Should I include membership on the board of a non profit company unrelated to my profession on my resume?

Question

I'm a graphic designer & web developer, just out of high school, and was hired to work on a site for a local historical preservation group after graduation.

Now, the group has presented me an invitation to be a board member, and that sounds fancy, but being right out of school, I'm only looking at this from the perspective of a +1 on my resume.

When I asked for advice on the matter, I was told "Definitely accept it. It'll sound great on your resume."

I'm trying to figure out whether or not this will really be as good for my resume as it sounds.

I'm taking into account:

• This is a non profit, (non paying) culturally and locally focused organization, which is not exactly experience in the field of innovative, efficient, perfection-driven design and web development.

• At the same time, I have very little work experience, and while I do have plenty of business coming in, my goal is team leading and this might offer experience working with others.

• "<Town Name here> Historical Foundation" doesn't exactly preach to the choir in the technology field. In fact, it's a slightly boring area for me. I want to create and innovate and inspire. On a resume for future jobs in the development field, this might reflect on me as being old fashion or historically inclined. I don't mean to discount history as uninteresting, but it's probably not appealing to geeks and project managers looking for new ideas and innovation.

• The organization is volunteer-based and "fully" willing to cooperate with my schedule, but I spend basically every moment awake working towards development of paid and personal development projects. So even if the time cost is small, every minute matters and I'd hate to waist time if the position will not help my career.

• Work is easy to come by, and I have more than I need. This isn't a question of work gained by affiliation, but of experience and resume value.

Overall, I'm eager to promote my career as efficiently as possible, and I'm just not sure whether accepting this opportunity will help me.

Will taking this part-time position likely be a good choice for promoting a future career in the technology field, as far as my resume goes?

Edit: I'd like to know whether or not such a position and the responsibilities involved are resume-worthy, even though the organization's goals are not tech-related.

Answer 1

Civic activities, volunteer activities, and nonprofit affiliations are entirely positive for your resume.

Why? It shows that you care about your community. It shows that you are willing to work with other volunteers.

There will be some people who don't care at all about your org or your non-profit involvement. They won't even notice this item on your resume. With people who don't care about this kind of stuff you have nothing to lose by claiming it.

Others will notice it. It will serve as a conversation starter and relationship builder for them. That is always good.

Now, of course most orgs have minimal web sites. That's OK. It won't reflect poorly on you unless you claim it as a prominent part of your portfolio.

You asked a different question, I think. Is it worth your time and effort to serve on this nonprofit board? There are three criteria here:

1. Do you have the time you need to do this?
2. Do you care about the mission of the org?
3. Do you care about the people who have invited you to serve?

If all those are true, go for it. If any are false, respectfully decline their invitation. There are lots of things you can do, and you may as well engage your passions in your volunteer work rather than mark time.

Don't worry about whether the organization has slick administration or muddles along. Either way you'll learn plenty from working with them. And learning is what it's all about whether you have four months or four decades of experience.

A closing point: as a preacher (second career) I'm here to tell you that preaching to the choir isn't all it's cracked up to be. The people in the choir think they already know what you're going to say, so they sometimes don't listen. In your resume, focus your message on people you don't yet know. Use it to build up your relationships.

Answer 2

You get out what you put in. The question is, what are you putting in? If you put nothing in, you are getting nothing out. If you have no idea what you're putting in, don't expect to be able to make to a prospective employer that you are getting something out that will benefit your prospective employer.

I have no idea how professionally run the non-profit is, but I would be concerned that they are inviting someone who is, to put it bluntly, as inexperienced as you, to be on the Board of Directors. Do you know what a Board of Directors is, do you know what your duties are as a member of Directors, are you expected to rubber stamp whatever the non-profit's management wants, or is the Board of Directors exercising a real supervision function on the non-profit's management? Do you know why they they invited you to be a member of the Board of Directors? Do you know the by-laws, including how decisions are made and follow-through achieved? I see lots of unknowns. And at this point, no answers.

If some prospective employer got interested or curious about your volunteer work and started to ask you these questions and you can't answer them, your credibility just got a very big hole shot through it. If your employer has little to zero interest in asking you about this volunteer work and is not asking questions that you can't answer, then you should breathe a sigh of relief.