3 Quick Tips To Include Volunteer Experience In Your Resume

Is it acceptable to include your volunteer experience on your resume? Will the hiring manager even care about the time you spent building homes for the underprivileged and organizing charity walks?

I'll make this one easy for you - YES!

You should include your volunteer experience on your resume. It'll help you stand out, make you seem like a real-life, three-dimensional person. Moreover, it'll give the hiring manager a better idea of what makes you tick. Furthermore, as more companies begin to embrace social responsibility, job seekers with exposure to community involvement are more valuable.

Add your Volunteer Experience in three simple steps-

Choose the Right Format

You usually feature your most relevant work experience at the top. This means that your volunteer work experience should go towards the bottom. Don't worry too much about your volunteer work getting missed, most recruiters scan resumes and look at section headers, tenures and job titles. Thus, your volunteer work is less likely to get missed!

If your volunteer work is directly related to the job you're applying for, include your volunteer work with your paid positions. However, ensure to add the title "Volunteer"

For Eg: "Volunteer Social Media Manager"

Keep it Concise (But, Make it Count!)

There will be space constraints to this section, so make sure you add relevant content. Be selective and think about what will be most impactful to the role or company you're targetting. If you don't have a lot of room to spare, summarize your experience in a line or two. You could also add bullet points to break your experience down.

For Eg

Fundraising Volunteer | Non-Profit Organization | Mumbai | March 2017

Sourced 50K in donations in a single month through a cold calling, door knocking, and email campaign.

Note the Exceptions

One important caution - Volunteering for a certain organization may give away too much personal information than you're ready to share with your prospective employer.

It's unfair, but it's the reality. So, you may want to leave out the potentially revealing volunteer work.