You’re preparing for a job interview. How can you showcase your budgeting experience in the best way?

1 Know the basics

Before the interview, make sure you review the basic concepts and terminology of budgeting, such as income, expenses, variance, forecast, and contingency. You don't have to be an expert accountant, but you should be able to explain how you use these concepts in your volunteer management work. For example, you can describe how you estimate the income and expenses of a volunteer event, how you track the variance between the actual and planned budget, how you adjust your forecast based on changing circumstances, and how you set aside a contingency fund for unexpected costs.

2 Use examples and numbers

The best way to showcase your budgeting experience is to use specific examples and numbers from your previous or current volunteer management roles. Think of situations where you had to create, manage, or report on a budget for a volunteer project or program. How did you develop the budget? What tools or methods did you use? How did you communicate the budget to your stakeholders? How did you ensure the budget was aligned with the goals and objectives of the project or program? How did you deal with any challenges or issues that arose? How did you measure and evaluate the budget performance? Try to quantify your achievements and results with numbers, such as the amount of money you saved, raised, or allocated, the percentage of variance or accuracy, or the number of volunteers or beneficiaries involved.

4 Prepare for questions and scenarios

Finally, be ready to answer any questions or scenarios that the interviewer might ask you about budgeting. Some common questions are: What are the main challenges or risks of budgeting for volunteer projects or programs? How do you ensure that your budget is realistic and feasible? How do you handle budget changes or deviations? How do you cope with limited or uncertain funding sources? How do you allocate the budget among different activities or resources? How do you balance the quality and quantity of volunteer services within the budget constraints? How do you report and present the budget results and impacts to your stakeholders? To answer these questions or scenarios, use the STAR method: describe the Situation, explain the Task, outline the Action, and summarize the Result.