Here’s a “Real Simple” Message for Volunteers

That’s Real Simple as in the magazine and they are touting volunteering under their “New Work Rules” as one way to help land a job.

It begins with a reference to the LinkedIn survey that found one in five employers hired someone primarily because of her volunteer service outside the office. (Note, this led to LinkedIn adding the Volunteer Experiences & Causes field – check it out!) What makes this a valuable story to reprint and use in your volunteer recruitment is what next in the short piece. In the do’s and don’ts, the clear underlying message is that all charitable volunteering is not equal on the resume.  The most effective volunteering to highlight is your work for non-polarizing groups (associations vs. political or religious) that is substantive (managing a budget for a chapter vs. calling tree for a blood drive) and highly related to your job (association vs. PTA). On the last point, researchers have found that citing parenting-related volunteering can be a negative (personally hate that but it doesn’t mean we can’t do both!).

When you add this article the Decision To Volunteer finding that two-thirds of volunteers are looking for ways to connect volunteering to their profession, I think we’ve got the message down. Agree?

Read the whole (short) piece in Real Simple.