Differences can include organizational capacity, financial stability, and integrity. While no organization will be a perfect match for you, there will be some that place greater emphasis on the aspects that you consider to be important.

Know the development environment

First of all, you should ensure you are aware of the differences between the major types of development organizations, so you have an idea of what to expect from the organization in question. Working for a for-profit is normally very different from working for a non-profit, which in turn is different from a government or intergovernmental organization.

Research the organization

An obvious place to start is the Internet and the official website. Some organizations, particularly NGOs, can be started by anyone, and may not be a professionally-run operation: even worse, some NGOs may be inauthentic. Find out about how the organization is managed.

Google the organization and see what results come up apart from their own website’s results. There may be past news stories, or commentary related to the organization. In addition, keep your eyes open for current stories in the local media that mention the organization. For example, if the organization runs projects in Zambia, search Zambian blogs and news websites for the name of the organization. If you find something potentially revealing, contact the news agency or ask to speak with the reporter.

If you are able, visit the office location, and try and get a sense of the neighborhood and the people that work there - without being too creepy of course!

Ask for an informational interview

It can be very helpful to have an informational interview with someone who works at the organization. Potentially, you may get a very biased view of the organization, but often the informal nature of an informational interview, will lead to a reasonable level of honesty from your interviewee.

Speak to people who have worked with the organization previously

If you ask around, people working in development may have worked for, with, or have heard about the organization. Be prepared to take these opinions with a substantial grain of salt: ex-workers may have been dismissed, or bear a grudge; colleagues can have a biased opinion; and rumor is often just rumor. Nevertheless, if you do hear negative comments, it is probably worth investigating further!

Volunteer or be an intern

There is nothing that can beat volunteering or interning to get the most comprehensive and unbiased understanding of an organization. This will allow you to see what goes on behind the public front of an organization, and also to meet and get to know the people that run the place. Combine this with the other benefits of volunteering, and it really does become an attractive option!

The Example Job Advertisement

We have selected a recent job advertisement that may provide a suitable opportunity for a newcomer to the field of development and that is now expired. The interpretation is our own conjecture based on experience applying and hiring within development, and has not been authorized in any way by Oxfam UK. While every job description will be laid out differently, this is a fairly typical example.

Advertisement Breakdown

Job Details

Funding Co-ordinator (Oxfam GB)
Dakar, Senegal
£20,730 – £26,910 net pa (plus £3000 net pa Hard to Work Allowance, 1 fixed-term contract)

Pay attention to the fact that this is a branch of an NGO: Oxfam GB. This may mean there are restrictions on who can apply. The location is stated to be Dakar, but if the job involves a large amount of travel, you may spend long periods outside of the capital. Looking at remuneration, the range in base salary provides some bargaining room: if you scrape by on the requirements, you will be looking at the lower end of the range and vice-versa. The “Hard to Work Allowance” is provided each year as a compensation for the difficulties associated with the job.

Job Description

The role
Working under the direct guidance of the Country Director, you’ll support the Chad programme to manage existing donor contracts and help secure new funding. The ability to write/edit donor proposals and reports is essential. You’ll ensure that donor reports are submitted on time and that reports meet donor regulations, as well as maintaining accurate files (with particular reference to asset management and audit trails) that are in compliance with donor requirements. You’ll have good organisational awareness, understanding how to get a range of information and who to keep informed.

This is the meat of the job advertisement: what the job actually involves, which in this case is fundraising. This job description details who the position reports to, and also, unusually, begins stating some requirements of the position. This information is normally (and should be) kept separate from the job description, which should be purely about the role, responsibilities, and activities associated with the position.

“Ability to write/edit donor proposals” is the first job requirement in this advert, and refers to a soft skill, that will most likely be judged depending on past experience. However, if you are able to demonstrate good writing skills (e.g. author/editor of a publication), this may be an acceptable substitute.

“Good organisational awareness…” is the second stated job requirement, and this is again a soft skill that is dependent on experience within an organization. “…understanding how to get a range of information and who to keep informed” implies that this experience should be in a larger organization, and that you are able to work independently and effectively in this environment.

Requirements

What we are looking for
You’ll have experience in dealing with funding contracts from a range of institutional donors such as DFID, ECHO and UN agencies such as UNHCR and UNICEF as well as donor representation experience. You’ll have experience of carrying out training so that you can build up the project team’s capacity around donors and contract management. You’ll have good administrative and systems skills and be highly computer literate. Attention to detail as well as numeracy, budgeting and financial reporting skills, and the ability to work with others in a team are all essential. You’ll have excellent written and spoken English and ideally good French. Knowledge of Oxfam or overseas programme experience is highly desirable.

