Throughout high school and college, I loved volunteering and helping out non-profits. In fact, both of my college internships were with non-profits. I was convinced that was the career path I wanted to go.
Fast forward to graduation where the job options in that space were sparse at best. I held out hope but quickly realized that my options were rather limited. When I accepted my first job post-graduation, I was excited to learn that they gave back to the community pretty heavily, setting aside work time to volunteer and running food/school supply drives.
Seeing as I was relatively new to the company, I took somewhat of a backseat approach. I participated but didn’t assist with any planning or coordination.
When the time came to switch jobs, I knew I wanted to make more of an effort.
It started out small. Our office needed a new United Way event coordinator so along with a co-worker of mine, I decided to volunteer to plan two events and take charge of fundraising efforts. Thanks to some local businesses, we had a killer bags and bowling tournament.
Outside of helping a great organization, it helped me establish my brand of sorts. I got to fulfill my love of helping non-profit organizations while growing my presence within my office and networking with people in my community. When it became time to plan the event this year, I already had a sense of what I was doing and was the go-to person to help out.
While I didn’t do it as a resume builder, it became one. It also gave me the confidence to take on more responsibilities in my office.
When the time came for someone to take over an effort to hire more recruiters into the office, I decided to step up. I had a potential interest in moving into talent acquisition later in my career so this seemed like the right step.
What was initially started as keeping track of progress turned into something even greater. It turned into a great opportunity to speak with others about recruiting, share why I loved my job, and discover how much I enjoyed hiring internally.
It gave me another avenue to explore within my company while showing that I was capable of taking on the task. If I wouldn’t have liked it, it would’ve served as an opportunity to discover what I didn’t want to do moving forward.
Just like working with United Way helped grow my personal brand, this did too.
If you want to go to work every day, accomplish your tasks, and go home, that’s fine too! Moral of the story is: getting involved at work is worth it.
The great part is, you only have to take on what you enjoy! If fundraising isn’t your thing, maybe you could help plan the next quarterly outing, volunteer your time at an after hours work event, or even lead some sort of new committee that’s needed. For example, one person in my office became the go-to Inclusion and Diversity point of contact for Madison while others joined a ‘return to office’ committee.
The same people are often tasked with a majority of the work year after year simply because others aren’t coming forward to help. While it doesn’t require a lot of work on the front end, it can pay off dividends in your career for years to come.
Employers love when employees go above and beyond, take your opportunity to do so.
This article is my own and does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of TEKsystems.
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