Do you have a lot of volunteer experience, but don’t think it fits in your “Experience” section on LinkedIn? LinkedIn Volunteer Experience & Causes is a section that can be added to your profile to highlight your volunteer work.
LinkedIn added this feature after conducting a survey that indicated that 89% of the participating professionals had volunteer experience, but only 45% included this experience on their resume.
LinkedIn Volunteer Experience Benefits
Per LinkedIn’s research, many hiring managers take volunteer experience into consideration when making a hiring decision. People who volunteer care about something and are often better team members. Indeed, progressive companies encourage volunteer activities as team building exercises. When people come together for a cause, they tend to bond.
41 percent of the professionals that LinkedIn surveyed stated that when they are evaluating candidates, they consider volunteer work equally as valuable as paid work experience. ~LinkedIn
How to Add LinkedIn Volunteer Experience & Causes
It is really simple to add LinkedIn volunteer experience and causes. Follow these steps:
- Sign in to your LinkedIn account.
- Click Edit Profile under the main Profile menu.
- Scroll down past the main profile box (has your picture and high-level information) and click Add Sections.
- Select Volunteer Experience & Causes and click Add to Profile (see below).
- Select your causes, enter organizations your support, and add volunteer experience. (NOTE: You can always add more later.)
Now go to your profile and notice the Volunteer Experience & Causes section under your regular “Experience” section. This is an example of what you will see:
I just love how LinkedIn now allows professionals to highlight this type of information!
Having a rich LinkedIn profile is essential for building your personal brand. Adding volunteer experience and causes adds a new dimension to your profile and may help you land that next job!