Volunteering to Build Your Profile

Building your portfolio as a geospatial professional is important, even more so are the experiences that make up the portfolio. In this episode we sat down to talk about volunteering as a way to improve your skills and build your portfolio.

We also explore the types a well as organizations that you can volunteer you geospatial skill to.

Below is a summary of the  benefits of volunteering covered in this episode;

a. Developing technical as well as soft skills

b. Gaining experience working with global teams

c. Confidence building (in your skills and abilities)

d. Working on projects you can showcase in your portfolio (seek permission before you can showcase them as your own)

e. Gain valuable real world/Industry experience.

f. Expanding your network

We also covered how to get started volunteering for the following organisations;

a. UN Volunteers https://www.unv.org/become-volunteer

b. URISA GISCorps https://www.giscorps.org/

c. GIS-E https://www.gis-e.org/

d. GRMI https://www.georiskmap.org/

e. YouthMappers https://www.youthmappers.org/

f. HOTOSM https://www.hotosm.org/

g. MapAction https://mapaction.org/get-involved/join-us/

h. MapRoulette https://maproulette.org/

i. MapSwipe https://mapswipe.org/en/

j. Greenstand (Can volunteer as GIS Developer) https://greenstand.org/contribute/volunteer

k. African Women In GIS https://africanwomeningis.org/

l. Women in Geospatial+ https://womeningeospatial.org/

The skills you gain from volunteering could be invaluable; they could add up to your experience and might just be the ticket you need to land your next job. It could also tell recruiters that you are passionate about making a positive impact.