Volunteering Can Boost Your Career and MBA Admissions Odds
We probably don’t need to sell you on the karmic benefits of donating your time to a worthy cause. But besides all the feels you get for helping others, there’s a surprising side benefit you may not have considered. Namely, that volunteering is one of the most underleveraged ways to advance your career. And it’s something that all top business schools hope to see on applicants’ resumes. After all, the MBA experience is about bringing all facets of your life—not just what you’ve achieved on the job—to help your classmates learn.
Having interests outside of work shows that you can balance multiple commitments and that you are the type of person who is capable of juggling academics with clubs, conferences, recruiting, and more.
Today, we focus on skills-based rather than classic volunteer activities, such as planting trees or serving meals at a soup kitchen. Strategic volunteering exposes you to diverse industries and functions, helps identify your strengths, builds connections, and provides valuable new skills and experiences—all of which can pay dividends in your MBA applications. Check out these three major benefits you can get when you give back.
Curious about your chances of getting into a top B-school? Contact us to talk strategy with a free 15-minute advising session with an SBC Principal Consultant.
Volunteering Develops New Skills
As a volunteer, you can try out new skills without worrying about affecting your current position. For instance, your job may not include project management or give you much chance to grow your leadership ability. If so, look for a volunteer position that provides formal leadership to others.
Many volunteering roles will help you hone those always-desirable soft skills. Think of areas such as communication, public speaking, emotional intelligence, and teamwork. You can also look for opportunities where you’ll make an impact with your existing skills.
See if your employer has any community-focused committees with which you could get involved soon. You could mentor a junior employee or head up a company-sponsored fundraising drive. If your company is hiring right now, you could lead efforts to recruit at your alma mater. That’s a way to give back while leveraging connections you already have at your college.
Any of these steps could result in additional accomplishments you can add to your resume, write essays about, or discuss in an interview.
It Can Offer Relevant Career Experience
It’s often difficult to gain job experience without getting hired for the new role. Whether you’re a recent grad or hoping to try out a new career without making a long-term commitment, volunteering is a tried-and-true method of gaining relevant knowledge in a new field.
The key is identifying positions and organizations that align with your desired career. That way, you can show potential employers that you have transferable skills despite limited or no formal professional history in the role.
At the same time, it gives you valuable feedback on whether you enjoy the work and want to explore further. If you discover that you don’t relish the tasks involved, you’ve saved yourself a lot of angst down the line.
“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others” – Gandhi
Volunteering Expands Your Network
Chances are, most of your network comes from the same industry you do. However, strategic volunteering connects you with diverse people coming together for a common goal. This creates a unique opportunity to expand your network with connections outside of your field.
Unlike those typically awkward formal networking events, the volunteering environment is usually open and friendly. It’s a place to forge meaningful connections with people who have shared interests without pressure or expectations.
That said, you’re still networking with people who may help your job search or provide professional references one day. So, make it your business to meet as many people as you can while volunteering—you never know who’s connected to exciting new prospects.
Of course, your primary reason for volunteering is still to share your skills and give back to your community. But why not also reap some professional and MBA admit advantages along the way?
The months ahead will provide more than enough time to get involved — or ideally, get more involved — in a cause that’s close to your heart. You cannot change some aspects of your candidacy: where you earned your undergraduate degree, your GPA, and your career choices up until now. But there are other things, like your volunteering efforts, that you can improve over the next several months if you’re willing to get creative.
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Stacy Blackman Consulting offers multiple services to meet your MBA application needs, from our All-In Partnership to hourly help reviewing your MBA resume. Contact us today for a free 15-minute advising session to talk strategy with a Principal SBC consultant. Meanwhile, here’s a snapshot of the caliber of expertise on our SBC team.
Here’s a snapshot of the caliber of expertise on our SBC team.
Ashley
Ashley is a former MBA Admissions Board Member for Harvard Business School (HBS), where she interviewed and evaluated thousands of business school applicants for over a six year tenure. Ashley holds an MBA from HBS. During her HBS years, Ashley was the Sports Editor for the Harbus and a member of the B-School Blades Ice Hockey Team. After HBS, she worked in Marketing at the Gillette Company on Male and Female shaving ...
×Kerry
Kerry is a former member of the Admissions Board at Harvard Business School (HBS). During her 5+ year tenure at HBS, she read and evaluated hundreds of applications and interviewed MBA candidates from a wide range of backgrounds across the globe. She also led marketing and outreach efforts focused on increasing diversity and inclusion, ran the Summer Venture in Management Program (SVMP), and launched the 2+2 Program during her time in Admissions. Kerry holds a B.A. from Bates College and ...
×Pauline
A former associate director of admissions at Harvard Business School, Pauline served on the HBS MBA Admissions Board full-time for four years. She evaluated and interviewed HBS applicants, both on-campus and globally. Pauline's career has included sales and marketing management roles with Coca-Cola, Gillette, Procter & Gamble, and IBM. For over 10 years, Pauline has expertly guided MBA applicants, and her clients h ...
