Volunteer resume examples for 2025

A well-written resume summary is basically an elevator pitch. You are summing up your skills and experience in a few sentences to wow recruiters, hiring managers, and decision makers into giving you an interview. Here are some tips to putting your best foot first with your resume summary:

Step 1: Start with your professional title, or the one you aspire to.

Step 2: Detail your years of experience in volunteer-related roles and your industry experience.

Step 3: What are your biggest professional wins? Here is your opportunity to highlight your strongest accomplishments by placing them at the start of your resume.

Step 4: Don't forget, your goal is to summarize your experience. Keep it short and sweet, so it's easy for recruiters to quickly understand why you're a great hire.

These four steps should give you a strong elevator pitch and land you some volunteer interviews.

Many resumes are filtered out by hiring software before a human eye ever sees them. A robust Skills section can let recruiters (and bots) know you have the skills to do the job. Here is how to make the most of your skills section:

1. Look to the job listing. You often need to include the exact keywords from the job description. Take note of the skills listed for the job.
2. Put all relevant hard and soft skills in your skills section.
3. Be specific. If you are too broad, you may not be giving the best picture of your skills and leave the hiring manager uncertain of your abilities.
4. Be up to date. Software names change and companies merge. Don't look out of touch by being careless.
5. Be accurate. Spelling and even upper or lowercase can dramatically change meanings. Make sure you are correctly listing your skills.

These five steps should give you a strong elevator pitch and land you some volunteer interviews.

Your work experience should be structured:

1. With your most recent roles first, followed by earlier roles in reverse chronological order.
2. Job title, along with company name and location on the left.
3. Put the corresponding dates of employment on the left side.
4. Keep only relevant jobs on your work experience.

Your resume is your chance to show your biggest accomplishments. Don't just list your job responsibilities, instead take the opportunity to show why you're really good at what you do. Here is how you do that:

• Start with strong action verbs like managed, spearheaded, created, etc. Your goal is to show what you did and verbs will help demonstrate your contributions.
• Use numbers to quantify your achievements. Did you save time with a new report? Increase revenue? How large was the team you managed?
• Keep it concise. You're highlighting your achievements. Consider if all details you are sharing are relevant, or can be written more efficiently.

Here are great bullet points from volunteer resumes:

The education section should display your highest degree first.

Place your education section appropriately on your resume. If you graduated over 5 years ago, this section should be at the bottom of your resume. If you just graduated and lack relevant work experience, the education section should go to the top.

If you have a bachelor's or master's degree, do not list your high school education. If your graduation year is more than 15-20 years ago, it's better not to include dates in this section.

Here are some examples of good education entries from volunteer resumes:

If you have any additional certifications or education-like achievements, add them to the education section.

To list, use the full name of the certification and the organization that issued it, along with the date of achievement.

If you have any of these certifications, be sure to include them on your volunteer resume:

1. Certified Medical Interpreter - Spanish (CMI)
2. Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist (CTRS)
3. Medication Aide Certification (MACE)
4. Registered Medical Assistant
5. Medical Administrative Specialist (CMAS)
6. Certified Instrumentation Specialist (CIS)
7. Emergency Medical Services
8. Certified in Volunteer Administration (CVA)
9. Nationally Certified Medical Assistant (NCMA)
10. MEDIC First Aid BasicPlus - G2010