5 Actions You Can Take to Boost Your Career and Your Community

Whether we’re writing emails over lunch, taking a phone call while out on a walk, or making a grocery list during our commute home, we here in the 21st century love multitasking. And why shouldn’t we! As long as you’re making space for self care and not overburdening yourself with work tasks, the benefits of two-birds-with-one-stone productivity can take you a long way in life.

For many people looking to advance in social impact, there’s at least one area in life where combining your efforts could actually help you advance your career: community service.

While many associate community service with volunteering, there are actually a variety of ways you can make a difference in the lives of others without taking on a semi-formal position at another organization (though that’s great, too!).

Here are five ways being a good community member can actually help you achieve your career goals:

Volunteer

Whether it’s for a cause you care about, a political campaign, or simply to help out a neighbor, volunteering is a great way to get out in your community.

How to do it

To get started, search volunteer opportunities in your area—or even faraway opportunities that can be done remotely—using keywords that align with your skills and interests. If you don’t immediately locate an opportunity that looks like a fit, consider creating your own opportunity by reaching out to local organizations to ask about any volunteer or pro-bono support they may need.

Why it’s good for your career

When you volunteer, you open yourself up to new people, initiatives, and potential areas of interest, giving you a better idea of which issues you may want to tackle in your professional life. Plus, this type of organic networking will allow you to build your professional connections in a genuine way.

Volunteering also offers opportunities to gain valuable professional skills such as project management, community organizing, coordination, and communication.

Depending on your professional goals, you may opt to complete a skills-based volunteering project, such as those offered on Catchafire or Taproot. This option gives you the opportunity to share your professional skills in a pro bono format with a person or organization in need of them.

Pro Tip: Before you begin your new volunteer project, make a list of the skills you would like to gain during the experience so that you’re ready to proactively look for those opportunities during your volunteer hours.

Attend community meetings

No matter where you live, there are probably several local groups of people engaging in regular discussion and making decisions that will impact your community.

How to do it

Does your city, town, or neighborhood have a website? This is a great place to find information about upcoming community board meetings, town halls, and the like. If none are listed, it might be time to—gulp—pick up the phone and talk to a real person to see when and where meetings are happening.

When attending a meeting, it’s okay if you feel a bit intimidated at first. Start as a fly on the wall and don’t force yourself to contribute on day one. Taking time to observe the meeting and figure out the protocol will go a long way in getting you oriented and ready to lend your voice to the issue on the floor.

Pro Tip: Write a social media post inviting others to join you, and tag the organization in the post.

Why it’s good for your career

There may or may not be an opportunity to network with other individuals, but civic participation (and your career, for that matter), are long-term gains; over time, your reputation as a concerned and active citizen who takes an interest in community service will precede you.

Attending local meetings also offers insight into your community’s decision-making process. Offer to take meeting minutes, or, once you're a regular, throw your name in the hat and run for a leadership position to gain valuable communication skills that directly transfer to your resume and professional life.

For example, as a journalist or professional communicator, taking charge of a meeting can develop your communication abilities. Or, as an aspiring government employee, the on-the-ground experience of mediating conflict within a group or decision-making amidst disagreement can directly translate to the workplace.

Become a board member

Speaking of leadership, one of the lesser known (or perhaps just lesser considered) strategies boosting your career through community service concerns board membership. Nonprofits often seek individuals to serve in these important roles. Why not you?

How to do it

Again, this might take a bit of sleuthing on your part. Think about how your participation on the board could support your career goals and next steps. Check your community’s news networks, social media pages, and newspapers for announcements, or reach out to organizations that interest you.

Why it’s good for your career

Before you take on a leadership role, talk to other members of the board about what the roles and responsibilities entail. Over time, keep track of your accomplishments, including meetings, decisions, and changes that the board creates, and list these under this position on your resume.

Board members also do a fair amount of networking, requiring social and communication skills, as well as fundraising, a practice that calls for persuasiveness and tenacity.

Get published

Putting pen to paper can help you demonstrate your interest in community service in a tangible way for future employers to reference.

How to do it

Way back when, writing a letter to the editor was the only way to highlight which issues you wanted to make away of to others in your community; today, we have many more options:

• Publishing and sharing a blog post or open letter to your elected official
• Writing a guest post on a well-read site in your community
• Starting a letter writing campaign with fellow community members
• Starting a chat or discussion in a public forum or on social media
• Writing a letter to the editor of your local newspaper (yes, you can still do that!)

Why it’s good for your career

Nowadays, potential employers Google your name and sift through your online presence to see what you’re all about; you want them to find examples that demonstrate your investment in improving the world around you, and nothing does that quite like published work.

Pro Tip: Take it one step further. If you have a website or online portfolio, link to the examples of published work that relates to community service.

Commit to a year of national service with AmeriCorps

So you’ve volunteered, joined community discussions, taken on a leadership role, and gotten published. What could be left? You could up the anté by signing up for a year of service.

How to do it

You dedicate your time for a year to service—deep, sustained, volunteer action with an organization doing good in the world. Apply for positions in your home city or state, or around the country.

Why it’s good for your career

A year of service can contribute to your career in the following ways:

• Skills: Gain direct skills and experience in fields that interest you. Often, Americorps positions include roles in disaster services, economic opportunity, education, environmental stewardship, health, and veterans.
• Connections: Build relationships with like-minded professionals in your cohort and at your service site while working on shared projects.
• Perspective: Begin to understand social problems and their solutions either experientially or through capacity building—most national service positions are located within nonprofit organizations.
• Professional Development: Get training on practical career topics, such as building resumes, networking, choosing a career path, being a leader, and productivity.
• Education Benefits: Receive a Segal Education Award to support your education, be it through paying off previous student loans or putting it toward future degrees.

Allowing your experiences with community service to boost your career is a great way to make a meaningful impact both personally and professionally.

By cultivating valuable skills, expanding your network, and gaining a deeper understanding of your community's needs, you’ll be able to share exactly how each opportunity has enabled you to continue learning and developing in your social-impact career.