5+1 Reasons to Take up Volunteering

#1. New skills and experience. Although volunteering is unpaid work, it helps learn new skills and gain new experience just like any other kind of work. Even if you don’t get paid, you will have a few weeks or even months of hands-on practical experience to put on your resume. Candidates who mention their volunteer work on their resumes often have higher chances to get a job because, as we’ve already said, volunteer experience is still experience. Besides, people who volunteer often have personal qualities required for certain types of jobs, which is also an asset.

#2. New friends and contacts. When you do volunteering, you have to communicate with your fellow volunteers and/or people who you are trying to help. This helps you improve your social skills and make new friends which is especially valuable when you’re out of college because as we graduate and get older, it gets harder to make new friends. If you’re interested in networking rather than making new friends, volunteering can help as well.

#3. It makes you feel good. By volunteering, you’re making a difference and giving back to your community. The mere knowledge that you’ve made someone’s life better can make you feel good. Volunteering gives a sense of purpose and accomplishment, it challenges and creates motivation, helps foster empathy and boosts your self-esteem. According to a recent study, more than half of the volunteers feel less stressed after participating in volunteer activities.

#4. It helps you stay active. Volunteers don’t wait until someone asks them to do something, they just do. Volunteering fosters proactive behavior and helps you stay active instead of just going with the flow.

#5. It helps you get to know yourself and gives a new perspective. Volunteering exposes you to situations and people which differ from your everyday life. This helps you understand your role in the community better and offers a new perspective on society and the world in general. For some people, it’s a humbling experience. For others, its a powerful self-esteem boost. In any case, volunteering changes your worldview and your life forever.

+1. Volunteering abroad helps you truly experience other cultures, offering a new perspective. Tourists observe other cultures but don’t really get immersed in them. Volunteering in a foreign country gives you an opportunity to experience a new culture from the inside like a tourist never could, makes you more open-minded and tolerant.