How to Leverage Volunteer Experience in your Resume
Volunteer work is an important contribution to a job candidate's overall qualifications. In fact, a person’s volunteer experience may set him or her apart from the other candidates and secure a job offer.
Highlighting volunteer work on your resume does one of two things: it strengthens your job experience because it’s similar to your professional background or it makes you appear more well rounded because it is different from your professional background. Regardless of how your volunteer experience meshes with your professional life, there are several ways to leverage volunteer hours on your resume.
- Create a separate section for volunteer work. If you have done extensive volunteer work for a number of organizations or you simply want to call attention to one particular assignment, you may want to make your volunteer work stand out with its own section on your resume. Prospective employers will be able to quickly differentiate your professional background versus your volunteer pursuits.
- Integrate volunteer work with your professional background. Merging your volunteer experience with your professional background into one section of your resume can have a lot of impact. If you prefer this approach, you will need to clearly state which assignments were paid and which were volunteer. The last thing you want to do is misrepresent yourself and leave the employer with a false impression of your background.
- Describe your volunteer work using qualitative language. Similar to the professional experience portion of your resume, describe your success in volunteer pursuits using numbers and other metrics. For example, instead of “Greeted visitors at a theater opening” your resume can state “Managed greeting responsibilities for premiere showing with over 1000 guests”.
- Provide references. Employers are impressed when candidates provide references for their volunteer pursuits, particularly if the reference is a director or manager. The employer may be a donor to the particular organization you volunteer for or may know the manager you report to on a personal level. Don’t list the name and number of the volunteer organization’s executive staff unless the executives are familiar with you and your volunteer responsibilities.
Most employers want to hire candidates who are involved in their community, thus it is important to call out our volunteer experience as clearly as possible in your resume. Be prepared to answer questions about your volunteer experience and resist the temptation to exaggerate your duties. The employer could very well call the organization to ask about you so it’s best to be honest about your responsibilities and tenure.
