Our whole lives, we’ve been told, “Community service is important so you can get into a good college,” or “You need to volunteer so you look more appealing to a college recruiter.” We spend lots of time in high school volunteering with the end game of getting accepted at a good college. But what happens when we get to college? Why don’t we volunteer more in college?
Resume builders beyond just another organization
If you’re like me, just about every honor society or leadership society that wants you to join their organization, advertises as being a great resume builder. Teachers ask me every semester what I am doing to build my resume. Other teachers emphasize the importance of honing communication so that you look more appealing to companies looking to hire you. With all this talk about hire ability, why don’t we ever hear anything about community service as a resume builder, while in college. When you’re in college, no one says, “Community service is important so you can get a well-paying job after college.” Unless you are a part of Greek life, it’s likely your list of volunteer activities while in college is slim to none.
Companies care!
It’s not like companies don’t care about community service though. According to a Deloitte survey, 82% of hiring managers prefer applicants with community service and 92% say that volunteer service builds leadership skills. However, only about 1 in 3 applicants list community service on their resume.
So Why Don’t We?
So, the question arises, why don’t we hear about it in college? Besides not having our parents constantly pushing us to volunteer, college students are getting their first taste of freedom and of the real world. To put it bluntly, they don’t want to. With all the new responsibilities of college, community service gets put on the back burner.
Build that Resume!
But that doesn’t mean it should. With the increasingly competitive job market anything you can do that puts you ahead of another applicant gives you a better likelihood of being hired. With all the talk in college about building your resume and getting hired, community service should be at the top of the list.
College students, if you want to get hired, start volunteering!
Source: http://fortune.com/2016/06/28/volunteer-work-resume/
