Career Interview
An ENFP's fight to leverage her love of South America to build a career in the NGO sector
How would you describe your career in 30 seconds?
I did an undergraduate degree in languages then spent 5 years travelling and teaching English
(TEFL). I then went back to studying and did a masters – which was pivotal in helping me
figure out what to do. I did a generalist MA (in Area Studies – Latin America). From the MA I
came out with the desire to work in rural development in South America – though when you’ve
only got experience of TEFL, this was no easy gig!
I volunteered for a ‘fair trade’ organisation – which was a start though soul destroying. I was teaching TEFL at the same time to give me an income. I then went to South America and did some volunteering there – which was very rewarding. And this is a theme from my career; how important it is to get your feet on the ground. Because I didn’t have the skills and experience to get the roles that I was looking for, I went down the academic path and did my PhD, which gave me 2 years in the field, enabled me to build a network and when I came out of that I was finally employable!
Why was the ‘fair trade’ role soul destroying?
I pushed myself on them and there was no structure. There wasn’t any learning path, no learning
objectives. I was keen and had all this energy and was willing to work for free, but I was
looking for their help in helping me develop skills to build my CV. I was very naive, so just
ended up doing odds and sods and didn’t really get anywhere.
What have been the 'best bits' of your career?
The best bits are definitely where I was in the field. My PhD was probably the highlight.
I was on the ground and had a lot of autonomy. From not having any clear direction, I suddenly had
a very clear structure and for the first time, I had credibility and felt respected. I completely
fell on my feet but I had laid the foundations through networking and reaching out to people.
The networking I had carried out in Bolivia enabled me to get the funding to do the PhD. I could show that I knew the context. I was on a very cool project, and I was given the freedom to set direction and manage the budget. It was a fantastic experience.
If you were to meet the 20-year old verson of you, what career advice would you give?
Try and take a holistic approach. It’s a journey. I still leverage things that I did 20 years
ago. In every role you are layering – building up skills. Understand that there will be jobs
that you like and jobs that don’t work as well, but that you are constantly layering.
The bits that have worked for me include the TEFL training (that I thought was irrelevant at the time, and yet I use the facilitation skills I learned there regularly), languages (particularly if you’re going to work in the field) and studying.
I got a £500 grant from IFAD (UN agency based in Rome) to support my MA thesis. After I finished I invited myself to visit and introduced myself hoping they would give me a job. They didn’t, but the contact there (who I am still in contact with 20 years later), told me to go and get field experience – that was the best advice I got, and it is advice I pass on. Find a way to get yourself into a local NGO or project for 6 months.
Be prepared to hunt out jobs. Early in my career I was really hungry and went out there. Looking back I was fearless; I applied for loads of jobs and didn’t get to interview. Then the PhD door opened. Be prepared to flex. For example, another degree wasn’t what I thought I was going to do next, but it was amazing.
What things would you do differently?
I think one of the things is finding a specialisation. I have found mine now, in Monitoring and Evaluation
and previously it was Agriculture and Rural development. Having clarity of that has been hugely important.
Having said that, what I like about my role now is that I get the macro view and get involved with a lot of things. I think this depends on your personality – are you a big picture person or are you someone who like to focus on one thing – a specialist. I more of a ‘process’ expert than a ‘thematic’ expert and understanding this difference I think is key.
There was a job I turned down that I have never stopped regretting. I was looking at 2 jobs – and the second job was taking a long time to make a decision, so I took the first job, and had started working when the second offer was made. I didn’t want to let down my new employers, so I didn’t take it. In retrospect, that was a mistake. In turns out that I hated the role and didn’t like my boss.
So my lesson there was about not being pressured to take decisions and to consider the long game rather than just the next 6 months. If I had spent some time understanding the institutions, if I had stepped back and considered whether I was better working in a 5 person NGO vs an established research institute with career development pathways, more money, and more responsibility, I would have made a better decision.
What advice would you give someone looking to get into an NGO?
I took the path less travelled - took myself off into to the field, got experience and
then backed that up with study. Nowadays, I see the entry level jobs in NGOs, in low-level
admin or comms roles and they seem really dull. There’s no apparent pathway to get you to
where you want to get to. You risk getting stuck there.
In the sector, there are a lot of good people working really, really hard. There’s also a lot of power and ego. It’s got a lot tougher, and the funding has got a lot tighter. It good to understand the programs of the NGO which is where the ‘sexy’ stuff is – though there are also support roles (finance, comms, monitoring and evaluation). So, be clear on the path you want to take. Ask yourself ‘If I do this role for 2 years where’s it going to take me?’.
Any final thoughts about managing a career?
Build your network. People and situations come back around and become relevant again over time.
You’ve got to be quite thick-skinned. You’ll have a lot of rejection. And remember, sometimes the doors that close are not the right doors.
If you are based in the UK, get to understand the FCDO and their development priorities. A lot of that government money filters down through the NGOs in this country. Recognise that the priorities change. Now they are looking at climate change, girls’ education, and conflict. Conflict in particular, is such a big area - so much of the aid is now related to conflict / fragile conflict affected states. Having an eye on the macro picture is crucial.
Me and ‘my small holder’ farmers – were right then with the focus on building livelihoods and poverty reduction. That’s now all gone. The frameworks that we’re talking about now are about conflict, climate, gender, girls’ education, governance, and digital. Look at those macro themes and find what’s interesting to you and then read around the subject. You need to know the issues, the people and what’s going on.
You will need to learn how to network. You’ll need to reach out to people to find out who to reach out to... You’ll need to get comfortable with the “so and so has mentioned that I reach out to you” type conversations. I’m a natural networker but even if you’re not, it’s going to be important.
It makes me sound old but when I started there was no Twitter but that is an amazing resource to get a sense of who is who and who does what. Key thinkers, projects and organisations will all regularly tweet about their work and the current issues in the sector so follow people and retweet them but be careful of expressing opinions too quickly, there are no black and white solutions in this business.
Career Management
Taking control of your career leads to many questions: what job should I do? Where should I work? How should I find a job? What jobs best fit my personality? The role of Higher is to help you answer these questions; build your self-awareness, give you confidence in being able to explain who you are, and give you support on the '4.5 million minute marathon' that is your career.
If you enjoyed this article, have a look at some other articles that might be of interest and then take your own personality assessment - it's free, quick and who knows where it might take you?
