It Might be Time to Cheat on Your Day Job: Finding Fulfillment Beyond the Nine to Five

As business professionals, we often treat our full-time jobs like a committed relationship, second only to our relationships with our partners and family. Just as with any important relationship in our personal lives, the career highs and lows and periods of growth can ebb and flow, leading to both milestones and periods of feeling like we are unappreciated or stuck in a rut.

In these moments of feeling like we’ve hit the glass ceiling, it’s important to remember there is more out there than your current nine-to-five. For example, going back to the personal and professional relationship comparison for just a second, we understand when we enter into a fully committed relationship that, our “significant other,” although significant, does not negate the need for outside friends, social groups, and hobbies.

Why can’t it be the same for our professional careers? Why is it that when we have a full-time job, we often fall prey to expecting this one position to provide the answer for all aspects of our career growth, skills, professional validation, and creativity?

It’s been my experience in my more than two decades of volunteering that if you are feeling stuck, underappreciated, or have been told you are not “ready” to lead that big project or land that coveted promotion at work, it’s time to look outside of your role. Don’t get me wrong; I am not recommending you quit your job. I am saying you can take charge of your career, gain valuable skills, and find fulfillment by building your extended professional community through volunteering. Here’s why:

Volunteering can improve your workplace performance.

Let’s say you’ve thrown your hat in the ring for a promotion at your job but lack the additional skills and professional experience to increase your chances of landing that promotion. Volunteering can be an incredibly powerful avenue to help you acquire and practice these skills, as nonprofit boards, volunteer committees, and programs can serve as excellent training grounds.

For example, serving as part of a volunteer committee can help you exercise and develop additional skills in project management, leadership, public speaking, sales and fundraising, event planning and more, all while helping a cause that is important to you. Working alongside a new group of people can be educational and enlightening in new ways, leading to personal and professional growth.

These experiences outside of your job allow you to connect with community members beyond your professional setting and can serve as resume boosters to help you land the promotion while showcasing your ability to gain experiences in different areas.

Volunteering can grow your professional network and widen your perspective.

Beyond growing your skills, volunteering can serve as a great way to grow your professional network by putting you in proximity with leaders and other business professionals that bring a different experience than you have. These new connections will broaden your views and perhaps even shift your impatience for promotion to an appreciation for the company and team you work with. For example, let’s say you volunteer with The Humane Society. Chances are good that the other volunteers are in vastly different careers, at different stages of life, and bring different skills and lived experiences, yet share the love of animals (in this example), uniting you as a cohesive team. This immediate common ground connection between you and other volunteers can serve as an instant relationship builder and an outstanding opportunity to learn from each other.

This is important as a strong network of contacts can lead to better job opportunities in the future by minimizing the degrees of separation between you and someone else in the business world. Just remember that it’s important to have a genuine passion for the nonprofit you choose to assist, as authenticity is easy to spot and nearly impossible to fake.

Volunteering builds fulfillment.

Beyond the professional benefits involved in volunteering, there are physiological benefits that accompany giving back and doing good for the larger community. In fact, a study conducted in 2020 highlighted that individuals who frequently volunteered reported more satisfaction with their lives and rated their overall health as higher. The emotional fulfillment that comes with serving as a leader or lending your talents to a cause you care about can sometimes supersede the fulfillment you gain by just doing well in your job. It can serve as a conduit for personal growth and gratification that goes beyond a salary or hourly wage and help bring in new perspectives for professional creativity and innovation.

If you are lacking professional fulfillment, it might be time to look beyond your day job.

Volunteering has been part of my life for over two decades, and throughout this time, I’ve come to find that in moments that I’ve felt professionally stuck or frustrated, community involvement has served as an avenue to gain personal fulfillment and professional growth as its provided balance between personal and professional interests that go beyond the regular nine to five.

Written by Wendy H. Steele.

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