7 Ways Volunteering Can Enhance Your Career

Discover How Volunteering can Boost Your Career

1. Learn new skills. Volunteering can help you put new tools into your toolbox. Gain new job skills and gain valuable experience in areas that are outside your core competencies while volunteering for a good cause. Looking for opportunities to learn new and valuable skills shows initiative. It creates a habit that will push you to obtain higher levels of personal excellence. Utsab Saha volunteered his way into his dream job. Mr. Saha became a Lecturer of Computer Science at California State University without the requirement of having a masters degree due to the extensive experience he gained volunteering. Through his two years of volunteer work he developed his skill sets, credibility and a documented body of evidence that demonstrated his work experience.
2. Expand your professional network. Non-profit organizations usually attract the cream of the crop. By volunteering you can meet people you normally would not have access to. It may also help you become noticed by very influential people that can change the course of your life. For example, a single mom, living paycheck to pay check, volunteering with police officers eventually started her own private detective business working for high powered attorneys. She got the idea and contacts from the friendships she developed while volunteering.
3. Volunteering helps you become more relatable and project confidence. By working with new industries and people you would not normally meet, you can expand your ability to relate to others. As a result of your additional experience volunteering, you will be viewed more favorable by others and gain additional moral authority. Volunteering makes people more likable and authentic. It adds a human dimension to your professional demeanor. Dwayne The Rock Johnson is a great example of how you can give back and propel your career at the same time. The Hollywood blockbuster and social media darling is famous for being a good Samaritan and volunteer his time for a lot of different worthy causes. This is only one of the reasons his fans love him.
4. Gain social capital. Most people do not take into account the value of social capital because they are too focused on economic capital. Most wealthy people are willing to trade their economic capital to gain social capital because it helps them be accepted as respectable members of their circle of friends. You can improve the quality of your life and be a person of high social value by doing something to help make this world a better place. You can leverage your high social value to advocate for the less fortunate and bring about positive social impact. You may be able to Lead a passionate group of people that share your vision for social change. Martin Luther King Jr. is an example of someone that gained tremendous social capital and used his high social value to advance a worthy cause.
5. Build your resume. Volunteering makes you look good on multiple levels. It helps you stand out as leader and a person of good moral character. If you are between jobs you will be viewed as proactive if you use that time to give back. Trying new things with new people is a great way to challenge yourself. Purposefully challenge yourself to create social impact. It will bring greater meaning to your existence and make a great story to share with others. For example, Freddy Mercury and his band Queen volunteered at the Live Aid Fundraiser concert and stole the show. They performed alongside legends of music. Freddy Mercury's volunteer performance at this iconic event will be remember for many generations to come.
6. Apply your current skills in new ways. Most people associate creativity with being an artist like a poet, writer or a painter but, the fact is that almost all professions can implement creativity with their current skill sets. Creativity means being able to solve problems and add value in new ways. "Thinking outside the box" can help people accomplish breakthroughs. Volunteering may be the best platform for personal development. You can learn more by volunteering than you can be reading 100 books. Learning to sympathize with others that are very different than us can help us to sympathize with others and be a more compassionate person. Both the wife and mother of Alexander Graham Bell where deaf and he became very interested in helping them. His desire to help them turned into a new invention called the telephone. His noble cause is now The Alexander Graham Bell Association for Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

"Volunteering is the greatest platform for professional and personal development."

1. Communicate your values. People are more interested in what you believe and what you stand for than what you know or who you know. Marketing is an expression of your core values. Steve jobs for example became an icon figure of his generation not by explaining to people the way that his technology worked but rather by standing for something that mattered to people. He spoke to peoples hearts not to their heads. Steve Jobs core value was that people can change the world for better. Volunteering helps us communicate our values not only in words but also in deeds. Volunteering is a way for us to light a candle in the darkness instead of cursing the dark. It is a way that we can spread hope.