<p>Should I do community service in college?
I'm going to be a freshman this fall 2010 and I was wondering if community service is going to look good for the resume in the future.</p>
<p>Disclaimer: I don’t really know.</p>
<p>I imagine the only real benefit to a resume is that it says to the employer that you’re happy to work unpaid time.</p>
<p>Depends on what you want to do.</p>
<p>But employers want relevant work experience. For most employers, community service is utterly irrelevant to what they do.</p>
<p>I asked someone if there was a point to volunteering after highschool.</p>
<p>She said it’s good for networking, you meet people. Those people help you out. And for the most part, it’s true. I did lots of volunteering in hs and I got all sorts of connections to get into my desired major.</p>
<p>Do you have to? No</p>
<p>If you feel compelled to do it would I recommend it? Yes.</p>
<p>"But employers want relevant work experience. For most employers, community service is utterly irrelevant to what they do. "</p>
<p>Not true at all. One can do community service that’s relevant to any field.</p>
<p>Employers want skills and experience. You can get both in community service depending on what you choose to do and how much you take on, including organizing projects, etc. You also can meet potential employers or people who can help you get jobs.</p>
<p>I know people who got jobs because of their community service.</p>
<p>If you were to volunteer and it seems like your intention for volunteering is to get ahead. I’d recommend volunteering something related to your major.</p>
<p>ex) major = pre-med
-volunteering at a hospital</p>
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<p>If we’re talking a serious time commitment (like organizing projects would be), it’s probably a better idea to just do an internship in whatever field you’re interested in. The best way to meet people in your field is to start working in your field, not to serve up soup for the homeless and hope a Fortune 500 executive wonders in.</p>
<p>At best, community service is something to pad your resume if you’re applying for a first job and don’t have anything to put there. Relevancy is the most important thing in a resume, and community service is going to be tangential at best (unless you’re a humanities major or something like that, I guess).</p>
<p>“The best way to meet people in your field is to start working in your field, not to serve up soup for the homeless and hope a Fortune 500 executive wonders in.”</p>
<p>As I said before, one can do community service in any field. I used to recruit employees for a Fortune 500 company and know that often students can get better experience doing community service than they can get in internships. Students also may get internships and jobs as a result of their community service experiences.</p>
<p>For public relations/event planning: Organizing a dance marathon at your college to raise money for a children’s hospital.</p>
<p>For business: Keeping track of the money raised in fundraising or organizing such an event. </p>
<p>For health care: Offering workshops on health care issues or helping with a local health fair.</p>
<p>For computer field: Providing tech support to the computers of a nonprofit. Designing and serving as web master of the websites of nonprofits</p>
<p>For education: Serving as a Big Brother or Big Sister, Scout leader, teaching conflict resolution to students</p>
<p>For criminal justice: Being a guardian ad litem, volunteering at a local prison, mentoring prisoners’ children</p>
<p>For politics: helping with a political campaign. One of my former college students was campaign manager for a local politician. The politician lost the election, but my former student got great experience and contacts, and after graduation got a job as assistant’ press secretary for the governor.</p>
<p>For working in nonprofits: You can get valuable experience grant writing, lobbying, and assisting with fundraising.</p>
<p>By the way, most company executives do community service. They serve on boards and do other things. They not only want to help their local community, they appreciate the networking that occurs when one does community service, and they appreciate how doing such things raises their company’s visibility and attracts customers.</p>
<p>^but then again don’t do community service because it’s something to put on your resume or it looks impressive. The real reason to do community service is that you have a passion or see something that isn’t being met or fulfilled and you want to step in and help out.</p>
<p>Community service is always something great to do, if you have the time I would say yes!
If you are going to grad school or continuing your training post college community service really says a lot about your person.
So again if you have time, yes, find something you are interested in like assisting the elderly in nursing homes, helping people with disabilities or serious life threatening conditions, planting trees, helping animal rescues, etc.
Do something you are interested in, or are really good at, and like others said don’t do it for the show, do it because you care.
Good luck!</p>
<p>no. you should only worry about yourself. there is nothing to be gained by donating your time to help someone and having a rewarding experience.</p>
<p>I’ve gotten far more out of doing community service than I’ve given. I do community service to help others, but the good feelings, friendships, networking, skills, and experience I’ve gotten has enriched my life a great deal including financially.</p>