When you think about advancing your career, what comes to mind?
Maybe it’s a promotion, an advanced degree, a professional association, a new certification or another networking event.
Here’s one possibility that may not immediately make the list: Volunteer.
Giving your time to an organization or cause you care about can obviously make a difference in your community. But it can also introduce you to people you would never otherwise meet, give you opportunities to develop skills you aren’t using in your current job and even help you discover where you want your career to go next.
The key is not to approach volunteering as another box to check on your résumé.
It’s to find a place where you can make a meaningful contribution and then pay attention to what you learn while you’re there.
Your Next Leadership Opportunity May Not Come From Your Employer
Want management experience but haven’t been given the opportunity to lead a team at work? Volunteer to chair a committee.
Want to develop your public-speaking skills? Offer to present at an event. Want budgeting experience? Help a nonprofit with a fundraiser. Interested in board service? Start by serving on a committee and learning how the organization works.
Volunteer organizations often need people who are willing to step forward and take responsibility. That can give emerging leaders a relatively low-risk environment in which to stretch themselves, try something unfamiliar and build experience they may not have access to in their current roles.
You aren’t pretending to have skills you don’t have.
You’re building them.
Meet People Outside Your Usual Circle
There’s networking.
And then there’s actually getting to know people.
Volunteering can be particularly powerful because relationships develop while you’re doing something together. Instead of walking into a ballroom, exchanging business cards and trying to devise a graceful way to explain what you do, you’re packing boxes, planning an event, mentoring someone, serving on a committee or solving a problem together.
Over time, people get to see how you work.
They learn whether you’re reliable, whether you follow through, how you solve problems, whether you listen and, perhaps most importantly, whether you’re someone other people want on their team.
That’s a much richer introduction than a LinkedIn connection request.
And because volunteers often come from different companies, industries, professions and generations, your circle can expand far beyond the people you encounter in your day job.
Use Skills Your Job Doesn’t Give You Room to Use
One of the most frustrating parts of career development is the classic problem: You need experience to get the opportunity, but you need the opportunity to get the experience.
Volunteering can sometimes break that cycle.
Perhaps you work in finance but want experience in communications. Maybe you’re in marketing but curious about fundraising. You’ve never managed a budget but would like to. You want to understand nonprofit governance, gain event-planning experience or spend more time mentoring younger professionals.
Find an organization that genuinely needs those skills and ask how you can help.
Your day job doesn’t have to be the only place where you develop professionally.
See How Other Leaders Lead
Spend enough time inside one company and its way of doing things can start to feel like the only way.
Volunteering exposes you to different leadership styles, organizational cultures and approaches to solving problems. You’ll see leaders you want to emulate, and you’ll probably encounter a few who teach you what not to do.
Both are useful.
Pay particular attention to how effective volunteer leaders motivate people who aren’t receiving a paycheck. How do they create commitment, handle disagreement, recognize contributions and keep people engaged?
When people are free to walk away, leadership matters enormously.
Test-Drive a Career Change
Maybe you’ve been wondering what it would be like to work in healthcare, education, the arts, animal welfare, economic development, environmental work or the nonprofit sector.
Volunteering can give you a window into another world without requiring you to immediately leave the one you’re in.
You’ll learn quickly whether you’re genuinely energized by the mission and the work, or whether you simply liked the idea of it.
You may discover a completely new direction.
Or you may return to your current career with renewed appreciation for it.
Either outcome gives you useful information.
Rediscover Skills You’ve Forgotten You Have
Sometimes volunteering doesn’t teach you something new.
It reminds you of something you’ve stopped using.
Maybe you’re terrific with young people. You love organizing complicated projects. You’re unexpectedly good at fundraising. You can make nervous people feel comfortable. You’re great at teaching. You thrive when you’re solving problems in real time.
Careers have a way of narrowing our professional identities. We become the CFO, attorney, account executive, physician, HR director or entrepreneur, and it becomes easy to forget that our job title doesn’t contain every skill or interest we possess.
Put yourself in a completely different environment and another part of you may show up.
Pay attention to her.
Don’t Volunteer Solely for What You Can Get
There’s an important caveat to all of this.
The people and organizations you’re serving are not props in your professional-development plan.
Choose something you actually care about. Show up when you say you will. Do the unglamorous work too. Ask what the organization needs rather than arriving with assumptions about what you can provide.
If you’re mentoring, remember that another person’s future isn’t your networking exercise. If you’re serving on a nonprofit board, understand that board service comes with real responsibilities.
The career benefits should be a byproduct of meaningful service, not the only reason you’re there.
Ironically, that’s also when volunteering tends to become most valuable.
You Don’t Need 10 Extra Hours a Week
The most common objection is predictable: I don’t have time.
Fair.
Many professional women are already balancing careers, children, partners, parents, households and more obligations than comfortably fit into a week.
So don’t automatically commit to something that requires every Saturday for the next three years.
Find the right-sized opportunity. Mentor someone once a month. Volunteer at a quarterly event. Review résumés. Serve on a short-term committee. Offer your professional expertise for a specific project. Participate in an employee volunteer day.
Start small enough that you can actually honor the commitment you’ve made.
One meaningful contribution is better than five obligations you resent.
Choose Your Opportunity Intentionally
Before saying yes, think about whether you genuinely care about the mission and what the organization actually needs. Consider what you can contribute, what you might like to learn and whether you can realistically make the commitment you’re considering.
It can also be valuable to ask whether the opportunity will introduce you to people, experiences or perspectives outside your normal world.
The sweet spot is an opportunity where your skills, curiosity and values intersect with a genuine community need.
That’s where service can become transformative for both sides.
Give Back. See What Comes Back.
Volunteering isn’t a guaranteed route to a promotion, a bigger paycheck or your next job.
That’s not really the point.
But something interesting can happen when you step outside your professional bubble. You meet people. You learn. You lead. You gain perspective. You discover abilities you didn’t know you had, or remember ones you’d forgotten.
And occasionally, while you’re busy helping someone else move forward, you get a clearer picture of where you want to go next.
Pink POV
The best networking may happen when you’ve forgotten you’re networking.
It’s the woman beside you stuffing gift bags who turns out to run a company you’ve always admired. The committee member who becomes a mentor. The project that reveals you’re a natural leader. The cause that makes you rethink what you want from the next chapter of your career.
So yes, volunteer because your community needs you.
But don’t be surprised if giving your time gives something back.
Sometimes the best way to expand your world is to step outside your own.