This is obviously a very important section of the job advert, as it details how they are screening candidates. The position calls for direct experience with raising funds from major donors, and also “donor representation experience”, which means experience interacting with donors on behalf of another organization. These two requirements will be the hardest to achieve for newcomers to development, but this sort of experience could easily be come by through a voluntary position.

Training experience is required, which is a soft skill that can easily be attained through previous work, hobbies, and leisure activities. Obviously, the closer your training experience is to capacity building, the stronger your application.

“Administrative and systems skills… computer literate” are soft skills that are highlighted as important, and are readily achievable from past work or from experience in a group or team. Cited as essential “…attention to detail…” and “…ability to work with others in a team…” are also soft skills that can easily be developed in previous work or any situation where you have been involved in a group (e.g. sports team, organising events etc.). Slightly more demanding to achieve are “numeracy, budgeting and financial reporting skills”, also deemed to be essential. If you have any experience reporting how funds have been spent (e.g. to donors of a sports event you have organized), this will have provided you with relevant skills.

The next sentence deals with language requirements: “You’ll have excellent written and spoken English and ideally good French”. These are the only hard skills mentioned in this whole job description, and even then, the qualifier “ideally good” does not rule out candidates with no French ability at all.

Again there is a qualifying phrase “highly desirable”, indicating the importance of “knowledge of Oxfam or overseas programme experience”. There is no excuse for not finding out about Oxfam, as this is readily available on the internet, but the applicant should also be finding out about Oxfam GB. Overseas programme experience is obviously something that will help your application, but it has not been prioritized in these job requirements, allowing those without any experience to apply.

Background

Who we are
Oxfam is a worldwide organisation that employs over 6,000 people in more than 80 countries to overcome poverty and suffering. We believe that in a world rich in resources, these aren’t just facts of life, but injustices which must be overcome. In Chad, we are currently providing essential relief and humanitarian assistance to displaced communities affected by political unrest in the northern and southern axis. Through direct action, lobbying and advocacy work Oxfam is helping to rebuild lives, empower communities and influence governments.

A quick description of Oxfam, which is certainly not enough background knowledge for an applicant - remember, they have stated that “knowledge of Oxfam” is highly desirable.

Procedure

To apply
If you share our belief that every aspect of your work can lead to a positive outcome – this role will provide personal fulfilment and invaluable international experience. For details on how to apply and further information on how you can work to find lasting solutions to poverty and suffering around the world, please visit www.oxfam.org.uk/jobs quoting ref: INT2744.

Make sure you pay attention to the stated procedure. It is vital to get this right, otherwise the time spent on a well-crafted application could be utterly wasted. In this case, the procedure is detailed on the recruiting organization’s website. You should make a habit of always searching for and visiting the website of any organization you are applying to, as there may be additional information regarding the job and job requirements.

Deadline

Closing date: 25 June 2008.

Does this mean the end of 25 of June 2008 in the UK? Probably, but make sure you give yourself a buffer of 24 hours to be sure. If you’re running out of time, and you’re still not satisfied your application is perfect, it still may be better to send it in, rather than run the risk of overshooting the deadline. If you really need more time, consider emailing them to explain why you can’t make the deadline - but the reason had better be really convincing.

Conclusion

Interestingly, this job requires very few hard skills, which highlights the importance of developing your soft skills. Neither does it require a certain number of years experience in development, which is a common stipulation. Therefore, this type of job provides a very good opportunity to break into international development.

Contrary to what some may think, soft skills can be improved. Not only that, but working on your soft skills will provide one of the best return on investments in terms of employability. The great thing about these skills is that they are transferable into any career. If you decide development is not for you, the time you have spent improving these skills has not been wasted. One further reason that soft skills are worth investing in, is that they do not become dated, whereas that hard skills can become obsolete as technology and methodology change.

While changing or learning these skills is a significant time investment and therefore beneficial in the long-term, by becoming familiar with them, you can get short term benefits in an interview situation.

What skills are most valued?

The skills that are most important for you to develop will depend on the type of role you are looking for and the type of organization you are hoping to work for. To identify which skills you should be targeting, regularly read relevant job advertisements, and identify the “soft skill” requirements or preferences. Make a list of these, and you will begin to see a pattern developing, with certain skills cropping up with greatest frequency. These are the skills that the employers see as most important, and so these are the ones you should focus on.

