If you have done any volunteer work in your lifetime, and you haven’t put it on your resume, you are missing a big opportunity. This is a great way to showcase your philanthropic personality – that you care about others and want to help or give back, and it can also close a gap in your employment history. This is particularly vital if you have been out of work for a considerable amount of time. The thinking now is that if you aren’t working, you must be sitting around and your knowledge base won’t be up to what is needed by an employer.
Through volunteerism, you can learn new skills or strengthen your current ones which could translate well to a job. It also could get you noticed for the work you are doing and could possibly get you a referral to a hirer or even getting hired by the agency. I have known countless of people in organizations that I belong to who have volunteered their time and it has led to a new job for them. If you have done volunteer work, be sure to add it and highlight if you have held any leadership positions. You can tie your volunteer work with the needed skills for positions you are applying for, all of which can show that you have been honing your skills and doing work, even if for free.
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