Interview with the volunteer; 'Pitt' your wits with a step-by-step guide to grabbing that perfect charity job
Rachel recently joined the nfpSynergy team as a Research Assistant and she provides research and administrative support to our CAM team. Before that she was the Ethical Careers Coordinator at Student Hubs, where she was responsible for helping students find work experience in the third sector. She has been on both sides of the application process and as a recent graduate herself, she shares her top tips for finding a job in the third sector.
With just under 800,000 employed in the third sector at the end of last year, the number of people seeking out careers in charities has been steadily increasing since 2007. Making yourself stand out to employers is paramount to getting a foot on the charity career ladder. An area once regarded as an ‘unconventional’ career path has now become fiercely competitive and highly desirable. But what can you do to give yourself a headstart?
Skills-driven or cause-driven
Know your stuff! The early stages of a charity career often come in one of two forms; skills-driven or cause-driven. Decide whether you want to look for a role which contains specific skills, for example grant proposal writing, or whether you are more focussed on working for a specific cause, like wanting a job in an international development or mental health charity.
Go Investigate!
If you’re interested in a skills-focussed role then make sure you check out websites and blogs dedicated to these areas. For grant proposal writing you could check out the Institute of Fundraising website. If you’re interested in a specific cause, start researching some of the leading charities in that area and the key issues it faces. For both, work out if further study is required for breaking into that area; often it isn’t, but best to check first!
VOLUNTEER!
This is a bit of a no-brainer really; if you want to work in the charity sector you are going to need to prove your dedication and the easiest way to do this is through volunteering. Us charity folk love a bit of volunteering; creating social change is what it’s all about and there is no better way to get experience.
It’s not all working in charity shops and going on litter runs. What is great about volunteering is that you can do what you love. Volunteers can get involved in the top level decision-making in a charity by becoming a trustee and most organisations involve volunteers at every level. The key is finding the right position and this is something you can afford to be very choosy about. Look for positions which match your interests, reflect the time you are willing to commit and offer you training or supervision throughout.
Oh and whilst you’re at it, you should keep your eyes peeled for the next nfpSynergy report on volunteering - it’s going to be epic. But in the meantime, check out the Do-it website for volunteering placements to suit you.
Conducting your job search and looking for roles
Conducting a job search can feel a bit like competing in a 100 metre sprint with a blindfold on…it’s difficult to know where the start line is, how close you are to the end and who else you are racing against.
Narrow your search right down. This may seem like unconventional advice, but only go for roles you are seriously interested in and can meet most of the criteria for. Applying for every single job you come across will only reduce the quality of your applications.
Great places to start looking for third sector opportunities are Third Sector Jobs, Charity People and Guardian Careers. But don’t just go with the obvious options; also remember to start following charities you like on Twitter. They will often tweet about any opportunities which open up and make sure you are using LinkedIn to its full capacity during your job hunt.
Brush up that CV
Notice how this step comes after you have started your job hunt? Do not think about writing one conventional CV and sending it off to every job you apply for. Find the job description first and then tailor your CV to fit the role. Third sector CVs are a bit different from academic or corporate CVs and so you may need to get yours up to scratch (more advice on that here). As somebody who received over 300 CVs to read last year, one of my top tips would be to always send your CV in the correct format. If the organisation asks for a PDF, they want a PDF, not want a Word Document. Following basic instructions always bodes well with a potential employer!
Awesome application writing
Use your key achievements from your CV to form the ‘bare bones’ of your application form and then flesh them out with extra detail and inject a little bit of personality into your writing. Trawl through their website and pick up on some of the key terms used and stick these in your application; it looks as if you are already using ‘their’ language and suggests you’ll fit in well. In the not-for-profit sector, an organisation’s mission statement and values will be of paramount importance to them, so make sure you address these at some point in the application form. And always, always get your application proof-read by somebody else.
Acing the interview
‘Failure to prepare is preparing to fail’. No phrase is truer than this for interviews. Prepare answers to common interview questions, go in with some examples of relevant past experience and think of two intelligent questions about the role or the organisation to ask at the end. One thing about the third sector is that your motivations for applying for the role are as equally important as your skills, so make sure you have thought this through. Also bear in mind that you can train people to have certain skills, but you can’t ‘make’ them fit in a team. Team spirit is important in charities whose work deals with difficult issues, so make sure you are warm and friendly in the interview room and don’t let your nerves get to you.
One of my friends likens the interview process to online dating. First you connect online over written word during the application process, then if you both like what you see you’ll arrange to meet up (the interview). After the interview, it might either be love at first sight and you get the job straightaway or you might go for a second interview, but sometimes your date decides they’re not interested and doesn’t call you back ever again. Not sure if comparing interviews to dates makes the interview more or less scary, but the point is that interviews should be a two-way process; you are there to make sure the organisation seems like a nice place to work as much as they are there to see if you are the right person for the job.
And the final step that everyone forgets
Send your follow-up note the next day. Email your interviewers a few short lines thanking them for their time (after all they do have other work to do!), summarise your strengths and confirm your interest in the role. One tiny step can make them feel good and shows the role is important to you. But do check the spelling of names!
Rachel Egan
Have we employed the right techinique? Or have we not applied ourselves in the right way? Leave us a comment below.
Image used under creative commons license, thanks to Al Jordan.