by Jane Smith

Created on: April 10, 2008   Last Updated: July 02, 2008

Whether or not a resume is rich with professional experience, employers love to see purposeful community service activities stated within a resume. Such activities "speak" well of the applicant, as one who is an active participant within the community, reliable, caring, interested in others and in community service, and interesting.

As a teenager applying for my first job, my only real job experience had been on a volunteer basis. Carefree, young, and naive, I, gingerly, listed my schooling, including achievements, accolades, and extra-curricular activities, including all offices which I had held, followed by the simple category "Volunteer Work", within which I stated, "Gift Shop and Gift Cart - DeGraff Memorial Hospital".

I followed the statement with a brief paragraph list of the skills and activities of the job, leaving out any which would probably not be pertinent to full-time employment with a company. As such, I included Cashier, Inventory Control, Customer Service, Reconciliation, et alii, while excluding such fun and interesting facts as, "I fluffed up the bunnies on display". And I excluded reference to any tasks which I did not enjoy, such as "Dusting".

Naturally, any work for a hospital is considered, by employers, to be a worthy endeavor, inherently associating honor, compassion, and community service with the volunteer. It worked well enough that I was, easily, able to secure, as my first professional career position, a job as a Credit Analyst and Bookkeeper for Spiegel, Incorporated. Who knew?!

There are many methods of enhancing your resume with unpaid work experience while making the world a better place; volunteering for a hospital is only one. If you have served as an Usher for a theatre production, include it. A good usher is well-organized, friendly, and accurate. If politics interest you, research the Census Reports, perform analyses on the data, and write to members of Congress with your findings and recommendations. You could change the world, in so doing. If you have never worked outside of your home, do as my mother did:

My mother was a wonderful stay-at-home mother, as nearly all mothers were in the days prior to Women's Liberation. Nevertheless, in order to send my eldest brother to college, she deemed it necessary to secure a full-time position. Mainly, all that she had done, to that point, was cook, clean, entertain, educate her children, create ceramics, write, and teach Sunday School. Yet, Mother had an uncanny skill for turning a phrase. She listed all of the skills which were needed in order to properly perform the tasks which she regularly performed, then, selected the ones which could be job-related. She, then, worded the skill-set in such a manner that she was able to, readily, entice the Supervisor of a local restaurant chain to hire her. Soon, she was the Manager of the local branch, grew to become a traveling Manager, opening new restaurants on behalf of the chain, and, eventually, proudly purchased her own restaurant.

So, pen in hand, write every potential job-related task which you have ever performed and, as my mother did, select the most salient, re-write the descriptions to resume standards, and be PROUD of your accomplishments. You are worthy. And you have a great deal to offer!

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