Fresher’s Guide: 5 Tips On Including Volunteer Experience In Your Resume

The goal of writing a good resume is to effectively show employers you have the potential to be a good fit in their organisation.

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Fundamentally, you must include your professional and educational background along with soft skills and other vocational experiences that advance your job application process.

As a fresher, you may not have work experience to include in your resume, so it would be helpful to incorporate volunteer experience. This will provide information on your transferable skills and position you as a valuable resource. It may also be beneficial if you are applying to jobs in industries where such work is highly valued like non-profit organisations, or educational institutions.

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1. Include volunteer experience under the professional experience section on your resume. After you’ve included key work experiences and internships (if any), list relevant volunteer experience and format your volunteer work using the same structure you used for previously held jobs, but make sure you identify your role as “volunteer” along with any additional titles held like management or leadership positions.

2. Emphasise on the skills you gained through your volunteer experiences as well list out your duties and achievements that were part of this experience.

3. If you think your volunteer experience is irrelevant to the job you are applying for, include it in an ‘additional activities’ section at the end of your resume. Describe your responsibilities and learnings in quantifiable terms.

4. In case you have an elaborate list of volunteer experience, you may create a separate section in your resume. It will also make for an interesting talk point during your interview allowing you the chance to elaborate on what you can bring to the table.

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A lot of people will advise you to remove this piece of information from your resume but remember this is your chance to show a different side to yourself as well as reinforce the qualities and skills that render you an appealing candidate.

Apart from the skills required for any job, volunteer experience on your resume brings out highly sought-after qualities like the willingness to get involved with the community, taking initiative, working with a team towards and a common goal and the drive to make things happen. Make it crisp and to the point but certainly have it on your resume. It would be a terrible mistake to not incorporate volunteer experience on your resume when you can!

Also read: Expert Speak: Your Guide To Writing A Good Resume As A Fresher

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