People who volunteer find it brings them a real payoff in all kinds of ways. Now new research from LinkedIn shows it could pay off in a job offer too.
One in five hiring managers surveyed by LinkedIn say they’ve chosen someone based on the candidate’s volunteer experiences, and 41 percent say they consider volunteer work equally valuable as paid experience.
“In this hyper-competitive world of work, where we all need to differentiate ourselves, volunteering not only provides you the opportunity to showcase your talents and experiences, but it also allows you to demonstrate compassion and commitment,” LinkedIn’s connections director Nicole Williams writes in a blog post announcing a new field for volunteer activities on individuals’ profiles.

I’m a big believer in the value of volunteering – to build your self-confidence, your connections, skills and to improve your world.  Here’s three tips for making the most of volunteering:

• Play to your passions.  Volunteer work can bring back a spark. It can give you a sense of adventure, engagement, meaning. And yes, it can give you a place for your passions and your causes to run free, which can keep your creativity flowing, especially if your day job seems rather drab or mundane.
• Identify the right opportunities. Especially when you’re filling in gaps in your resume or trying to develop a new path, choose your volunteer work with care.  Depending on your goals and career plans, serving on an advisory board or helping to organize a major fundraising event may make more sense than serving up soup. For more, read my Washington Post piece from a couple of years ago.
•  Place it on your resume.  Yes, you can and should add it right in alongside your paid work. Or you may highlight it in its own section. LinkedIn just introduced a new category on its profiles for causes and volunteer work.  Fill it in with your volunteer activities and give recruiters another reason to consider you.

You really can open doors as you open your heart to volunteer work. So if you haven’t taken a pro bono project yet, start one today.

More information:

Read my previous Workingkind post on volunteering your way to a new career.

Read my Glassdoor post on inching your way toward your dream job; and another on how kindness can be worthwhile to career advancement.

Check volunteer opportunities on VolunteerMatch.org, Idealist.org or a local or regional volunteer opportunities site. Individual charities also sometimes post needs on their websites.

As the first leaves show a little color, and school gets into swing, some of us may feel sad that summer is ending. Especially if we never landed a summer job this year.
If you feel disappointed you didn’t end up running roller coasters at Cedar Point or selling ice cream at your hometown shop, you could still land a job there this year.
Many summertime businesses grew their schedule, whether to maximize their investments, to serve customers or to make enough to stay in business.  Ice cream shops are selling soup and summer camps are running fall weekend retreats. The Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island plans murder mystery and “Somewhere in Time” weekends.  From the Jersey Shore to the  Grand Canyon, organizations are planning events this fall to lure visitors – and they usher in your second chance to be selected.
Even my small social enterprise, Mity Nice, has hired three people this fall, partly for the early University of Michigan home football games. We’re hoping for beautiful Indian summer days so we can sell through October.
As I add each person, I am clear that I likely will want them on my team next year. They make a little money now – and if they do a good job, next summer they have a job. Plus my time spent recruiting and training them will pay off for us both.
This holds true at many other “summertime employers” with extended seasons. Exhibit A: Cedar Point. Once a summer theme park and beach resort, the Sandusky, Ohio amusement park will stay now open Friday nights, Saturdays and Sundays through Halloween. Cedar Point hires a second crew – 800 to 1,000 strong – for fall weekends.
“We hire all the way through, almost to the last weekend,” said Leslie Bradshaw, Cedar Point’s director of general services. Grill cooks, rides people, hotel staff and others earn $7.40 to as much as $11 an hour, and in the fall, the company provides free housing to those who live more than 30 miles away. Some 500 “screamsters” are hired to work in haunted houses, scare mazes or other Halloween attractions. “We’ve hired 34 makeup artists just to dress them up,” said Bradshaw.
If you want a second chance at a summer job, here’s some advice from Bradshaw and me:
1. Show your flexibility and adaptability if you’re coming in as others are departing.  Some seasonal businesses will operate for fewer hours during the fall months. So make sure you are available to work weekends and the other key times they need help.
2. Show your smiling face. “They need to be friendly,” said Bradshaw. Customer service jobs require a clean, upbeat and helpful mindset.
3. Use volunteer work to fill in your application.  Babysitting or caring for grandma are fine. So is being team captain, committee chair or regular volunteer assignments, said Bradshaw. Highlight “contact with the public” and responsibility.
4. Help with growth. Some employers are looking for ways to expand their product line so they can thrive in cooler temperatures. If you make a great vegetable stew, maybe your boss would want it on the menu at the farm stand.
5.  Know the employer.  If you’ve visited the Jersey Shore every other weekend for 10 years, you’re qualified to answer fall tourist questions. If you know all the rides and trails at Cedar Point, maybe you could qualify as a VIP tour guide, a job that may yield some “pretty generous tips,” said Bradshaw. If not, read up on the company on their website and social media pages, and find someone who’s worked there this summer to clue you in on new initiatives and plans.
At Cedar Point, about 40 percent of the workers return the next year, and when they return “we generally tend to put those ahead of everybody else” for summer jobs, said Bradshaw.

Plus many have served as “screamsters” and ridden the roller coasters when the wind was cold and the lines less long. That’s not something you’ll find in most summer jobs.