×Geri
Geri is a former member of the Admissions Board at Harvard Business School (HBS). In her 7 year tenure in HBS Admissions, she read and evaluated hundreds of applications and interviewed MBA candidates from a diverse set of academic, geographic, and employment backgrounds. Geri also traveled globally representing the school at outreach events in order to raise awareness for women and international students. In additio ...
×Laura
Laura comes from the MBA Admissions Board at Harvard Business School (HBS) and is an HBS MBA alumnus. In her HBS Admissions role, she evaluated and interviewed hundreds of business school candidates, including internationals, women, military and other applicant pools, for five years. Prior to her time as a student at HBS, Laura began her career in advertising and marketing in Chicago at Leo Burnett where she worked on th ...
×Andrea
Andrea served as the Associate Director of MBA Admissions at Harvard Business School (HBS) for over five years. In this role, she provided strategic direction for student yield-management activities and also served as a full member of the admissions committee. In 2007, Andrea launched the new 2+2 Program at Harvard Business School – a program targeted at college junior applicants to Harvard Business School. Andrea has also served as a Career Coach for Harvard Business School for both cu ...
×Jennifer
Jennifer served as Admissions Officer at the Stanford (GSB) for five years. She holds an MBA from Stanford (GSB) and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Jennifer has over 15 years experience in guiding applicants through the increasingly competitive admissions process into top MBA programs. Having read thousands and thousands of essays and applications while at Stanford (GSB) Admiss ...
×Erin K.
Erin served in key roles in MBA Admissions--as Director at Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and Assistant Director at Stanford's Graduate School of Business (GSB). Erin served on the admissions committee at each school and has read thousands of applications in her career. At Haas, she served for seven years in roles that encompassed evaluation, outreach, and diversity and inclusion. During her tenure in Admissions at GSB, she was responsible for candidate evaluation, applicant outreach, ...
×Susie
Susie comes from the Admissions Office of the Stanford Graduate School of Business where she reviewed and evaluated hundreds of prospective students’ applications. She holds an MBA from Stanford’s GSB and a BA from Stanford in Economics. Prior to advising MBA applicants, Susie held a variety of roles over a 15-year period in capital markets, finance, and real estate, including as partner in one of the nation’s most innovative finance and real estate investment organizations. In that r ...
×Dione
Dione holds an MBA degree from Stanford Business School (GSB) and a BA degree from Stanford University, where she double majored in Economics and Communication with concentrations in journalism and sociology. Dione has served as an Admissions reader and member of the Minority Admissions Advisory Committee at Stanford. Dione is an accomplished and respected advocate and thought leader on education and diversity. She is ...
×Anthony
Anthony served as the Associate Director of MBA Admissions at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he dedicated over 10 years of expertise. During his time as a Wharton Admissions Officer, he read and reviewed thousands of applications and helped bring in a class of 800+ students a year. Anthony has traveled both domestically and internationally to recruit a ...
×Meghan
Meghan served as the Associate Director of Admissions and Marketing at the Wharton MBA’s Lauder Institute, a joint degree program combining the Wharton MBA with an MA in International Studies. In her role on the Wharton MBA admissions committee, Meghan advised domestic and international applicants; conducted interviews and information sessions domestically and overseas in Asia, Central and South America, and Europe; and evaluated applicants for admission to the program. Meghan also managed ...
×Amy
Amy comes from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where she was Associate Director. Amy devoted 12 years at the Wharton School, working closely with MBA students and supporting the admissions team. During her tenure at Wharton, Amy served as a trusted adviser to prospective applicants as well as admitted and matriculated students. She conducted admissions chats with applicants early in the admissions ...
×Ally
Ally brings six years of admissions experience to the SBC team, most recently as an Assistant Director of Admission for the full-time MBA program at Columbia Business School (CBS). During her time at Columbia, Ally was responsible for reviewing applications, planning recruitment events, and interviewing candidates for both the full-time MBA program and the Executive MBA program. She traveled both internationally and dome ...
×Erin B.
Erin has over seven years of experience working across major institutions, including University of Pennsylvania, Columbia Business School, and NYU's Stern School of Business. At Columbia Business School, Erin was an Assistant Director of Admissions where she evaluated applications for both the full time and executive MBA programs, sat on the admissions and merit scholarship committees and advised applicants on which program might be the best fit for them based on their work experience and pro ...
×Emma
Emma comes from the MBA Admissions Office at Columbia Business School (CBS), where she was Associate Director. Emma conducted dozens of interviews each cycle for the MBA and EMBA programs, as well as coordinating the alumni ambassador interview program. She read and evaluated hundreds of applications each cycle, delivered information sessions to audiences across the globe, and advised countless waitlisted applicants. ×
