Steven Pascal-Joiner has worked as a teacher and a freelance writer,
but he found the career that really fit in the nonprofit world. He's so
happy with his choice, that he wants to give others the same
opportunity. As the Mid-Career Transitions Coordinator for the
nonprofit organization Action Without Borders/Idealist.org,
that's exactly what he does. Do-Gooder called Steven at his office in
Portland, Oregon, to get a few tips on finding the right nonprofit
career.

You're one of the authors on the Idealist Guide to Nonprofit Careers, a great online resource. Why did Idealist decide to publish a nonprofit career guide?

Finding
opportunities in the nonprofit sector is a unique job seeking
experience. A lot of people don't have a clear conception of what the
nonprofit sector is. They think it's soup kitchens or people sitting in
trees to stop logging, but it's a multi-trillion dollar segment of the
economy. The nonprofit sector permeates all communities in the United
States and abroad, where there are these huge NGOs.

Once you
get into the sector, it's important to know that there are very
strategic ways to get hired. It doesn't follow the pattern of
corporations where they start courting new MBAs in the spring, so
people know where they're going before they graduate. Nonprofits don't
have recruiting budgets or coordinated recruiting. You have to be very
conscious and deliberate about creating these opportunities because
they won't land in your lap.

The key words in the guide are "Self, Sector, Synergy." Can you say briefly what those three words mean for nonprofit careers?

Self,
Sector, Synergy needs to be the road map people follow. The self piece
is self-knowledge. The typical white collar thinking is that you go to
college and get degree and then get a job in your field, and then you
get another job. People aren't really conscious that you have to make
self-aware choices in the career that you make. You can't go anywhere
if you don't know where you're going. If you don't know yourself, you
won't convey your interests well.

If you're applying for a nonprofit job, you're going to be one of 30
applications from people all saying they want to do good. How are you
going to stand out? Do you want to serve in a particular mission? Are
you interested in child advocacy? Are you particularly interested in
working for Idealist.org or Doctors Without Borders or the Gates
Foundation. You have to show the organization your passion.

Sector
refers to the nonprofit system, whether it's huge like Harvard
University or it's a small organization with a small budget. How do you
want to be engaged? Do you want to work for a grassroots startup,
that's really cutting edge, but they have to worry about funding. Or do
you prefer the United Way, which might move slower, but you don't have
to worry about your paycheck.

The last piece was the Synergy:
where is the connection between you and the organization? Maybe your
mission doesn't involve working on the front lines. Maybe you're on the
board of a local arts organization, but you couldn't pick up a pencil.
You have to understand what resonates with you and how that resonates
with the nonprofit sector as a whole.

The guide suggests
that "who you know" matters in landing the right job. Tell us a little
bit about what the guide calls a "network management system."

Nonprofits
tend to have decentralized recruiting strategies: when hiring, 99
percent of nonprofits look internally to volunteers, interns, and their
networks. Nonprofits rely on people power more than other sectors
because there's often limited resources.

So nonprofits create a
vast network of people. When a job opens up, are they going to go to a
pile of paper or are you going to go to your network? The positions
that are advertised online are a fraction of what you would find if you
were networking.

But having your own network won't help if you aren't actively managing
it: you keep track of e-mails, and keep in touch. You write a little
not, saying I thought of you the other day, I saw this interesting news article.
That puts you back on the radar, so when an opportunity comes up,
people in your network will say: I wonder if Bob is still looking for a
development job?

The guide talks about the importance of understanding an organization's "culture." Why is that so important?

There
are always three questions when you're being considered for a job: Can
you do the job? Will you do the job? and will you fit in? In any
sector, if you can't prove to me that you can't do the skills required,
I won't consider you.

If the answer to whether you can do the
job is yes, the second question is: Will you do the job? What in your
cover letter or resume shows your passion for the job? The cover letter
is a good place to make those connections to what about this
organization makes this resonate with you.

The third question
is: Will you fit in? At Idealist we have a two-part interview process.
The first part is the skills, and the second part is an informal chat
with two or three people in the office to see what kind of person you
are. A lot of nonprofits are people-powered, and you can't run a
people-powered organization if the people don't like each other.