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How to Apply the Skills from our Volunteer Experiences to Future Careers

How to Apply the Skills from our Volunteer Experiences to Future Careers
By: Kim Huynh
I feel that sometimes individuals are quite reluctant to volunteer because they fail to recognize just how valuable the skills that they acquire through volunteering really are. That being said, I hope that this post will open your eyes to how skills from your volunteer experiences may be applied to a future career.
My last article touched on employability skills that you would most likely gain through volunteering: communication, interpersonal and time management skills. But how exactly could these apply to a future career?
Each skill parallels quite nicely to certain tasks that a workplace may have one do. As an example, I will show you how these skills could transfer nicely over to a future career as a lawyer:
1. Communication
- Presenting one’s self and/or case clearly in court orally
- Communicating one’s argument clearly both in writing and in spoken word (i.e. with reports and in court)
- Communicating clearly with a client, witnesses, and other court officials
2. Interpersonal
- Working well with clients, victims, witnesses, etc. in an efficient manner
- Working with the media and public when addressing certain cases publicly
3. Time management skills
- Prioritizing multiple cases and plan time out to work on them
- Managing multiple appointments with multiple clients successfully
These are only a TINY sample of how these skills could apply to a career in law. There are many other tasks that these skills could be applicable to a vast number of careers that university students like you and I dream of having.
Beyond the Article:
- Read Kim’s article about employability skills that can be gained through volunteering
- Dave’s Diary: Transferable Skills Pay the Bills
- How exactly can you apply communication skills in the workplace?
Lead Image: Joe Mabel on Flickr
Posted on October 21, 2014
Tags:
Submitted by volunteer on Tue, 2014-10-21 09:53 by volunteer
- volunteer's blog
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- 5360 reads
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