Imagine after three months of volunteering with a technology startup, you realize you haven’t accomplished anything worthwhile, despite your hard work. This is because you can’t seem to remember what you’ve done or how you’ve grown professionally.
This is largely because you didn’t do so well in tracking your progress during your volunteer term. Tracking your progress is crucial because it generally helps you know the impact you’re making and the value you’re bringing to your personal and professional life. Now how do you do that? Let’s figure it out below.
How Volunteers Can Track Their Progress
SkilledUp Life does well by tasking volunteers to give reports on their daily volunteer activities. While this is a way of measuring progress, it takes more than giving daily updates to measure the impact you’re truly making. Let’s delve into what more you can do.
- Set clear and concise goals
The basic goal for volunteering with a startup is obviously to gain experience. This goal is quite ambiguous and so there’s a need to break it down or define it.
You should ask yourself what experience you want, what you need to do daily, what skills you want to learn by the end of your term, what values you’re looking for, what networking opportunities you seek, and many other questions you would need to ask yourself in order set clear and concise goals and objectives for your volunteer term? This makes it easier to track and assess your progress.
- Keep a journal
It’s important to keep a record of every milestone or achievement you make during your term. You should regularly make entries about your experiences, the skills you’re learning, your challenges and how you overcome them, your emotions, and your achievements; no matter how little they are.
A journal makes it easier for you to share your experiences, track your progress, increase your sense of responsibility, and documentation for future reference.
As per the culture of SkilledUp Lifers to give daily reports, don’t just do it because you’re obliged to, do it as a way to also track your progress.
- Seek Feedback from your Team Leader
What better way is there to track your progress than seeking feedback directly from your team leader? He/She is the best person to tell you how you’re doing. Receiving feedback is a good way to recognize your strengths and weaknesses, successes and failures. Be open-minded and respectful and appreciate every feedback you receive.
Ask specific questions, listen, and act on the feedback. You could also ask your team members if they’re willing to give you feedback on your performance. Feedback generally helps to enhance your performance, and relationships while helping you keep track of your progress.
- Acknowledge your achievements
Celebrate yourself when you achieve something impactful for the startup you work for. Recognizing your achievements is a great way to show appreciation for the work you do, and the results you’ve achieved. It’s also an excellent way to boost your volunteer spirit, motivation, and confidence. It can serve as an inspiration to others.
- Evaluate your learning
You’re essentially volunteering to learn something new, and so just as you write exams after a semester for assessment and evaluation, it’s also important to evaluate what you’re learning during your volunteer term. Frequently ask yourself what skills you’re learning, and what new knowledge you’ve gained. One great thing about volunteering with startups is that there’s always something new to learn, so it’d be wise to take advantage of that.
- Reflect on your personal growth and development
Finally, after your volunteer term, assess yourself against the goals you set. Have you gained the skills you were looking to gain? What significant impact have you made on the startup you volunteered for? What value have you gained? What significant network or relationships have you built? Is there any room for improvement? This assessment will enable you to recognize the significance of your volunteer involvement. This will also be a great time to start thinking of what to do next.
There you have it! Following these steps is the surest way to track your progress. If you ever feel like you haven’t been able to achieve your goals for volunteering, there’s always the chance to extend your volunteer term.
If you’re curious about SkilledUp Life and want to be a part of the community then you will have to take the following steps.
- Visit our website at www.skilledup.life,
- create a volunteer account.
- Fill it up to at least 70%, and
- Apply to any suitable opportunity.
If you’re looking to volunteer, always keep in mind that SkilledUp Life has the best opportunities.
Article Written By Abena Adjei-Baffoe
