3 Ways Volunteer Work Improves Your Career
Volunteering may help you advance your career in addition to the obvious advantages of helping out in the community and making a difference in people’s lives.
If you haven’t made any progress on your New Year’s Resolution to be promoted, it may be time to explore volunteering.
Understandably, you may be opposed to the concept.
With the demands of working for a prominent firm and being competitive in Singapore’s fast-paced economy, volunteering your time for free may seem to be a luxury you cannot afford.
Volunteering, on the other hand, is an often-overlooked job progression technique. Here’s how volunteering may help you advance in your job.
Improves networking abilities and broadens your career network
Building and sustaining professional connections have been shown in studies to lead to greater career chances, wider expertise, and quicker job development.
As a result, honing your networking abilities should be a top priority if you want to advance in your job.
This is where volunteering comes in–it provides you with the ideal chance to practise and improve your talents. Because most volunteer activities take place in a pleasant, non-threatening setting, making a mistake is usually less distressing.
The more you practise, like with other talents, the better you will get.
More importantly, volunteering is a natural method to meet new people. It demonstrates that business networking does not have to be uncomfortable or forced.
Volunteering gives you direct access to new connections while also allowing you to engage on a real-life project side by side. These people are often more than simply acquaintances.
They may serve as mentors and, in certain situations, provide leads for new jobs. Furthermore, unlike typical networking, volunteering allows you to be exposed to sectors and persons you would not otherwise have access to.
This one-of-a-kind advantage might be helpful in achieving your own business objectives, particularly if you’re venturing outside of your present field.
Assists you in learning new and useful skills
If you’ve been looking for a new job but lack the necessary abilities, you might learn them by volunteering. Nonprofits are often operated in a manner similar to corporate companies, with the exception of the finance component.
Human resources, finance, and marketing and communications are examples of comparable operational sectors where you may gain new and useful skills. Many NGOs would be delighted to have you onboard, since they are often understaffed and under-resourced.
You will not be compensated for your efforts, but the new talents you learn will be yours to retain. Most importantly, you will get hands-on experience, which will enable you to learn even quicker.
Finally, when it comes to asking for increased employment duties, volunteering may enhance your case – particularly if you can quantify the effect you made via volunteering.
Enhances mental health and self-esteem
Volunteering also allows you to do good for others and the community, which gives you a natural feeling of success. Your volunteer work may provide you with a feeling of pride, identity, and purpose.
Volunteering may also prevent or minimise depression since it puts you in frequent touch with people and helps you create a strong support system. Volunteering may also help to counteract burnout from your day-to-day employment, which is typically connected with negative health impacts such as anxiety and sleeplessness.
Volunteering may help you grow your network, develop your knowledge, and improve your abilities, as well as build your confidence. Surprisingly, research indicates that self-confidence is an important predictor of job success.
People who are more confident are more aggressive, try new things, and communicate more effectively – all of which are characteristics of a productive, useful employee.
Always choose a subject that you are passionate about.
Volunteering has several career-development advantages. However, these advantages may take some time to materialise. To get the benefits, like with everything, you must work at it for a time.
So, to avoid burnout from contributing, always choose a subject that you are passionate about. After all, there are several possibilities accessible, ranging from assisting the destitute to the handicapped to animals.
Finally, volunteering provides an excellent chance to develop personally and professionally while also gaining new skills.
Even if you volunteer only to try out a new experience, you may be able to alleviate the stress of office burnout and improve your day-to-day life.