Identify your weak points

Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. You should find out what yours are so that you can:

• Play to them
• Strengthen your weaker areas

It can be hard to know yourself well enough and be honest enough to identify your problem areas. While there are tests available, it is hard to test the areas in question, and as a result, most of these tend to be simplistic and at times misleading. One much more accurate method is to get people that know you well (e.g. co-workers, friends and family) to fill out an anonymous survey indicating which soft skills you have greatest trouble with. You provide a list of soft skills and they select the top 5 skills they think you need to work on.

You can now concentrate on improving your weak areas that coincide with the most important skills employers are looking for - which you have identified above.

How to develop or change your skills

Development of each skill is obviously very specific to the skill in question. For example, to improve your “ability to work independently”, you could train yourself by avoiding the urge to ask for external advice when given a new task. The possible methods are extremely varied and are beyond the scope of this article.

More generally, for all soft skills, work experience or on the job practice is one of the best ways of developing your soft skills. If you haven’t already, consider volunteering. Remember, that the key to permanently changing and improving your soft skills is to ensure you practice the new behaviour consistently.

First identify your target organization

This may be an organization you know you would really like to work for, or perhaps you are interested in the work of the organization, but would like to find out more about them.

Who should you try and meet with

Ideally, you will be able to get a name and introduction from people you already know, but it is more likely that you will have to contact someone without this advantage.

Who will have the most useful information? Who will have the time to meet with you? It’s unlikely that you will be able to meet with the director or top level staff, if the organization is big, although there is no harm in asking. If you cannot meet with your preferred person, ask them to suggest an alternative.

Prepare

Research as much as you can about the organization and the person you are having an interview with.

Make sure you know why you want to speak to this person and have relevant questions for them: you asked for the interview; not them! It is probably a good idea to write down your questions so that you don’t forget any during the interview.

The interview

Don’t stay too long: try and arrange a length of meeting beforehand, or at least at the start of the interview, e.g. “how much time do you have?”

You should not ask directly for a job, but it is perfectly acceptable to express an interest in future openings.

Take notes.

Consider asking them who they recommend you talk to - this can give you another lead, and allows you to mention that you have “met with person X, and they recommended I contact you”. Your network will grow!

Follow up

Try and maintain this person as an active contact in your network. Perhaps there is something you can do or give back in a show of gratitude, e.g. a follow-up thank you letter or card. You may want to keep them informed about how your job-hunt is going or what you are doing in your career - thanks to them! However, be careful to not overstep the mark and waste their time. Remember the development world is small, so don’t antagonize anyone, as it could come back to haunt you if your paths cross again.

More details

If you would like to learn more about informational interviews from a general, rather than specifically a development perspective, try this comprehensive tutorial or this shorter guide.

Learn about an organization

By becoming a volunteer at an organization you are allowed to see the internal workings of an organization. You can see how things work there, the organizational culture, and the interpersonal interactions. Usually within a few days you will have a good idea what attitude your co-workers have towards the organization, and this is very telling. If the members of an organization are not enthusiastic about the place they work, it probably is not the sort of place you want to be. Wouldn’t you rather find this out before you beat off competition to get a job there?

Find out if you are suited to a development career

Volunteering allows you to try out development work to see whether it’s something you are interested in. True, you may not be given the most challenging and fun roles around, but you can easily see what other people’s jobs’ involve and by talking to them, the realities of a career in development. Bear in mind that you are only experiencing the roles, attitudes and stories of one organization - if it seems terrible, that may be unique to this organization and vice versa.

Networking opportunities

For some, networking is a necessary chore, but the great thing about volunteering is that you are building your network without even trying. Every time you interact with a colleague or meet a new person you are building your network!

Create a job opportunity for yourself

In so many development organizations, particularly non-profits, there is such a shortage of manpower your work may become so invaluable that they are willing to create a paid position to keep you! Sometimes you will be first offered a small remuneration (stipend) to keep you, but as time goes on, you may be able to negotiate further increases, until you have a full-salaried position.

Snap up any openings

Due to the informal nature of non-profits, hiring processes are often done internally. From seeing your work, you are already a known factor to the hirers, and close at hand and instantly available. Assuming you have done well with your voluntary work, all this makes you a very attractive option to fill any new vacancy!

Gain experience

There is no better way of gaining experience than learning on the job. Almost every job in development requires X number of years of experience. By volunteering, you are starting along the road of gaining that experience.

Gain new skills

Not only will you be practising your existing skills, you will be coming into contact with new situations, requiring new skills. While this may be difficult at first, developing new skills set

Identify your weak points

If there are tasks you struggle at, you can mark these down as areas you need to gain knowledge in or develop new skills for.

Strengthen your CV

With all those benefits, you have a great opportunity to increase your marketability. On top of that, being a volunteer shows that you have a degree of commitment that is often very valued.

