When you’re a full-fledged human, doing all the adulting things like paying a mortgage, holding down a 9-5 and maybe even raising some small humans of your own, can we still add “contribution to the community” as padding to our resumes? Kids, who haven’t even begun to do all.the.things, list “volunteer service” on their college applications; so why can’t we?
It can seem trivial to list our time as a stay at home parent, treasurer of the school PTA or newsletter chair for our kids’ sports team as a “skill” on our resume. For most, these are just roles we agree to participate in because we love the people or the benefiting organization.
Yet, these are experiences that should be recognized as “jobs” or “skills” within our career chronology. When you consider it, these roles have a title, a start date, a list of activities, results, and accomplishments. Anything from planning an organization’s silent auction to recruiting parents to join the PTA to bookkeeping for a mom’s group, can (and should be) listed as achievements to showcase in our work history.
It’s often challenging to figure out how to translate those everyday parenting skills into workforce skills. However, organization, time management and family engagement become qualities that often are not, but should be, considered as professional skill sets. It took me starting Tucson Family Volunteers (formerly Crafting Kind Kids) to realize that much of what I do in managing a household of five has a lot of crossover to running a nonprofit. We’re often so busy keeping the ship afloat that we don’t consider all the paddling we’re doing as vital to the smooth operation of our family fleet …or department/team/company.
Crafting the skills you need for resume extras
Between school, sports teams and the nonprofit down the street, there are more organizations vying for your talents than you may have time to give. And as a person in the world doing EVERYTHING, there is only so much bandwidth in a day. And this is why you should ask yourself two questions: 1. What kind of problems do I enjoy solving? and 2. What kind of people do I love working with?
The answer to these two questions may be the key to feeling good about your use of time and talents while simultaneously providing you with a list of skills, activities and results to list as "extras "on your resume.
Whether you’re just dipping your toe back into corporate life or you’re a longtime working mom or dad, a stay-at-home parent, or one with a thriving side hustle; always remember that the school/team/club/local nonprofit needs your skills and talents.
Consider becoming a Project Volunteer Leader
If you’re looking for an easy, meaningful and fun way to pad your resume with “contribution to the community” skills, consider becoming a Project Volunteer Leader with Tucson Family Volunteers.
We are seeking amazing folks who love to:
engage with families,
manage events and hands-on projects,
take photos and videos, and
want to contribute to crafting a generation of kind and caring kids.
To learn more, watch the video + fill out the application at tucsonfamilyvolunteers.org/parentvolunteer