Adding Church Volunteer Work to Your Resume

"Sorry, we're looking for someone with 5 years experience." Frustrating right? You're sending out CVs, you're applying every day, and the response is always the same: “We’re looking for someone with experience.” You're probably thinking, “If no one will employ me because I don’t have experience, then where exactly am I supposed to get that experience from?” 😂 But here’s the thing experience doesn’t always have to come from a 9–5, sometimes it comes from service. VOLUNTEER. Yes, seriously. Volunteer at your church. Volunteer with a local NGO. Volunteer with a small business. Volunteer to help someone doing what you want to do. Why? Because experience is underrated. Because access to people, systems, and real-life work is what builds you. That same “small” role you ignore might be what introduces you to your next opportunity. You want to build a CV? Serve. 👏🏽 You want to learn how an organization works? Show up. 👏🏽 You want to develop confidence and skills? Start with what’s in front of you even if it’s unpaid. When my mom wanted to pivot into teaching, to have time for my siblings and I, guess what she wrote in her resumè as her teaching experience- Children's church teacher 🧑🏫 Funny yeah? 😄But she got the job and in one of the best schools in Lagos. Even if you clean chairs at church, it’s not that you don’t have experience, it’s that you haven’t packaged it well. Call it Facility Aesthetics Manager if you must. 😏 Maybe you lead your church choir with 20 members; that's huge - Present it like this ; Led and managed a 20-member choir team, overseeing performance planning, team coordination, and event execution with excellence. Developed leadership, communication, and organizational skills through consistent volunteer service in a structured, high-impact environment. Maybe you volunteer in the comms team of an NGO who has reached out to over 40,000 beneficiaries- Frame it like this; Communications team member at [NGO Name], supporting storytelling, content creation, and outreach for an organization impacting 40,000+ lives. Gained hands-on experience in strategic messaging, stakeholder engagement, and brand positioning for social good. Do you see how the little things we underestimate is actually work experience! Not sure how to frame yours?
Gather everything you’ve done, even chores, church roles, or community service and take it to chatgpt and give it prompts like this; - Package this for a job application - Make this role sound sophisticated Use your volunteering, your service period to learn, to grow, to make mistakes, to learn from your mistakes and to prepare. Success is when opportunity meets preparedness! Can you share a time when service helped you grow? #linkedincommunity #service #volunteering #growth #securingjobs #jobopportunities

You’re not unqualified, your work just needs the right framing. Quick disclaimer: There are times when you need more experience to qualify for a position or opportunity and there are other times when, you already have the experience; it just needs the right positioning and here’s what I mean: 1. Instead of saying you worked at your church office, say “ I Volunteered at a nonprofit organization” 2. I Posted content for my friend's business can be rephrased as “ I Managed social media marketing for a small business” 3. I Helped a relative write a resume can be rephrased as “ I provided career coaching and resume writing support” 4. Organizing a friend’s birthday party can translate to event planning and coordination experience. 5. Something as simple as helping your siblings with their schoolwork can be rephrased as “Tutored students in [subject] to improve academic performance 6. Even selling Okrika aka thrift items on WhatsApp 🤣 can be rephrased as “ E-commerce and digital sales experience” I know you have questions and trust me to always come prepared with answers😂 1️⃣ But isn’t this dishonest? No ma, no sir! Framing your experience doesn’t mean exaggerating—it means highlighting the value of what you’ve done in a professional way. It’s called speaking “corporate lingual” even lawyers have their special ways of saying everyday things Lawyers in the house am I correct? If you’ve done the work, you better package it and sell it properly! 2️⃣ Do recruiters actually care about this? Yes! That’s why that person that has the same experience as you got hired and you weren’t . Okay just joking… or maybe not 🤣 For real though, many recruiters care more about skills and impact than job titles. If you can show how your experience adds value, you’re already ahead. 3️⃣ How do I explain this in an interview? Focus on results. Instead of saying, “I helped my church office,” say, “I managed administrative tasks and coordinated weekly meetings, improving efficiency by X%.” Quantity everything quantifiable and please be careful so you don’t exaggerate your impact. 4️⃣ Can I put this on my LinkedIn/resume? Absolutely! Just be clear about what you did and the skills you gained. For example, under “Experience,” you can write: Nonprofit Volunteer | [Organization Name] | [Year] Managed [task] which led to [impact] Assisted with [responsibility] to improve [outcome] Trust me, you think you don’t have experience but you do. That small work you did while on holiday is valuable, it is real experience. Just make sure it speaks the language of your career goals. Save this post for when you need to update your resume, and drop a comment if this helped! Rooting for you always 🚀 #CareerGrowth #PersonalBranding #JobSearchTips #ResumeTips