More

There’s more, I’m sure. Can you think of any to add?

• AlertNet
• Commonwealth Secretariat
• Devex
• Foreign Policy Association
• Global Focus
• Idealist
• ReliefWeb
• TearFund

Unfortunately, the more specialist job boards also normally require more experience. However, there are volunteer and internship opportunities available. Don’t forget to check the major job websites.

We try and keep this list up-to-date, but the Internet is a volatile place! If you do find a broken or irrelevant link, or you know of a link that should be here, please let us know!

• Action Against Hunger
• Center for Development Research (ZEF)
• Center for International Forestry Research
• Commonwealth Secretariat
• Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)
• DevJ.net
• Economist.com
• Ends JobSearch
• Family Health International
• Inomics
• International Jobs Center
• International Organization for Migration
• International Service
• Iris Center at the University of Maryland
• TearFund

As a newcomer to development, you may find a lot of these job sites only offer jobs that require 3-5 years experience minimum, but internship opportunities do turn up reasonably frequently. Don’t forget to check the smaller and niche websites.

We try and keep this list up-to-date, but the Internet is a volatile place! If you do find a broken or irrelevant link, or you know of a link that should be here, please let us know!

• AlertNet
• Bond
• Devex
• DevJobs
• DevNetJobs.org
• Eldis
• Foreign Policy Association
• Global Focus
• Global Recruitment
• Idealist
• Jobs4Development.com
• Microfinance Gateway
• OneWorld.net
• ReliefWeb
• The Communication Initiative Network

Is this you?

• I would like to help out in the developing world
• It can’t be that difficult to make a difference
• I’m willing to be a volunteer – surely no-one could refuse an opportunity like that?!
• I have been abroad before and know what other cultures are like
• I know about XYZ, which will come in handy out there

Unfortunately, that just might not be good enough to make a positive difference. Common sense would suggest that a willing, positive-minded volunteer from a developed country would be an asset to any NGO or organization in a developing country… That just isn’t the case.

Development work is complicated immensely by specific local factors including language, religion, race, and family rivalry – to mention a handful – all of which have effects each other and are further complicated by historical events. For a newcomer, what may seem like an obvious solution to a problem may be unworkable due to one of these myriad factors. Of course, at times, an outsider perspective is a blessing, but that perspective needs to be an informed one.

How can they not want me?

Locals are unlikely to refuse your offers of free assistance. They may see an opportunity to milk you for your money, or perhaps just avoid doing so much work. However, more damagingly from a development perspective, they may assume you are a “Western expert”, and act on your misplaced (if well-meaning) advice.

OK, maybe I won’t be so useful, but I can’t do any harm

If you do not have a relevant skill set and experience of a developing country, it is more likely that you will be a burden than an asset. Offering yourself as free labour is not only condescending to hard-working people in a developing country, it can also take away local jobs, and still worse, increases dependency.

How it can go wrong

Oprah Winfrey is a high profile example of how development can go wrong even with the best intentions. The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls has been criticized by some, (including the South African government) for being too extravagant. The school will only cater to 450 girls in a continent with the lowest education standards worldwide. Will creating a new elite core of educated girls solve South Africa’s problems? Hopefully, it will help, but is increasing inequality the right way to do it? Oprah, has been personally involved in a lot of decision-making on this project, and sadly this is an example of someone with a lot of money, but without development experience doing what seems to make “good sense”. Oh, how much more could have been done with those millions…

Civil Society Organizations

Examples: Oxfam, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Also known as Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Non-Profits & Not-for-Profits. Civil society is an umbrella term for an extremely diverse and numerous group, including charities, religious and private foundations. There are both international and national civil society groups.

Civil society groups are started and owned by private individuals or organizations. They are independent of governments, but may receive (in some cases substantial) funding from governments.

Private Sector

Examples: commercial companies

This is a term that describes any privately owned group or person involved in profitable activities. Of course this is a huge group, and distinct from the other categories as organizations within the private sector are all for-profit.

Research Institutions

Examples: universities, think tanks

Defined as any group involved in investigative study for scientific or educational purposes. They may be privately owned or funded by the state.

Bilateral Organizations

Examples: United States of Agency for International Development (USAID), Department for International Development (DFID)

These are government bodies that focus on development in foreign countries, often with an underlying goal of furthering their domestic policies or gaining political credit. In some cases the aid is not tied to any conditions, but normally funding is used for some degree of political influence.

Multilateral Organizations

Examples: United Nations Development Program (UNDP), World Bank

Super-national bodies that have been created with representatives from the governments of many member states. These may be closed groups, e.g. NATO or theoretically open organizations, e.g. the United Nations.