Volunteers’ Week is an annual celebration of the contribution millions of people make across the UK through volunteering and this years rums form 1st to 7th June.
Many people volunteer but aside from helping to make a difference and giving something back to your community how can volunteering help your Job Search?
Volunteering is a great way to keep motivated and work in places you might not have thought about before. You could volunteer for a charity, at an event or even at a festival! It is a great way to boost your confidence as well as supporting your own wellbeing. Doing good and helping others really does boost your feeling of self worth, relieves stress and has a positive effect on mental health!
You can expand your network of personal and business contacts. Getting to know more people can really help you get connected to local businesses and even make friends with people who might be able to help you along your career path. It may be connecting you with someone else they know, giving you advice or letting you know when they hear about a job you could be perfect for.
You’ll gain new, transferable skills.
Volunteering can help you develop your skills as well as giving you an opportunity to apply your current skills in new ways and often provides useful training that will expand your skills ‘tool kit’.
It’s an opportunity for career exploration. You’ll meet a lot of different people who will more than likely share their experiences and talk about their role within the organisation in more detail. Volunteering can give you experience of working in different organisations and gives you an opportunity to explore potential areas of work you may not have previously considered and if you are looking for a more permanent role within a a business or charity you are volunteering for, you’ll get to know about any opportunities first.
You can include volunteering work experience on your CV. It’s better to have details of work experience on your CV rather than periods of time unaccounted for and shows your commitment and work ethic to a potential employer. It shows you are willing to try new things and can adapt easily as well as demonstrating your willingness to step into situations you may not be familiar with.
All in all volunteering is a positive way to support both your own development as well as others and making a big difference to organisations that rely on volunteers to make things work!
We support Naomi House and Jackspace – see their volunteering opportunities here.