Translating ministry experience can be hard. So let me help. You’re speaking one language. Hiring managers are speaking another. So let’s give the resume translation essentials. First, how you say it matters. Hiring managers and HR are results oriented but they also need to know what caused the results. Here’s a good resume bullet structure: Action (with metrics) + Results (with metrics) in what timeframe. Resume reader salivate over numbers. Second, what you talk about matters. Don’t share what is impressive to you and the people you work with. Share what matters to the hiring manager for the specific job you’re applying for. If it is both great, but if it doesn’t match the job description it likely won’t help you. Third, the words you use matter. I’m not talking about replacing “pastor” with another title (though in some cases you should) Use words that are culturally relevant for the industry and the role. (Check some specific translations in the pic) Bottom line: The person who is most qualified isn’t going to get the job. It is the person who communicates they are the most qualified for the specific job responsibilities. Use that as your lens. I’m just out here trying to be the Martin Luther to your ministry resume. ✌️

📈"Led valuation analysis for three major acquisitions totaling $150M..." Impressive? Maybe. Unique among finance applicants? Not even close.    In the sea of finance applicants, your models, Excel skills, and deal experience blur together with everyone else's. But there's an underutilized asset on your resume that most finance professionals mismanage: your NGO volunteering.  Most applicants list volunteer work as an afterthought. "I serve meals monthly at a homeless shelter." "I participate in beach cleanups." These activities show compassion but miss a crucial opportunity to demonstrate how you think. ❓The secret to standing out? Finance skills + NGO volunteering = Strategic impact = Unforgettable application. Here's how to transform basic volunteering into application gold: 🔎Financial analysis prowess: Don't just serve. Analyze. Apply valuation skills to measure impact. Create metrics that guide resource decisions. 💹Budgeting mastery: Nonprofits need financial planning. Adapt your corporate tools. Teach forecasting to passionate founders lacking business skills. 🎯Risk assessment instincts: Scan operations with a critical eye. Spot vulnerabilities like in deal analysis. Implement controls that protect the mission. 🔀Funding diversification knowledge: Apply portfolio theory to revenue streams. Reduce single-source dependencies. Show how diversification builds stability. When you leverage your finance toolkit in volunteer settings, your application transforms: ➡️Resume impact: Replace "Volunteer, City Food Bank" with "Financial Advisor: Developed sustainable funding model increasing meal service capacity by 25%" ➡️Essay depth: Instead of "I'm passionate about education," write "I applied scenario analysis techniques to help an education nonprofit weather funding fluctuations while maintaining service to 200+ students" ➡️Interview stories: When asked about leadership challenges, contrast motivating unpaid volunteers with managing analysts—revealing deeper insights about human motivation ➡️Recommendation quality: Brief recommenders on how volunteering has enhanced your professional judgment, creativity, and ability to work with diverse stakeholders 💡The compelling MBA candidate isn't the finance professional who occasionally volunteers. It's the strategic thinker who applies specialized expertise where it's desperately needed but rarely found. 💭Remember: In finance, you compete with thousands of similar profiles. In the nonprofit world, your analytical skills are rare and transformative. This contrast creates the narrative that admissions committees can't ignore. What financial skill could you contribute to a cause you care about this month? Even a focused 10-hour project might be what makes your application unforgettable. Payal, Abha, Rashmi, Dhruv, Kashish, Bhahulya, Gargee, Faye Mackenzie, Bara Sapir, MA, Candy Lee La Balle #FinanceToMBA #ApplicationStrategy #NonprofitImpact #TheDifferentiationSeries

