Volunteering Can Lead to Unexpected Career Opportunities
By Yaffa Klugerman
September 26, 2011
Last year, Stephen Anfield had a steady part-time public relations job in Washington, DC, but his heart was leading him elsewhere: Shaken by the death of his grandmother from a rare disease, he resolved to help out older Americans. He decided that his future was with AARP--and so he began to volunteer there.
"It was the first time I experienced what it's like to have a grandparent whose health was slowly deteriorating," explains Anfield, 30. "It hurt me to see someone who did so much for me suffering so much. I wanted to do what I could to help older Americans obtain the necessary care they deserve."
After several months of juggling his part-time job with volunteering for AARP's Create the Good campaign, Anfield was offered two contracted paid positions--one at AARP and one at the AARP Foundation. He accepted both and eventually connected with the nonprofit think tank Civic Ventures/Encore Careers. Today, he works there full-time as their communications associate/online community manager, where he helps older adults find career paths.
Anfield acknowledges that volunteering paved the path to his career. "Volunteering certainly is a great way to set yourself apart from the rest of the pack," he says.
The Value of Volunteer Experience
Despite difficult economic times, volunteering has increased dramatically in the past few years. A study released by the Corporation for National and Community Service found that the number of Americans volunteering in their communities increased by 1.6 million in 2009--the largest increase in six years. All together, 63.4 million Americans volunteered for charitable causes that year, providing more than 8.1 billion hours of volunteer service worth about $169 billion.
With all that volunteering going on, it's no wonder that such experience is increasingly being recognized as valuable, and particularly in this difficult job environment. In a recent survey of nearly 2,000 professionals conducted by LinkedIn.com, 41 percent said they consider volunteer work equally as valuable as paid work experience when evaluating job candidates. In addition, 20 percent of the hiring managers surveyed said they had made a hiring decision based on a candidate's volunteer work experience.
But LinkedIn's survey also found that evidently not all professionals regard volunteer experience as "real" work experience: Eighty-nine percent of respondents said they had personally volunteered, but only 45 percent included their volunteer experience on their resumes.
That's a mistake, says Nicole Williams, author of the book "Girl on Top" and connection director at LinkedIn. "Hiring managers are assessing hundreds of equally qualified candidates," she points out, "and it's often volunteer experience that ends up differentiating the person who gets the job when it becomes a tight race."
To help people better utilize their volunteer experience, LinkedIn recently introduced a "Volunteer Experience & Causes" field to LinkedIn profiles, where members can opt to list causes and organizations they support as well as volunteer positions. Williams says that including such information is crucial given today's competitive job market.
She expects volunteer experience to carry even more weight with hiring managers in the future. "I do think this is a new trend," she says, "and will continue to grow as both hiring managers and individual volunteers see not only the merit of supporting a cause they believe in, but the opportunity to be exposed to really challenging, career-developing tasks."
Creating New Career Paths
Jeremy Rivera, 28, wasn't planning on a technology career when he volunteered for a computer training program that taught introductory level computer skills to the unemployed. At the time, he was 18, attending Riverside Community College in southern California, and saw the volunteering as an opportunity to help others with the computer skills he had acquired in school. Rivera eventually applied for a customer support position with Homes.com, and his volunteering experience helped him land the job.
"I listed the experience on my resume," he says, "and it really was something that got their attention and helped me land that entry level job. The hiring manager was impressed by the skill set that the volunteer environment gave me in communicating complex technology in simple and understandable terms."
Rivera has since been promoted several times, and is now employed as the company's search engine marketing manager. It's a job that he never expected; originally, he planned on pursuing a career in linguistics. Nevertheless, he says, "I am truly satisfied with my career path."
Others have also found that volunteering often opens doors to new and unexpected career paths. Cher Hale, 20, originally had planned on a career in the business sector, but changed her mind after she began volunteering for the Las Vegas-based nonprofit Hero School, an organization that assists the homeless and unemployed. After several months of volunteering, Hale was offered the position of social media director. She has been working there since May and is now a full-time employee.
"After working for a nonprofit and finding out how much I appreciated the sector, I decided that I would work my hardest to help Hero School grow into a national brand," she says. "I plan to stay with the organization to watch it grow to a point where it is creating scalable change in the United States."
Anfield agrees that volunteering has led him in unexpected directions. "My career path is anything but normal, and I wouldn't have it any other way," he says. "I feel that my work is truly making a difference."
