For many students, landing your very first job is the most difficult step of all. After all, many employers these days require at least a year or two of relevant work experience from applicants - but what’s a student to do when they need to get a job to get that experience in the first place?!
If you’ve been sending out job application after job application and getting nothing back, there is a solution that can offer huge benefits to your career progression: volunteering.
Volunteering doesn’t pay, but it does offer invaluable experience that employers will look favourably on. Below, we’ve covered some of the key benefits volunteering can offer and why.Gain Experience In A Competitive FieldVolunteering can help you gain invaluable experience in a competitive field that you may have difficulty breaking into otherwise. The unfortunate reality for students these days is that finding paid work in competitive fields is getting harder and harder.
If it’s an option for you, volunteering for something related to that field can be a really useful way of gaining the experience employer’s may be looking for and getting a headstart over other applicants.A Good Extra-Curricular Activity For Your Resume
For many students, the ‘work experience’ section of your CV can look relatively sparse if you haven’t had a job before, which recruiters won’t always look favourable on. Volunteering is a great solution to bulk this section up without feeling the need to embellish or - much worse - lie!
Not only does having extra-curricular activities look desirable on your CV to future employers, but it can also work in your favour for university and college applications alongside your educational qualifications and achievements. For some ideas on effective layouts for your resume, this guide has some good examples.Opportunities To NetworkVolunteering provides the opportunity to meet and connect with people that you might not come into contact with ordinarily. These contacts can be extremely helpful for future career opportunities, whether someone has a job vacancy or knows someone who is hiring, or can simply provide a fantastic reference to your future employer.
Volunteering tends to be a fairly low-stress and friendly environment, with less of the intimidating hierarchy than a workplace that can make it difficult to network. For this reason, volunteering can provide the ideal opportunity to meet people and possibly even create a gateway into paid employment so take the chance to network and connect with all different kinds of people while you can.Can Help You Clarify Your Ideal Career DirectionAre you not completely sure what you want to do with your career in the future? When you haven’t been in the job market for long, it can be difficult to envision what you’d really like to specialise in.
Volunteering can be a fantastic way of almost sampling different skills and specialisms, and gaining a better understanding of where your skill-set really shines. Volunteering can show you, for example, whether you would prefer a front-facing job where you can interact with the public, or if you would rather work online. That’s just two examples: there are thousands of different volunteering opportunities out there, and even more careers that you could start your journey towards from there.Hone And Refine Your SkillsFinally, volunteering provides a genuine opportunity not only to do some good, but also to work on your own skills that could be valuable assets in progressing in your career. For example, volunteering provides ample occasions to hone specific skills you would like to improve, especially if you look for a voluntary role in the field you are interested in gaining more experience in.
As well as providing the chance to improve your technical skills, volunteering is also a perfect way to improve your people skills, something all employers want! The ideal candidate is not only someone who ticks all the right boxes - they also need to fit well into the existing team. Many recruiters look extremely favourably on people who have developed these skills through a volunteering role.How To Get Involved In Volunteering?If you’re thinking of getting into volunteering, one of your first steps should be thinking carefully about what type of volunteering role would benefit your ideal career.
For example, if you would like to go into a computer science field, finding a volunteering opportunity that allows you to gain experience in programming could be a great option that will be seen as extremely valuable to future employers. Once you’ve got a good idea of the type of volunteering you would like to do, get your name out there and don’t be afraid to ask family and friends for referrals. See more tips on how to volunteer here.
Volunteering is an extremely worthy way to use your time: it does good for the community, as well as offer you an invaluable opportunity to hone your skills, network with new people, and give you a huge boost when applying for new jobs. If you’re trying to improve your resume and gain experience, this is a great option!