Stop Sleeping on What You Did in Church oh! The fact that you did it in church doesn’t make it less of a marketable skill and doesn’t mean it can’t enter your portfolio or CV. I was watching a YouTube video one time and this lady was teaching on how to build your portfolio. One thing that stood out? She boldly wrote on her CV that she was the Social Media Manager for RCCG Festival of Life UK. Church oh! But look at the value. And it was boldly there. A lot of you have solid skills you used and developed in church but you're sleeping on them because you feel “it's just church.” Omo, it might just be your career path you're ignoring! You’ve been managing your church’s WhatsApp or Telegram group for how long now? You’re the one updating the group, answering questions, coordinating the flow of information. Do you know what that is? That’s Community Management — a very valuable digital skill in today’s world. You may say, “Ah it was just my church group now,” but bro/sis, you managed a group of 500–1000 people. Singlehandedly. That's not beans. That’s *work experience*. One time, a friend recommended me for a job and said it was Project Management. I was like, “Ah, me ke? I’ve never done that before.” She laughed. Because this same me has handled five cohorts of Content Mastery, from planning to execution. I’ve worked with teams in church, delegated duties, coordinated programs, created strategies, and ensured everything moved from idea to execution. Isn’t that what project managers do? Right now in NCCF, I serve as the Publicity Director. We are planning a full-blown Publicity Week. I’m managing a team, sharing roles, setting deadlines, reviewing ideas, planning content, handling media. That’s not vibes, that’s project management experience. But we don’t see it because it happened in church. Some of you were Fellowship Presidents, Choir Heads, Drama Coordinators, Prayer Secretaries, Event Planners, etc. You created flyers? That’s Graphics Design. You edited service clips? That’s Video Editing. You planned a youth retreat? That’s Event/Project Management. You directed the Christmas drama? That’s Creative Directing. The Church is made up of people. And the value you gave there is *real, measurable and transferable*. My dear, put it in your CV. Talk about it. That thing you’re calling “just church” might be the doorway to your next job or your real career path. Let this sink in. #anotherkindofboy

You need to have job experience to get job experience...the age-old struggle of a career change. Consider the following to overcome a lack of experience in your target field: 1. Freelance work. This isn't ALWAYS applicable to every job field, but it's applicable to many, with a little creative thinking. Whether it’s consulting, training, or creating a website, find ways to work in your target field, even on a freelance basis. Keep track of your measurable successes, as freelancing can be a valuable addition to your resume. 2. Similar but different from #1: volunteer work. Once, when I was applying for a veteran service role coming from the higher education space, I was legitimately told that I was, "a great candidate, but didn't have enough experience with the military community." Being a military spouse wasn't enough experience, I suppose. 🙃😆 So, I volunteered! I volunteered for a veteran service nonprofit, and I put that experience right at the top of my resume, with my accomplishments listed in STAR format. (Situation, Task, Action, Result). It's not just about doing these things—how you present them on your resume and in conversations makes all the difference. Take your freelancing or volunteering seriously and showcase your contributions in a way that aligns with the job you’re aiming for. Example: Marketing Coordinator (Volunteer) 2023 - Current - Launched a targeted social media campaign, increasing fundraiser attendance by 50% and donations by 35%. - Implemented a monthly newsletter, leading to a 25% rise in volunteer sign-ups within three months. - Partnered with local media, resulting in three featured articles and a 40% increase in public awareness.

This is a bit of a proud parent moment and also a bit of career advice, if will indulge me. Yesterday, CAIR Washington published this amazing civil rights reports about Muslims in WA state... I included some cool graphs and data from the report, but you can read the full report here: https://lnkd.in/gV4EHham CAIR is the Council on American Islamic Relations, the largest and most respected Muslim civil rights organization in America. They do not only serve Muslims buy others who are discriminated against for "looking Muslim" (like Sikhs and Christian Arabs). This work by the Washington chapter is the first research of its kind done on Muslims in the state and will be foundational for understanding the impact of policy and advocacy for years to come. The proud bit: I started in the WA chapter organization as a volunteer in 2009. I did everything from handing out fliers to event planning to organizing fundraisers to public speaking, culminating with board president for nearly a decade. I stepped down several years back but remain a huge fan. The organization has grown so much and to see them arrive at this level of impact (in addition to all the actual case work they do) is amazing. The career advice part: I used to always compartmentalize my non-profit volunteer experience. Not think of it as professional experience, not mention it in my resume... Then I started to realize that I used a lot of learnings from my non-profit work in my day-to-day job. I am a better presenter at work, because of my public speaking experience as a volunteer. I relate much better to earlier in career and new folks at work because of my past experience working with volunteers. I can organize events with a blindfold on because of all those fundraisers I helped put together. :) I know many of my colleagues and friends here on LinkedIn do amazing volunteer work, and my one bit of advice is to never forget that it is a big part of your professional experience. Wear it with pride, share what you've learned from that experience too.