Boost your CV through Volunteering

If you are volunteering then never underestimate the importance of the experience you are getting, when writing your CV and applying for work.  Your volunteering experience is just as valuable in showing your strengths and competencies as any work experience that you have had, so don't forget to shout about it.

We have put together some pointers on how you can make sure that your volunteering experience gives you the edge over other candidates for a job:

Writing Your CV

• Time Line:

Add your volunteering experience to your time line in the same way you would a paid job.  This helps to fill any gaps in the time line and shows that you have been active even when not in paid employment.  Include dates, the name of the organisation you volunteered with and describe your main role and contributions during that time.

• Key skills:

 If your time line still has significant gaps, you may choose to present your CV listing your key skills and how you have gained them.  The skills-based CV puts the focus on your skills and achievement. Show the skills you have developed and demonstrated during your volunteering which will match to the type of role you are applying for. Whether you have been volunteering in a social or support context with members of the community, or providing back office support, you  are likely to have been using valuable skills that match the key skills being sought by a new employer.

• Qualifications:

Include any qualifications or certificates that you have gained whilst you have been volunteering. For example, you may have received training in safeguarding, first aid, food and hygiene, manual handling at work, counselling etc. Any of this training could prove valuable in your new work place, depending on the role you are applying for.

• Personal Statement:

You will often be required to show, on a job application, how you match the key competencies and skills being looked for in a role. If not, you should include a statement, or covering letter, which shows this. The onus is on you to show why you are the right person for the job and you will need to focus exclusively on what is relevant to the particular job you are applying for. 

Take time to think through the experience you have had whilst volunteering and how this might show a potential employer that you have the qualities and experience they are asking for. Whether in a personal statement, or at interview time, some or all of the following may apply and be relevant:

Competences:

• Teamwork -  you may have been with other volunteers, working together to get a job done; or with employees to provide a reliable service, ensure a schedule is covered, rise to a particular challenge.
• Responsibility – perhaps your volunteering role gave you specific responsibility for one task and it was up to you to ensure that this was done well and on time
• Decision Making – perhaps you had a specific situation you can site in your volunteering experience where things didn’t quite go as expected and you had to react quickly and responsibly making decisions about how to take things forward.
• Leadership – If you have been volunteering for a while, you may have found yourself encouraging other volunteers, taking some responsibility for their induction, training, developing resources etc.  Think about where you might have shown some initiative and taken the lead in a situation.
• Problem Solving – if you have been volunteering with clients, perhaps in a mentoring capacity, you may be able to show how you have turned a particular problematic situation around, or perhaps you have been supporting in administration and found a way to improve a system which was causing delays or errors in the way customers were being served.

Experience:

• Customer Service -if you have been at the end of a support or helpline, answering phones as a volunteer, serving customers at a charity shop or in a café, these and other roles will all demonstrate your experience in customer service.
• Job Specific Experience -  Each role you apply for will be looking for someone who knows something about that specific business or service.  Naturally, it is helpful if your volunteering experience lines up with the work you are hoping to apply for.  Whether it is with animals, people of specific cultures, minority groups, finance, information technology, construction, education etc. if you take the time to find the right volunteering experience for you, then you will be able to show that you have working knowledge of the client base or product focus of your new employer.

Of course, the list is not exhaustive.  You will need to think carefully about what you have been doing and how this will show that you can do what will be required of you.  Lateral thinking is key!

• References

If you are asked for a referee from your last employment, but have not had any recent employment experience, then you will usually find that a prospective employer is happy to take a reference from someone you have volunteered for.   Do ask them first, and most will be more than happy to oblige and help you on the next stage of your life journey.

Finally, there are still ways you can use your volunteering to give you the edge in job applications.  Don’t be shy about letting prospective employers know how it has improved your confidence, fed your passion, demonstrated your drive and commitment or matured you as a person. Awareness of your personal development in these ways may be a good thing to bring up at interview, even if there is not an opportunity to add them to the CV or job application form.

Happy job hunting!