Should You Include Revealing Volunteer Work On Your Resume?

By Monster Contributor

By Mark Swartz

“Highlight your volunteer work on your resume.” That’s common advice to bolster your experience and credibility. Employers may be impressed by the skills you’ve learned and contributions you’ve made through unpaid labour.

A question arises, though, when your volunteering reveals sensitive aspects about yourself. Things like religious and political beliefs, ethnicity, and sexual preference might be inferred.

If so, should you hide that particular experience? Or boast about it proudly because it’s an important part of who you are.

Why Does This Even Matter In A Multicultural Society?

Canada is home to a very diverse population. We celebrate multiculturalism and encourage, at a minimum, tolerance of many differences.

So it might seem unnecessary in this day and age to hide who you really are. After all, why should you get judged in terms of what you believe, where you come from, what your race is, or who you love?

And anyway, these aspects are protected under our employment laws. Plus many employers are hungering to hire diversity candidates.

True. But unfortunately there are still some people in hiring positions who cling to old prejudices. They’re personally biased about what’s acceptable in a candidate’s private life. In extreme cases, they are bigots who don’t want “those kinds of people” working there.

You’re unlikely to ever know if your resume gets discriminated against. Hopefully such occurrences will continue to fade with time. For now it may be an issue for some in terms of what to put on a resume.

Volunteer Work That Might Reveal Private Aspects Of Yourself

Over 13.3 million people do volunteer work each year in Canada. They devote 2 billion hours to these unpaid activities. Not all of this reveals private aspects of the volunteer.

Some of it does, however. Maybe not even directly. But a hiring person might make assumptions that can play into their biases. Like if you’re male and volunteer at an AIDS hospice or LGBT non-profit. Does this mean you’re gay? Not necessarily, but an employer might think so.

Along the same lines, volunteering for your place of worship doesn’t make you a religious fanatic. Nor does helping your favourite candidate get elected mean you’ll harass employees to vote for your party. Ditto for assisting places that focus on a particular race, nationality, culture, or ethnicity.

Some Good Reasons To Highlight This Type Of Volunteer Work

Aside from showing your dedication to a cause, which is an admirable quality in the eyes of some employers, highlighting your revealing volunteer work:

- shows you are proud of who you are and have nothing to hide

- lets you stress achievements that relate to the job you’re applying for

- portrays you as a person who’s comfortable with diversity

Moreover, showing this sort of unpaid labour on your resume has impact when the employer you’ve applied to…

- regularly hires individuals with your background

- is intent on diversity hiring

- supports related charities and causes via their Corporate Social Responsibility efforts

- is itself in a field that caters to the causes you care about

Keep Your Resume Consistent With Your Social Media

If you’re going to omit sensitive volunteering from your resume, be sure to hide it on your social media too. It wouldn’t make sense to display it on your public Facebook page, LinkedIn profile, or Twitter tweets. Employers could see it there and wonder if you’re trying to be sly.

Conversely, be as open as you want on social media if you highlight all volunteer work on your resume. In fact, if your volunteering relates to the job, feel free to join relevant Facebook and LinkedIn groups, post photos on Instagram of you at pertinent events, or make a YouTube video describing why you think the issues are important – and what you’re doing to assist.

Target The Kinds Of Employers That Value Who You Are

Resume discrimination decreases when you actively target who you want to work for. Do your research to find the kinds of places that value people with your background.

Also flip this conundrum on its head. Don’t just apply to employers hoping they’ll appreciate your volunteering. Instead, turn your volunteer work into a paid job!

You deserve to boast about the contributions you’re making to society. A proactive job search enables you to do so, and find a job that fits.