The one thing that every event has in common is the volunteers. Without volunteers, organizing a successful event is next to impossible. And that's where you come in and volunteer. But since volunteers never get paid, what is in it for you? Let's take a look at the reasons why you should volunteer more.

1. CV: You're growing up, like it or not, and will soon be looking for a job somewhere. All your experiences matter. Beside work or co-curricular experiences, your volunteering roles matter too, especially if you get a certificate. In fact, your activeness in such events adds weight to your CV, as it reflects that you are a team-player who knows how to tackle situations and get the work done. 

2. Making connections: For a student, volunteering in events is the best way to meet new people with the same interests as you, since you both ended up volunteering for the same event. If you take a group of friends with you, chances are that you'll stick to them and not make connections. Don't do that. Moreover, don't be uptight when others try to strike up a conversation with you. Roam around, talk to others, and expand your network. As you work together, you'll get to know them better, and who knows, you might as well become friends... or more. 

3. Developing important skills: When you volunteer, you'll have to work a lot. You may be divided up into teams with specialisation as per need. As you work in that specialized team, you learn more about it, what the tasks are or how to manage those. These things will help you later in handling difficult real-life problems, and during any event you organise, even if it's the holud programme of your cousin. Volunteering, after all, is an opportunity for skill development. Chances are that you'll get to meet influential people who might even offer you an internship if they like your work. Take full advantage of it and learn as much as you can with hands-on experience.

4. Experiencing the good things for free: Be it a concert, a literary festival, or an inspirational programme by accomplished personnel, when you're a volunteer, you can enjoy all those for free, mostly. Yes, your responsibility as a volunteer always needs to be of the utmost importance, but who's to say it will stop you from enjoying? In fact, during the briefing of volunteers for any event, the organizers always say, "Don't forget to have fun between tasks." The rest is self-explanatory. 

5. Free goodies: I once volunteered in an inter-university programming competition. Of all the goodies, we got t-shirts, bags, notepads, pens, key-rings and other stuff. Most events are like that. Each volunteer always gets a t-shirt at the bare minimum. This is not only to keep the volunteers happy, but also for promotional purposes on the organizers' part. But who cares about the finer details? Free goodies never harmed anyone.

6. Food: Organizers take great measures to provide sufficient food for the volunteers during meetings and during the main event, to keep the energy levels high. Shingara or biriyani, food is good. If for nothing else, volunteer for the refreshments.

The next time your mother asks you why you want to work for an event which will not even pay you, inform her about all that you have to gain from your volunteering experience. Now go ahead, look for an upcoming big event. Be the volunteer that the event deserves, and also the one it needs right now.