Your involvement in a sports club or an aid organisation can belong on your CV if it describes experience relevant to your target role. What matters is what you actually did and learned. Membership alone does not prove a particular skill.
Here is how to present voluntary experience clearly without promising an effect on your application.
Why volunteering in your CV is so valuable
berufsberatung.ch lists volunteering as a way to gain practical experience and skills. You can make that experience visible on your CV. For example, explain which accounts you handled as a club treasurer or which tasks you took on at a scout camp. The role alone proves neither reliability nor leadership.
A concrete example of your contribution is more informative than a general label such as “team player”. Describe only what you did yourself and distinguish your tasks from the achievements of the whole team.
This is how you integrate volunteering correctly
Where exactly does volunteering belong? There are basically two options here, depending on how relevant the activity is to your desired job.
1. As a separate section: Substantial activities or those relevant to your target role can go under “Volunteering”. This can make additional experience visible, especially at the start of your career. Give the actual dates and make clear that the work was voluntary; do not use it to conceal gaps.
2. Under “Hobbies and interests”: A brief mention under hobbies may be enough for smaller commitments. “Tennis club treasurer” describes different experience from “tennis”. Decide based on relevance and available space.
Quality over quantity: what should you include?
As with regular professional experience, the same applies to volunteering: focus on the most important things. You don't have to list every cake sale from the last ten years. Name the position, the organization, the time period and - very importantly - your specific tasks and achievements.
Ask yourself which tasks or knowledge relate to the new role. For example, helping at a village festival may be relevant to an events role, while maintaining a club website may relate to an IT role. Explain your actual contribution, such as coordinating shifts or updating website content. Use an example only if it matches your experience.
Review your CV as a whole
Place your volunteering so that the experience most relevant to the role remains easy to find. Our guide to CV layout offers more ideas for structure. Check the finished version yourself for clarity and accurate information.
A specific description makes your contribution understandable. How an employer evaluates it depends on the role and the selection process.
Check one volunteering entry
Choose an entry and identify the organisation, dates and your own contribution. Check:
- Is it clear that the work was voluntary?
- Do I distinguish my contribution from the team’s work?
- Can I explain why this experience fits the target role?
Add one missing detail or shorten an irrelevant point. Do not invent tasks or results.
