Campaign to include volunteering in your experience section on LinkedIn :)

No 'social media' is perfect, but LinkedIn is, on the whole, a fantastic virtual place. I like LinkedIn. This newsletter, for example, connects us with a unique audience that we wouldn't gain on other social media platforms.

A core part of our mission at The Shining Light Project is to help people make meaningful contributions to their community through volunteering. Any person who regularly volunteers will cite that it enriches their life by bringing a greater sense of purpose and meaning. In most cases, it also supports the development of new skills.

This is why we think it is disappointing that there is a separate section for volunteering in the LinkedIn profile settings.

It relegates those experiences to the bottom of your profile and, by default of the hierarchy, says it's less important.

We make the case that volunteering is no less important than our formal paid employment. It's even more interesting in some ways as it shows a broader insight into your character, purpose, and other experiences. Demoting this experience makes volunteering a footnote. Let's change that!

The simple action we encourage is for you to list your volunteering experiences in your experience section alongside your paid employment (you can see how I do it in my profile).

Listing those experiences will help establish volunteering as important as our paid employment and, who knows, maybe even inspire others to volunteer.

Thanks for reading, have a great day, and take care.

Benjamin

I'd like to welcome the twenty-one new subscribers from the last couple of weeks. We are so grateful to have you with us. If you enjoyed this article, please feel free to like and share it with others. If you'd like to learn more about our work at The Shining Light Project, please visit our website and join our mission to get the whole world volunteering!