Through your volunteering you can acquire vital transferable skills in e.g. creativity, problem solving, listening and communication. Volunteering can help increase your confidence in meeting new people, being in unfamiliar surroundings and taking on new challenges. You could lead a volunteering project, which will develop valuable project management and team leadership skills. We already have a number of student-led projects.

It was not until I started applying for internships in my second year that I realised how applicable all of my volunteering experience actually was: ‘Please describe an achievement of importance to you’, ‘Please list the activities outside of academic study that you have been involved in during the last three years’, ‘Give details of any positions of responsibility you may have held’. All of these questions I could answer with my volunteering experiences.

Navneet Sandhu (Warwick Volunteers Exec and Christmas Party Project Leader)

You can gain insight into some sectors, jobs and careers. It may help you make up your mind about what you'd like to do after you graduate.

My experience has had a positive effect on both my studies and my future career aspirations. Through working with Autistic students I developed an interest in this area and chose this as the subject of my dissertation. I now know that I would like a career working with young adults with special educational needs.

Amy Mills (Project Leader, Hereward College)

When applying for jobs use examples from your volunteering experience on your CV, applications and in interviews that demonstrate skills that are relevant to the job. Use the CARE framework to evaluate the voluntary work you’ve done.

Keep a record of what you’re doing each time you volunteer as its easy to forget what you've done when you're looking for evidence of experience for a tailored CV or to talk about at interview. It's up to you how you do it - use a written log, upload photos, videos, attach files - the volunteering log is personal to you.

Tell your story- record and reflect on your experiences.

If you need help to get started, take the moodle training.

Complete a log of all your volunteering activity this academic year, if you have completed more than 15 hours volunteering with us you can receive a WV certificate. Undergraduates will also have volunteering hours shown their HEAR if they have completed 15 or more hours in the academic year before the May deadline.

Certificate

If you’ve volunteered through Warwick Volunteers and completed more than 15 hours of volunteering we can provide you with a basic reference. You can also ask your key contact at the organisation/charity if they would be happy to be a referee for you.

• What volunteering reveals about you to employers
• Think about your career
• Need help creating your CV? This short course will take you through the basics of writing a CV from the formatting of it to what to include and how to present it. CV Moodle course, CV check
• Interviews
• Application testing
• Careers Blog
• My Portfolio