"Should I put my volunteering on my CV? What about charity work, or hobbies?" The honest answer is the same for all three: yes, but only where they evidence a skill or quality the job actually asks for. A line that shows something useful earns its place. A line that just fills space gets you skipped. Here is how to tell which is which.
The mistake is treating these as a personality section. Recruiters are not reading your CV to get to know you as a person, they are scanning for evidence you can do the job. So the test for any hobby, interest, volunteering role or charity work is one question: does it prove something the employer is screening for? If yes, it belongs, phrased around what it demonstrates. If no, cut it and use the space for an achievement.
Volunteering and charity work: this is experience, treat it like experience
The biggest missed opportunity on UK CVs is burying real volunteering at the bottom as a throwaway line. If you served on a charity shop till, organised a fundraiser, ran a club rota or mentored younger members, that is genuine, scoreable experience. It shows customer service, organisation, reliability and teamwork exactly the way a paid job would. Put it under Experience, not as an afterthought, whenever it is relevant to the role.
This matters most if you are early career, changing direction, or returning after a break. For school leavers with no paid work, volunteering is often the strongest thing on the page (we walk through a full example in what schools don't teach about CVs). For career breaks, volunteering keeps your timeline active and answers the gap before it is asked.
Before and after: making a volunteering line work
Same charity work, two ways of writing it. The first is filler. The second is evidence.
Before (filler)
"I volunteer at a local charity shop and enjoy helping out in my community."
After (evidence)
Volunteer Sales Assistant, British Heart Foundation
Leeds · Sept 2024 to present
- Serve customers on the till and handle cash and card payments accurately every Saturday.
- Sort, price and merchandise donated stock, keeping the shop floor tidy during busy periods.
- Helped run a half-term donation drive that brought in a record week of stock.
The "after" version never says "hardworking" or "good with people". It shows both, with a setting, a routine and an outcome. That is the same principle as any strong CV bullet, covered in how to highlight achievements that matter.
Hobbies and interests: optional, and only if they pull their weight
Hobbies sit at the very bottom and are entirely optional. Include them when you are light on relevant experience and a well-chosen interest adds real signal. Drop the section completely when your CV is already full of strong, relevant work. The rule is the same: each one must show something.
Earns its place
- Captain of a Sunday league team (commitment, leadership)
- Built and sell a small craft side project (initiative, money handling)
- Conversational Polish (a hard skill)
- School STEM club volunteer (the role you want is technical)
Cut it
- "Socialising with friends"
- "Watching films and listening to music"
- "Reading" (with no relevance shown)
- Anything that could be on literally anyone's CV
Where each one belongs
Position matters as much as content:
- Relevant volunteering or charity work goes under Experience, on the timeline, with dates and bullets.
- One-off achievements (raised £400 for charity, completed a charity marathon) can sit in a short "Achievements" line or inside the relevant role.
- Hobbies and interests go in a brief optional line at the very bottom, two or three at most.
And know what to remove to make room. Plenty of the standard CV furniture is dead weight, covered in what to leave off your CV in 2026. If you are explaining time out, pair this with how to handle CV gaps and career breaks.
How to decide in 10 seconds
For every hobby, interest, volunteering role or charity line, ask: would a recruiter for this specific job care? If you can name the skill it proves and the job wants that skill, keep it and phrase it around the skill. If you cannot, cut it. Paste the advert and your draft into our free CV check and we will flag which lines are pulling their weight and which are filler. If you are building from scratch, the first CV builder starts from zero.
Frequently asked questions
Should I put volunteering on my CV?▾
Yes, when it shows a skill or quality the job asks for. Volunteering counts as real experience: if you served on a charity till, ran a fundraiser or coordinated a rota, that evidences customer service, organisation and reliability just as well as paid work. List it the same way you would a job, with a couple of outcome-focused bullets.
Does charity work count as experience in the UK?▾
Yes. UK recruiters treat relevant volunteering as experience, especially for entry-level, career-change and return-to-work applications. What matters is what you did and what it shows, not whether you were paid. Put it under Experience (not a separate afterthought) when it is directly relevant to the role.
Where do hobbies and interests go on a CV?▾
At the bottom, and only if they earn the space. A hobby earns its place when it demonstrates something useful to the employer: a team sport shows commitment, a side project shows initiative, a language is a hard skill. "Socialising, watching films" tells a recruiter nothing and is better cut.
Should I include hobbies and interests on a UK CV at all?▾
It is optional. If you are short on relevant experience (school leaver, graduate, career changer), a well-chosen interests line can add useful signal. If your CV is already full of strong, relevant experience, you can drop the section entirely and use the space for more achievements.
How do I list volunteering when I have no paid experience?▾
Treat it as your main experience. Give it a heading, the organisation, dates, and 2 to 3 bullets describing what you did and the result. "Volunteer sales assistant, Cancer Research UK, served customers on the till and sorted donated stock every Saturday for a year" is real, relevant experience a recruiter can score.
Can volunteering fill an employment gap?▾
Yes, and it is one of the best ways to. Volunteering or charity work during a career break shows you stayed active and kept skills current, which reassures recruiters far more than an unexplained gap. List it on the timeline like any other role. See our guide on explaining CV gaps for how to frame the surrounding dates.