Career Development | Mentoring | Social Networking

For those still in college who are considering nonprofit work, volunteering now with a nonprofit and learning what skills it requires for employment can help students to tailor a course of study. According to Roos, “An overlooked benefit of working with a nonprofit is that often your co-workers will have a high level of education, including college and graduate-level degrees. Many nonprofit positions require these higher levels of learning to fulfill mandatory certification requirements.”

Volunteering with a nonprofit organization also can be beneficial for young job seekers who don’t have much valuable work experience. Even though the work is unpaid, it teaches them new skills that they can include on a resume and also demonstrates to potential employers that they have a work ethic. In addition, should a paid position open up at that organization, hard-working and reliable volunteers already have a foot in the door.

“When a person comes to a nonprofit and offers to provide some valued service for free, it is a powerful indicator of that person’s commitment to helping others and fulfilling a mission. That is precisely the characteristic most nonprofit executives are looking for,” says Roos.