as a volunteer. Along with titles like leadership or management roles you played. For instance,
Kingdom Heritage Elementary School
Volunteer Reader 2018
· Taught grade 1 students in Kingdom Heritage Elementary School
· Reading and writing tutorials to the grade 1 students as a volunteer reader.
· Reading stories and presenting reading materials as a student storyteller.
2. Build a connection between your skills and your volunteer work experience.
During your volunteer work experiences if you have acquired any improved or significant skills you can list them. An Important fact, employers look through your volunteer work experiences to see the skills you acquired. Some employers or managers look through your volunteers’ work for skills that are important to them like teamwork, leadership, interpersonal skills, efficiency, customer service, etc.
3. Create a separate section just for unrelated volunteer work experiences
If there are still more volunteer work experiences that are not related to the job you are applying for, you should input them at the end of your resume as a brief volunteer section. I’m telling you that this can set you apart from other applicants. You should make the format of this section the same as the one you used in your professional work experience section, to reduce it to save space. For instance,
Our Little Hope Foundation, Medical Assistant, April 2010- June 2010 | Medi Check Organization, Receptionist, November 2015- December 2015.
Volunteer work experience might not be a compulsory part of a resume but it might be the one thing an employer uses to consider employing you. There are different types of volunteer work ranging from sanitation to orphanages or health centers. Another thing that I should tell you is that for every job you should review your resume because every job differs from the last. Well, hind my advice in this article and see you next time.
FAQs
1. Is it compulsory to have volunteer work experience?
Well it is not a compulsory thing but it is something you should consider writing when applying for a job. It increases your chances of being accepted.
2. Must the volunteer work be from a non-profit organization?
It mustn’t be from a non-profit organization but it should also be for a good cause.
3. Must the volunteer work experience be more than a month?
No, Volunteer work does not have a specific time frame, it could be for a day or a week, or a month. It depends on the volunteer work.
