Demonstrating the value of volunteering experience is particularly important for recent graduates with limited experience in the workplace, and for volunteers who may have taken several months off from work. 

Adding a description of your volunteer experience to your resume will help complete the timeline of your education and work. It also shows that you have real-world experience, and that your time off wasn’t just for fun.

If your volunteer work is closely related to the job you’re applying for or was a longer internship where you gained specific skills, you can list it the same as you would a job – just make it clear that you held a voluntary role.

Add the details of your volunteering under the professional experience section of your CV. Give your experience a title, and date range. Describe your role in the program and your main contributions or achievements.

Ideally, you should tailor each job application to the role you are applying for. So, put some thought into how your volunteer experience relates to the specific role. If you have space, then list the relevant skills used or developed while volunteering.

For example, will cross-cultural communication skills be necessary? Then make sure you describe how you volunteered as part of an international team.

Volunteer time makes you feel like you have more time.
Wharton Professor Cassie Mogilner wrote in the Harvard Business Journal that her research showed that volunteers spend their time and feel they have more time. This is similar to other studies showing that philanthropists feel richer.

"The results show that spending time with others can make you feel 'richer in time' and less limited than wasting your time, '' says Mogliner. or even free time. "

Volunteer for your skills, helping you develop new skills.
In my experience volunteering based on basic skills is a great opportunity to develop your competencies to help you advance in your career. In fact, an article in the Stanford Journal of Social Innovation called skill-based volunteering abroad the "next practical training platform".

At MovingWorlds, we find that skills development in the engineering and leadership-related fields is the main reason companies invest in skills-based international volunteer programs.

Volunteer for your body, helping you to have a healthier body.
A report by the Corporation for National & Community Service noted: “Research demonstrates that volunteering leads to better health… volunteers have lower mortality, higher ability to function and Depression rates are lower in life compared to those who do not volunteer. "

The fact that volunteering has been shown to make you healthier is enough reason to participate in volunteering.

Volunteer for experience, help build your experience.
We always see this with highly skilled professionals such as banking investors and business advisors. In addition, volunteering in a new industry will give you the knowledge to help you switch areas. And if you want to move from the corporate world to the nonprofit sector, volunteering can first help demonstrate your commitment.

In addition to our own research, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Next Avenue publish articles on how volunteering can help you get your next job.

As the Journal wrote: “According to a survey of 202 human resources executives, skilled volunteering - such as helping a nonprofit with its finances - makes job applicants look better. more attractive to be hired as a manager. ”

Volunteer for your love, make you feel more in love.
Admittedly, love is a difficult thing to measure. But when researchers at the London School of Economics examined the relationship between volunteering and measuring happiness, they found that the more people who volunteered were happier. Volunteering builds empathy, strengthens social bonds, and makes you smile - all of these factors increase feelings of love.