Volunteering is a great tradition and every year millions of Canadians volunteer their time and energy to religious, health, sports, and community social services. The last survey by Statistics Canada showed that about 45% of all Canadians volunteered in 2007 for a grand total of over two billion volunteer hours. To put that in perspective it is the equivalent of over a million full-time jobs. People volunteer because it makes them feel good about themselves to give something back to the community. But volunteering can also be a way to get ahead in your career.

Networking and Visibility
Volunteering is a great way to build and expand your existing network and to increase your visibility in the community. You can get to meet leaders from all types of organizations and businesses who live right in your town or city. You might find that the president of the Rotary Club is also a chartered accounted like you, but he has been a partner in his firm for twenty years. The chair of the fundraising committee for the new community centre may be the CEO of a major high tech company. You can use your volunteer time to make connections with these people and build your contact list.

Skills Development
Volunteering can give you real life exposure to a range of activities that you would never ordinarily have in your day-to-day job. You can try out new activities like event planning, fundraising, or even work on a committee that develops new policies and procedures for your volunteer organization. Best of all you get to practice these skills in a low stress, low risk environment. You can also watch others who have developed these skills deliver them in their volunteer work and learn from them the best ways to carry out these activities.

Leadership Development
One of the most important skills that you can learn and practice through your volunteer work is in the area of leadership development. Almost every not for profit organization in the community is looking for bright, dedicated volunteers to serve on their board of directors and to chair the various committees of their board. Being on a board of directors is not only a great networking opportunity but it also shows the other members of the board, who are already community leaders, that you are ready to take on a leadership role. Your colleagues and superiors at work are also like to take more notice of you in this regard as well. Many organizations offer specialized board of directors training programs to equip you for this task and you should take advantage of any such opportunity to further develop your leadership skills.

New Career Opportunities
You shouldn't go into a volunteer assignment specifically looking for a new job or career. But you can find out a lot about other jobs and organizations through your volunteer networking. You can gather information about other industries and companies and how the current economic situation is affecting them. Through your contacts you can see how your education and experience might fit into their industry and generally increase your market intelligence. You can also add your volunteer experience to your resume to assist when you do start looking for a new job or career. It might not have the same cache as the same experience working for a major corporation but it just might help you get past the initial screening process for the job you've always wanted.

Get More Balance
Volunteering can also help you become a more balanced individual and that can only assist you in performing at a higher level in your current job. There is a great personal satisfaction in volunteering your time and it will likely make you happier and give you more confidence. Both of these qualities will make you a better person and a better worker which will make you a more attractive employee to your current organization and to others in the future.

Get Healthier Live Longer
Professor Ben Gottlieb of the University of Guelph's Department of Psychology has a theory that volunteering can make a person healthier and live longer. And he's got a $375,000 grant from the federal government to test it out over the next three years. In his view as well as many others, the combination of physical and cognitive work in volunteering is conducive to better health and a longer than expected life expectancy.

So volunteering can not only expand your network and let you learn new skills but you will also be happier and healthier. So what are you waiting for?