The One Thing That Makes You 27% More Likely to Get a Job
If you are job hunting, or just looking around for new opportunities, you have probably spent a lot of time recently tending to your LinkedIn profile. Updating your experience. Joining new groups. Building your network. Following your favorite new Influencers (hint, hint).
But what if I told you there is something else that you probably aren't doing which could dramatically increase your odds of getting a job?
It's not about getting a graduate degree, and it's not even about learning a new skill. And as for changing your perspective, you can also put those Tony Robbins CDs back in the closet.
According to the research, the smartest and most often overlooked thing you can do to get ahead in the competitive job market is to start giving back. That's right. If you want to improve your odds of getting your dream job, it is time to start volunteering.
Here are the facts.
This summer, researchers at the Corporation for National and Community Service, released new findings that tracked the relationship between volunteering and employment for a group of 70,535 respondents over a ten year period.
According to Dr. Chris Spera, CNCS's Director of Research & Evaluation and one of the authors of the report "Volunteering as a Pathway to Employment," active volunteers were 27% more likely to get a job than non-volunteers. And the relationship held stable across gender, race, ethnicity, age, location, and unemployment rate. That's a big difference.
Underlying the findings, Spera and his team believe there is a strong relationship between volunteering and the development of social and human capital -- key attributes in today's most desirable candidates.
The findings echo a recent LinkedIn survey of 2,000 professionals which found that 41% of respondents consider volunteer experience to be as important as work experience for job candidates. The survey also found that 20% of hiring managers have offered jobs based on a candidate's volunteer experience.
So what are you waiting for? Last year 64.5 million Americans volunteered. Which might sound like a lot. But it's really only a bit more than one in four of us. So until everybody else reads this and starts volunteering you'll have a leg up on 180 million people.
If you need some help getting started come visit us at volunteermatch.org. And once you've found a great place to volunteer add it to your LinkedIn profile and let the job hunting begin.
Greg Baldwin is President of VolunteerMatch the web's largest volunteer engagement network.
(photo: Flickr, Steven Depolo)
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5yLove to see some updated statistics on the impact of volunteering on recruiting/hiring activities
International Capital Markets Experience | Managing ESG Risk and Sustainability Initiatives
10yMy volunteering is now something I can't see myself not doing. Volunteering adds to self-confidence and improved synthesis/cross-pollination of ideas with interests. It is the character 'rounding out' - that learning occurs as we learn of others.
Right where I worked to be.
10yEdit, I intended to say...but for those of us who have volunteered for years as single parents, it is a different dynamic... (Phantom delete)
Right where I worked to be.
10yI don't think you realize how hard it is to volunteer on a regular basis with no income, because gas still costs money. This may work quite well if you have a husband at home to actually pay the bills, but for those of us who have volunteered for years. I am sure employers love free workers, but the minute we start giving all of our time, for free, our time becomes as valueless as the printed word. I was always a hardworking volunteer, not the one that just came in for free lunches. I also served a year though AmeriCorps and couldn't afford to devote another 'free year' because gas is so high now that the living expense stipend, I mean peanuts, all translated to gas and car repairs. I think being 22 and childless is the best way to get a job in this market, because thats who keeps getting my dream job. I remember when experience and quality actually meant something.
Student at IIT Kharagpur
10yVolunteering to me is nothing but pro active mentality to take up a responsibility.Basically in work or studies or service we are always afraid to take up a responsibility. We don't do things until it becomes absolutely necessary to do them or unless we have a large number of benefits for doing so. There is an inherent fear that we may be failing executing that responsibility,or what other might think about us if we volunteer etc. Basically We play safe rather than take a risk. And companies like dynamic people who take a risk. So Volunteering obviously increases our chance of getting a job