Volunteering and the Job Search

I was reading about the grand opening of the Freehold SPCA in the Long Branch-Eatontown Patch. 

While I paged through the pictures of the adorable cats and dogs I was also thinking about the staff and volunteers needed to run the new Freehold facility and the Eatontown location.

The organization certainly needs the volunteers and those volunteers appear happy doing something that they enjoy. 

The icing on the cake is that the volunteers are also gaining valuable skills that they may want to use for future employment. 

Here’s how to put a volunteering activity into your job search toolkit.

1. Transferable Job Skills - The skills that you used as an employee can be “transferred" to a volunteer organization and can keep your resume fresh. For example, if you created a newsletter at work, you may want to continue that for a volunteer group. This activity allows you to continue learning and using your skills.

2. New Skill Development – Let’s say that you never held a leadership position at your former place of employment but as a volunteer, you now find yourself responsible for accomplishing something though people or making strategic decisions. Those skills can now be listed on your resume. As a volunteer you can gather a number of valuable, interesting skills and competencies. Think facilitation, project management, event planning, data analysis, team building and others.

3. Networking - The number one way to find a job! With a volunteer activity you will be interacting with a number of other people. Those people and their contacts can become your contacts. That is a first step towards networking.

4. Possible Career Change - You may realize that you enjoy the tasks and people associated with a particular volunteer opportunity and think about a career change.

5. Community Citizen- Many organizations value service to the community and may consider this when evaluating a resume or interviewing a candidate.


Some people never consider the potential and value of volunteering. Not only are you getting out of the house and away from your immediate job concerns, but you are making a difference AND enhancing your marketability.

By the way, I'll be at the Red Bank Public Library this Wednesday, May 2, at 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm giving a free class on Resume Writing and Interviewing. You'll need to register at 732 842- 4191.  Please come by for some more job search tips.