Should volunteering be counted as consultancy on a CV? Advice Please!Hello peeps, sorry it's been a while since since I checked in, been a busy old time.
I wanted to get your advice. A colleague of mine has a son who works in marketing but like so many people at the moment he is 'between jobs'. So like the good boy that he is he's been doing some pro bono marketing work, helping a couple of charities to develop their communications strategies on a voluntary basis. He completed it a few weeks ago and has since added deatails of the work to his CV.
Anyhoo, he was went for an agency interview recently and they wanted to put him forward for a job but suggested he change his volunteering experience to 'markeing and communications consultancy' to make it look as if he'd had some recent work experience.
He did as he was told and was then invited for interview where he was quizzed on his recent work to which he confessed he was volunteering his time. They seemd to be impressed but in the end he did not get the job.
His question now is should he leave this on his CV as 'consultancy' and make no mention of it being voluntary unless he's asked? He doesn't want to mislead anyone but at the same time it does look good on his CV.
Personally I don't see this as a problem. The work he did was consultancy, the fact that it wasn't paid should not matter a jot, but some employers might see volunteering as being of less value, as without any contractual obligation the work may not be deemd as important or valuable.
What do others think? Am I giving him the wrong advice and should he just be proud to say he volunteered his time? Any feedback grafetully received!
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Personally I would be open and proud.
As an employer I would much rather see that someone has used their time effectively and shown initiative.
On the C.V. I would focus on the impact his time has made on the organisation.
I wouldn't be too worried about it. It is what he did that counts not which pay category he fell into when he did it.
Great question. I think this issue cuts to the heart of how people value volunteering more broadly as a society. Your experience exposes a bit of hypocrisy. On the one hand, ask anyone to estimate the value of volunteering to society as a whole, I'm sure the vast majority of people would have no hesitation in saying in hugely important. On the other, when an employer is asked to rate the value of volunteering in a potential candidate, they find that the value is not similarly huge. What's going on here?
I think partly this is to do with the fact that as a society we're still pretty mixed up about how we feel about the quality of goods and services that are given, as oppose to those that are formally exchanged. Really this is counter intuitive. Experience tells most of us that when people give they are usually much more highly motivated, than when they have to do something because of a formal contract. However, the formal contract still serves, in the minds of many, as a form of accreditation by proxy of the goods and services involved. For example the thinking might be: "if someone was ready to pay, then the quality must be high. However, if goods/services are given, then who can attest to the quality?".
So to answer your question... may be it would be better to include an open reference from the place that your colleague's son did pro-bono work for. This testimonial could serve to 'accredit' the work that he delivered. They could of course follow up with and ask for references and check themselves directly if they wanted to.
I've been wrestling with this question around how volunteering is a giving activity as opposed to an exchange activity for a while- here's more.
Yep, great question. Personally, I think mention should be made that the work was voluntary. That seems to me to be the clearest and most honest approach - and doesn't necessarily downplay it's importance. In fact, some employers might even be impressed by the fact that it was done as a volunteer.
If it was done as if it was a paid task, I don't think it matters much either way. It's what work was done that matters, not the pay.
However, this is another reason why I dislike agencies. The main reason is that most of the ones I've met seem to be pushy and deaf to our requests! ;-) I hope he's approaching workplaces (not only employers) directly.
Thanks for great feedback all, very helpful. Yes @MJR he is going to employers direct as well as agencies. @robjackson I agree that it's what he did that counts and the impact it had and @paddaniels absolutely what is going on, there are some employers that still see volunteering as not real 'work' which is a real shame. What about listing the work as Pro Bono instead - this is volunteering but some employers might see this as more 'professional' as many companies give pro bono services and staff time.
I agree, 'pro bono' is probably the best thing to say. Latin always looks good on a CV ;-)
I'm a consultant and volunteer some of my time to organisations using these consultancy skills. I state that this is pro bono where is it relevent, the skills I develop when volunteering get listed alongside skills I develop when paid - it is tough to seperate them a lot of the time. Telling people about my pro bono work also tells them about the values that are important to me. It is more important to demonstrate the impact of the work undertaken, rather than the rate charged - in my world anyway!
I always recommend people list any voluntary work under work experience. There is an implicit message here that the applicant views this work as being of equal value to the other roles listed.
I agree with other respondents that it is better to be honest about the role having been unpaid but to avoid describing the role as simply "volunteer". As long as you don't invent a fictitious fancy job title which is going to come back and haunt you, it should be possible to find language to describe the actual role/tasks carried out more clearly.
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