ENHANCE DEVELOP 4 3 2 1 CONFIDENCE NETWORKING How Volunteering Gives Your Professional Life a Lift Volunteering is the under-recognized force behind much of the good that is done in society. However, when you volunteer, it is not necessarily purely for altruistic reasons. Your own life will benefit just as much as your community does, not least in terms of your career. Here are four major ways volunteering helps push your professional life forward. Develop New Practical Skills Unless you volunteer in a field directly related to your work, you will need to pick up new skills and adapt to the new situations you are facing. These skills may not have a direct impact on your day job, but acquiring them helps you maintain a flexible attitude which will certainly benefit your career development. Enhance Your People Skills However, it is not just practical skills you will improve through volunteering. You will also come into contact with a new set of people from many different backgrounds. This will help enhance your people skills, with all the workplace benefits that brings. Networking Opportunities What's more, many of these new people you meet will have successful careers of their own. This opens up excellent networking opportunities, either through direct cooperation or simply by widening your professional circle. Confidence Booster Lastly, when you have been working in the same job for a while, it's natural to get into something of a rut. You can even start to wonder if you are capable of taking your career any further. Volunteering will prove to yourself that you can do other things, and this will give a healthy boost to your self-confidence. Of course, the main motivators for volunteering remain the benefits it brings to your community and the help it gives to those in need. But that is no reason to overlook the real advantages it can bring to your professional life. If you have the feeling that your career progress has stalled, taking up volunteering could be a win-win situation for everyone involved.
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