Experts offer tactics for non-profit job-hunting
Posted on 14 October 2009
Permanent URL of this article: http://retirementrevised.com/career/experts-offer-tactics-for-non-profit-job-hunting
I’m auditing a seminar series this month on encore careers featuring Marc Freedman, CEO of Civic Ventures and Nancy Morrow-Howell, a professor of Social Work at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University. The seminar is called “An Introduction to Encore Careers” and is sponsored by The New York Times Knowledge Network.
Last week’s session offered an overview of encore careers; this week offered a close-up on tactics and issues facing people interested in making midlife transitions from the business world to the non-profit sector.
The speakers all have direct experience with non-profit hiring:
Susan Stepleton, CEO, Parents as Teachers
–Susan S. Stepleton, CEO & President, Parents As Teachers, one of the nation’s largest parent education and early childhood development programs.
–Gary Dollar, CEO of the United Way of Greater St. Louis.
–David Simms, managing partner of Bridgestar, which recruits senior-level managers for non-profits.
The sweet spot of opportunity lies in ancillary roles that leverage candidates’ business sector skills, according to Dollar–”CFOs, human resources, marketing, and people who can manage grants–especially in the government sector.”
Stepleton added that “direct practice jobs working with a non-profit’s client base will be harder to find, even if that is the immediate draw. You’ll have credibility issues with program staffers who have come up through the ranks. And these jobs often require specific training or a graduate degree.”
Know what you bring to the sector
David Simms, Managing Partner, Bridgestar
According to Simms, candidates making the transition from business have three qualities that non-profits find attractive:
1. Knowledge of best practices;
2.Broader, well-rounded perspectives, and an ability to align resources against an organization’s mission to achieve results.
3. Bottom line orientation–how to serve clients in the most cost effective manner possible.
Understand the cultural issues
Successful transitions depend on the bridger’s ability to adapt to the culture of non-profits. “There’s a huge need for communication and consensus-building skills,” Simms said. “Employee empowerment factors are key to success. If you have excelled in a command-and-control model, that wont work for you in a non-profit organization.”
Approaching an interview
In interviews, Stepleton tries to gain an understanding of a job candidate’s motivation and attitudes. “It’s a turn-off to a non-profit manager who has been in the trenches a long time if a candidate has the attitude that ‘I’m bringing all the wealth of knowledge of the for profit sector to you.’ It’s disrespectul and inaccurate, so those folks are finished from the get-go. But I’m also looking for self-awaremess on why someone wants to make the switch. If you’re of a job in one sector, that isn’t a good enough reason on its own.”
Recession’s impact on the job market
Gary Dollar, CEO, United Way of St. Louis
The economic crash put the non-profit job market “on pause” six months ago, Dollar said. But the market is starting to expand again, partly the result of federal stimulus dollars that are beginning to reach local communities.
Bridgestar tabulates total non-profit jobs posted each week on jobs boards; the tally showed available jobs had plunged at the start of 2009 by 40 percent from just before the market crash last fall. But current trends show a trnaround, with around 11,800 jobs posted on various job boards, Simms said.
