Professional Development & Volunteering
Not only does volunteering make you and your community better, but it can offer some real benefits to help with your professional development
Volunteering can enhance your skills, increase connections and lead to new opportunities. Here are some of the key benefits:
Networking
Volunteering that fits with your schedule can mean when you are out volunteering you have the chance to expand your network, make new friends and contacts, and develop connections with people you might otherwise never meet. By volunteering in a way that meets your needs, it supports you in putting your best foot forward and enriching connections beyond your core group of friends, family and co-workers.
Skills Development
What better way to learn, practice or promote new skills than through volunteering? Even roles which are not directly related to employment can help you practice office work, organization, interpersonal skills, adaptability, as well and any specific skills to a volunteer role.
New Perspectives
By trying new things through volunteering, you are exposed to other people's' experiences and generally more diversity than you would otherwise. With this experience comes knowledge, curiosity, and empathy for things you may have never considered before. Stretching your mind can help you stretch your career!
Personal Satisfaction
Sometimes volunteering feels like you have to be "ready" to do it, in an ideal state where our own lives need to be fully optimized before we will have the time or energy to volunteer. Self-care in volunteering is critical, however, sometimes we can find the benefit of volunteering even when things aren't quite perfect in our lives and it helps us to feel better about ourselves. Perhaps you see a critical issue in the world that is meaningful to you, and you volunteer to help work against this issue and improve your community. Never underestimate the sense of satisfaction that can come from volunteering, as it can boost your mood, confidence, and reminds you that you are taking actions to improve the world.
Others Recognize Your Impact
When you have this sense of satisfaction from taking action, others can see it - both literally in terms of how and when you volunteer, and also in your demeanor and attitude. Volunteering can distinguish you from other job candidates when it comes time for new roles and promotions, particularly if you do it with other employees from where you work. Additionally, word of mouth, social media posts, and references from your volunteer roles can demonstrate the ways you make a difference.
Leadership
Volunteering doesn't typically follow a hierarchy the way many jobs do, and often consists of different peers within the community working together, each coming from their own situation. This means that the majority of volunteering will require at least some collaboration and team work that requires a different style of cooperation than you might always find at work, strengthening those interpersonal skills. Additionally, many roles benefit when longer term volunteers take on a leader or mentor role to newer, or less frequent volunteers. Don't underestimate the power of developing leadership skills in a volunteer role where you must lead by example, not by status.
In other words - volunteering can have a positive impact on both your internal world and external possibilities!
Want to learn more? Read this article from Charity Village.
