LinkedIn Adds Volunteer Experience, Why It’s Great for Your Career
LinkedIn, the social network for business professionals and recruiters, added a “Volunteer Experience & Causes” section to users’ profiles. The new section lets users showcase their charitable and volunteer experience. It also makes for a more complete LinkedIn profile and online resume.
Under the new section, users can give information about causes they support and their experience. First, users check off the causes they care about: anything from “Animal Welfare” to “Poverty Alleviation.” Here, users can link directly to specific organizations they support. Then, if applicable, users can enter in any volunteer work they’ve performed. This works identically to how you enter in work experience: users state what organization they volunteered for, their role, the cause it supports, the time period of when they volunteered, and a description of their activities.
This section is a great addition to the site, and maybe long overdue. Volunteer opportunities are an excellent, low-risk way to gain valuable experience that can help in any career. Few people actually report volunteer information on their resume, but it can be just what they need to help them win out over other job candidates. Volunteering can, not only, make you and others feel good, but it can also be beneficial for your career. Here are a few reasons:
Find your true passion
Today it’s very hard to land a paid job, so when you find one you want to make sure it’s one you enjoy. Volunteering lets you test the waters and find a position that fits your passion while also helping you learn a variety of new skills.
Build your resume
While LinkedIn is becoming somewhat of a necessity in the working world, younger people, especially recent graduates, might not have an adequate amount of employment experience to create a positive impression or impressive resume. Volunteering is a great way to help these people build their resumes and demonstrate their capabilities, and now they can showcase this in the “Volunteer Experience & Causes” section. By not including volunteer experience in resumes, you could end up leaving out crucial experience that could help you find employment.
It’s all about connections
It’s no secret that the network of people you know will often help you find new job opportunities or can help with promotions. The relationships you build during volunteering are invaluable and can provide excellent referrals and recommendations of your character.
August Drilling, from CliqStudios.com, the online supplier of discount kitchen cabinets, and is a blogger who loves apple and social media. You can follow him on Twitter @ardrilling for odd wisdom.
This article is really the one that I needed. I really learned a lot by reading the whole content. Thanks for this.
Hi there. Thanks for sharing this. Very interesting. I haven’t know much yet about LinkedIn.
Coo, I’m going to go and edit my profile now to reflect my experience! I volunteered in a hostpital for over a year and in soup kitchens every now and then. Good on them for helping people benefit from their volunteer experience.