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Tip Sheets
Volunteer to a Better Career Path
Career dividends can be an 'involuntary' response! When you reach out to others you not only touch their lives but also your own. Their lives plus your life equal our lives, the 'we' of any society. Putting something back into society can pay enormous dividends to you in terms of your self-esteem and personal outlook.
Volunteering can be amazingly beneficial to your work life as well. Taken together your personal and work life is your career—the road you take through life. Volunteering is like roadside assistance - it eases everyone's passage through life and can take many forms.
With so many causes and issues needing to be addressed, there are many forms of volunteer work. This means you should be able to find something personally meaningful to you. And volunteering should be meaningful because volunteer work is much like regular work: it requires time, commitment and effort. If you are doing it just because it will look good on your resumé, you will find it more exhausting than fulfilling (Many interviewers can tell if you are genuine or not by the passion with which you speak about your volunteer activities).
So find something you feel strongly about and go for it. Lead with your heart and the results will be positive.
Although altruism is its own reward, this article will concern itself with the many selfish reasons to be selfless.
Expanded Network
Volunteering expands your circle of contacts and connects you with people you might never otherwise meet. This kind of sharing, the sharing of a workload that puts something back into society, typically reveals you at your best. We reach out to the people we know when faced with a problem, work-related or personal, and volunteering enlarges our network considerably.
John Donne said, "No man is an island." He said this well before the information age shrank the globe considerably. Networking—helping the people you know and accepting their help to advance mutual goals—has become a critical factor in personal and work-related success.
Enhanced Resumé and Positive Exposure
Volunteer activities enhance your professional resumé and complement your work activities. Companies are looking for evidence of character and commitment, and what better advertisement for both than your unpaid activities on behalf of your fellow members of society? (Or fellow creatures—you may wish to help animals.)
Exposure is, of course, a two-edged sword. It is positive if you believe in the cause you are working for but your efforts are just for self-aggrandizement, exposure can cut a career short. Believe in what you do—these are the volunteer activities that make a difference.
Opportunity to Learn New Skills and Attitudes
Many not-for-profit organizations are structured just like private enterprises. What better opportunity to develop new skills and attitudes than in an environment that is grateful for your presence? Nobody jumps into a new work position with all the tools they need. Volunteering allows you to acquire them in an arena that does not affect your physical needs like food and shelter or the paycheque necessary for both.
There are typically more opportunities for advancement in a charitable organization, so you can try positions on for size. And you will deal with a wide variety of people, so you can develop the transferable people skills necessary for career success. A volunteer organization is the perfect test site for the new skills and attitudes we all have to constantly develop to stay abreast of the rapid change happening in our regular workplace.
Opportunity to Find Your "True" Vocation
To find your true vocation, you need to explore many possibilities. Volunteering gives you that opportunity, with reduced risk. By volunteering, many people have found a career that gives them true fulfilment and joy.
Most people are personally connected to the cause they volunteer for. Passion is one of the most important keys for success in your career, and volunteering allows you to explore personally fulfilling ventures without sapping the material needs you have for survival.
Expanded Horizon
Volunteering expands your horizons and makes serendipitous events (unlooked-for good fortune) that can literally be career- and life-changing possible. It also gives you exposure to people with different attitudes, cultures and world-views. This exposure can help you be more responsive to co-workers, bosses, customers and clients.
This broader horizon and increased sensitivity can go a long way toward making you the generalist with specific job skills that will make you an asset to any company.
Chance to Find an "Advisory Board"
An advisory board, from a career development perspective, is a close-knit group of individuals who take a personal interest in your career path. Volunteering allows you to risk and share with like-minded individuals in an environment that may be less structured than your formal workplace. It increases the chance that you will find mentors who will take a close, personal interest in your work and life.
Excitement About Life and Work
The very best work can occasionally seem tedious. Volunteering can get you out of a rut and make you feel excited about your work and life again. Making a difference in someone else's life can invigorate and stimulate our own. The old axiom 'a change is as good as a rest' is very true. Volunteering, meeting new people in new environments for reasons other than making a profit, recharges our 'value system' and we return to our regular lives with more energy and zest.
Volunteering gets you out of yourself and into a larger arena. The strange paradox that volunteers experience is that the more you give of yourself, the more you have to give.
Give—It Won't Hurt!
Volunteering does, indeed, put the 'we' in your 'I'! If you find something that will allow you to be true to yourself while giving back to society, it will pay amazing dividends in terms of your life and your career.
Better health, better relationships, more relationships, more energy, more skills, new talents, a better self-image, a better business image—the benefits are too many to enumerate.
This article is part of the Career Digest series of resources for professional career practitioners. Copies can be ordered through the Publications website at alis.alberta.ca/careershop
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download an online copy or order the publication from the Publications website at alis.alberta.ca/careershop |
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call the Alberta Career Information Hotline at 1-800-661-3753 toll-free or 780-422-4266 in Edmonton |
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visit your local Alberta Employment and Immigration service centre. To find the centre nearest you, call the Alberta Career Information Hotline. |
Last Updated: June 20, 2006
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