Placement search is always a challenging task. It’s almost like a full time job to search for a good placement opportunity. You have to prepare a resume, cover letter, update your profile on professional networking platforms like LinkedIn, apply through referrals, participate in placement drives conducted by the college and constantly apply through job search portals such as Naukri, Monster, Indeed, LinkedIn, Shine, and many others.
Amidst the huge competition, you need to have some experience on your resume that sets you apart from the crowd and adds value to your resume. While being a college fresher, other than internships, a great way to enhance and enrich your resume is by having some volunteering experience added to your resume. It’s a wonderful way to make a difference in the community as well as on your resume. It is a wonderful way to expand your current skill set and network. You can also add it to your resume as an experience, leading to improvement in your employment prospects. It will also help you get a sense of accomplishment, gain new perspectives, boost confidence, and aid in inner satisfaction as you help people around you and give back to society. Consequently, it will help you ace the interview process.
There are several ways to volunteer in India which include working with children with disabilities, empowering women, providing healthcare support services, educating the underprivileged, and dentistry. You can associate yourself with an NGO and help them in their community initiatives. Uday Foundation is one such NGO helping people during the time of the COVID 19 pandemic by donating oxygen concentrators, food and serving children in need. volunteer is another such NGO that is running various initiatives such as challenge restore the earth, providing COVID related support, water conservation project, waste segregation, and many more. Other NGOs to look out for include Teach for India, Friendicoes, Smile Foundation, Make a Wish foundation, Rahi Foundation, Child Rights and You, Robin Hood Army, Goonj, HelpAge, and the like. Teach for India is based in Delhi and works towards providing education to underprivileged children in society. Friendicoes is famous for rescuing animals and sheltering them. Smile Foundation works in the areas of healthcare, education, and disaster response. Make a Wish works with children suffering from terminal illnesses. Rahi Foundation works for women empowerment and aims to support those who are survivors of incest and child sex abuse. Child Rights and You has been working for children’s rights and providing them with clothes, school, food, and safety. Robin Hood Army ties up with local restaurants and provides excess food to underprivileged people. Goonj works on upcycling the old materials and then redistributing them to the lesser fortunate. HelpAge India aims to uplift the social and economic condition of elderly people in the society who have been abandoned and need support. Many other volunteer programs can be explored such as volunteer programs by Volunteer India, Sadhana Forest Reforestation program, International Volunteer HQ, Youth international program, and YouSocial volunteers.
Such volunteering experience is a valuable add-on to the resume, especially for BBA students in different colleges across Delhi NCR and India who are freshers and need some experience to be reflected on their resumes. Whenever you choose to do volunteering, do keep in mind that the work that you are going to do should match with your interests and skills that you would want to enhance. You should have the right combination of passion and dedication to pursue such volunteering initiatives.
The return from such an experience will be unmatched. It will help you grow your network, make you more empathetic, give you a broader perspective, help you determine your career goals, bring out your hidden skills and potential, enhance your confidence and allow you to develop and refine new skills such as project management, teamwork, being more flexible and adaptive, conflict management, resource management, and people management. Recruiters and hiring managers are always on the lookout for people who can think beyond themselves and have the attitude of contributing as a team member rather than as an individual. In nutshell, identify your passion, join a volunteering program, contribute to society, build your critical skills, add it to your resume, and ace the interview and hiring process.
Ms. Anchal
Assistant Professor, RDIAS
