When Rajiv Gupta joined Deloitte as a Strategy & Operations consultant for the federal government practice in 2006, he expected his first opportunity for promotion to senior consultant to come in 2008. However, he earned that first promotion at Deloitte in 2007, a full year earlier than anticipated.

Rajiv credits his volunteer efforts with playing a large role in his professional success and rapid promotion. Early on in his tenure at Deloitte, volunteerism appealed to Rajiv because it represented an opportunity to contribute to the community, while also serving as a significant development opportunity. As a result, he volunteered to help organize IMPACT Day (Deloitte's national day of volunteerism) and was able to showcase his broad range of professional skills and strengths in ways that might not have been possible in his day-to-day role. 

Rajiv oversaw the internal communications team in the greater Washington, DC area for the last two IMPACT Days. He helped to spearhead the highly successful employee registration component of the program, which resulted in record levels of participation. Rajiv used his consulting skills to develop and implement work and staffing plans, which created an opportunity for him to demonstrate leadership, teamwork and management skills. It offered Rajiv the chance to work with all levels of Deloitte staff from a variety of different functional areas, giving him valuable exposure to senior management and helping to build his professional network.

Though the benefits of volunteerism on the community are clear, Rajiv says professionals cannot discount how volunteering can benefit the individual volunteer as well. Volunteering to help lead IMPACT Day not only helped Rajiv develop an internal network and strengthen his management and leadership skills, it also allowed Rajiv to "try on" tasks with different types of skills to see if they were a good fit. "Volunteerism — especially skills-based volunteerism — allows you to practice a new skill without the risks in a client engagement," Rajiv explained.

Looking ahead, Rajiv hopes to engage other employees in volunteering. "The role has given me an opportunity to network with a number of my peers and leadership that I might not otherwise meet," Rajiv said. "I’d like to see others have the same valuable opportunity."

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