You’ve spent hours working at the local soup kitchen or perfecting your cello technique. Now that you’re searching for a job, you’re wondering if you can capitalize on these interests. In most cases, effectively listing volunteer and hobby activities on a resume is a matter of correctly wording and classifying your experiences.
Think carefully about your resume headings. Many people fall into the habit of listing work experience and volunteer experience as separate headings, with the volunteer experience falling to the bottom of the resume. Think of headings that would be more appropriate for the career you’re seeking. If you’re going into teaching, create a category of educational experience where you can place tutoring or mentoring alongside paying teaching jobs. If you’re going into accounting, creating an accounting experience section on your resume will allow for your time working on taxes for low-income seniors to be listed prominently while perhaps leaving out an unrelated part-time job. Thinking of your resume in this way will highlight your most relevant experiences and allow volunteering and hobbies to shine.
Never say volunteer or member when there is a specific job title you could use. Did you accomplish secretarial tasks? Then say you worked as an administrative assistant. Did you create an organization’s newsletters? Then play up your time as a desktop publisher. Don’t sell your experience short, but at the same time be honest about the extent of your work. If you called a business once to ask for a program ad, it’s not really fair to call yourself an advertising coordinator. If you built a lopsided shelf in your basement last week, you shouldn’t tout your carpentry skills.
Use details whenever possible. Contrast the power of saying, “Planned a fundraiser” with “Coordinated 35 volunteers to plan a fundraising event that drew 4,500 attendees and raised $30,000.” Would you rather hire someone who was a “member of the stamp collecting club” or someone who “served as president of a 40-member stamp collecting club, planning a statewide stamp exhibition?” Think back on all of the things you’ve accomplished and select the tasks and skills that will be most relevant to the job you’re currently seeking.
Another place where you can highlight volunteering and hobbies is in listings of skills. If considering them separately as work or industry-specific experience doesn’t seem appropriate, create a section on your resume where you list relevant skills. Computer program proficiency, leadership abilities, languages you speak, and communication skills are all possibilities. Again, consider the skills that will be most important to your potential employers.
In order to easily write your resume in the future, keep careful records while volunteering or doing hobby-related work. Create a notebook or spreadsheet record of specific tasks you accomplish, contact information and perhaps even reflections on your work. Ask for evaluations or letters of reference from your supervisors when appropriate. Keep samples of work that you accomplish such as newsletters or promotional materials. While providing concrete evidence to jog your memory when resume writing, these items will also help you build an impressive portfolio to carry along on the job search.
In the end, properly listing your volunteer and hobby experience will help you make the best presentation possible to any potential employer.
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