Category Archives: Career advice

Webinar: Careers in International Development

Images, in the style of petroglyphs, of people doing various activities, like writing or construction.

In late August, I had the honor of presenting a live webinar for the Beyond Africa Podcast. You can see a recording of the webinar on YouTube. You can also download the slides I used and see resources I used in the webinar and that I encouraged people to view after the webinar here on my web site.

The webinar opened with a question I have never been asked: why am I doing this? Why am I posting on r/UNPath and other online communities about how to work in international development? As briefly as possible, and among other reasons, because I don’t think there’s equity in who know about and has access to careers in international development, including at the United Nations. You can hear my full answer by listening to the webinar.

Please note that I did this pro bono for this group, but that I usually charge for my consulting, including delivering trainings.

Yes, you CAN get experience for entry level UN positions in your own community

A frequent lament of people on online groups who want to work for the United Nations is “It’s impossible because there’s no way for me to get the experience needed.”

Bollocks.

I’ve addressed this before in blogs such as

These aforementioned blogs are about how to get expertise that can be applied to UN positions, usually at the P level and above.

But a lot of people want to work at a headquarters or break into UN work at the administrative level. They claim the aforementioned doesn’t apply to them and then, again, say, “It’s impossible for me to get the experience necessary.”

I spent an hour going through G-level positions currently being recruited at some UN agencies. I then made a list of some commonalities in the positions, which I have listed below, stripping out UN-specific references. And as I read through these, it was obvious to me that:

  • If you have been a longish-term leadership volunteer in your community, managing other volunteers, in any project – Habitat for Humanity, Meals on Wheels, an NGO that helps refugees, a children’s theater camp, a hospice, a food bank, etc. – you have probably done most of these activities.
  • If you have been a successful Girl Scout leader for more than two years, and been on the board or core organizers of your service unit in that time, you have probably done most of these activities.
  • If you have been a leadership volunteer at a local farmer’s market or artists cooperative for an entire season, you have probably done most of these activities.
  • If you have been on the board of a nonprofit for at least a year, you have probably done most of these activities.

Often it’s how you frame and phrase your responsibilities on your CV and applications as to whether or not you look qualified for a position.

I was part of a hiring committee that hired a guy with extensive hotel management experience for a G level administrative support position: his procurement skills, his experience in dealing with conflict, his organizational skills, his multi-language skills, his client-focused mindset and his experience with international clients were all represented on his CV , explicitly. He was an incredible and perfect fit for the job (he did also have a Master’s degree – I think it was in business).

Job responsibilities that show up on a lot of G-level positions that you can learn through leadership volunteering and through most administrative jobs at nonprofits and local government agencies as well:

  • Schedule internal and external meetings and events, and communicate these dates, or possible dates, to the team/partners.
  • Assist in organizing events, workshops, webinars, launches of publications, seminars, conferences and campaigns.
  • Support the team with planning and implementing of operational activities.
  • Gather relevant and corresponding data (socio-economic, gender, etc.) needed for project development, proposals, reports, presentations, etc.
  • Support activities contributing to the regular communication with project partners to monitor deadlines, commitments made, actions taken, etc.
  • Support in mapping and identifying relevant stakeholders or desired audiences or potential partners.
  • Populate and maintain a database of potential partners, or area NGOs, or area small businesses, or some other needed data set for a project.
  • Review and proofread drafts of reports, drafts of online materials, etc.
  • Closely follow up with other staff, consultants, partner organizations, etc. regarding collaborative projects, data, etc.
  • Review reports developed by others and edit/contribute as needed.
  • Verify the accuracy and validity of research conducted or feedback provided by others.
  • Continuously monitor and collect all data indicators relevant to the project.
  • Provide support in the dissemination and sharing of relevant data and lessons learned.
  • Keep pulse on emerging best practices nationally, regionally, and internationally that relate to the work.
  • Regularly read knowledge networks and communities of practice related to the project/program area.
  • Support program-related knowledge building, management and sharing activities for both external and internal audiences.
  • Assist in preparation of official correspondence to all relevant project partners, HQ, etc.
  • Provide inputs in the development and producing knowledge products, i.e. case studies, success stories, lessons learnt reports, press releases and etc.
  • Contribute to the creation of content for specific stakeholders, including presentation decks, photos videos, programme briefs, webinar/event cards, literature.
  • Monitor online platforms including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Reddit, etc. regarding mentions of the program and activities by partners/stakeholders.
  • Assist the Project Manager/other staff in preparation of the regular progress reports in line with reporting schedules, as well as any other reports requested by management, donor, government, press and/or other stakeholders/audiences.
  • Support other staff in implementing project M&E activities and providing on-going feedback and technical backstopping.
  • Make logistical arrangements for HQ staff visits and external visitors, preparing briefing kits and background materials.

Quit complaining that “the fix is in” and you can’t get a UN position unless you “know someone on the inside.” I’ve worked for the UN three times, at three different UNDP offices, in three different countries, and I knew NO ONE in those offices that hired me. I’ve been on several UN hiring committees and only one time in all those times was I pressured to hire someone who someone on the hiring committee knew – a practice common in the private sector! (I refused to change my score regarding her interview and qualifications, but she did still get hired somehow). Every other time, we hired the person obviously most qualified.

Get busy taking a hard look at all you have done to date and think about how to better frame it. And if you lack needed skills for the jobs you want, get busy with volunteering or working locally to get them!

Also see:

The truth about working from home

A truth bomb from a Facebook group I follow, for people that want to work from home:

I am amazed at the amount of people who believe that work from home means that they can: stay home with their kids, do things around the house, leave the house to run errands, go shopping, etc. 
My wfh job we got two 15 minutes breaks, no lunch, could only leave our desk around 2 feet - the length of my corded headset and my supervisor literally told us if we were taking more than a FIVE MINUTE bathroom break we were stealing from the company!!!
The ones that think they can get away with having their kids screaming in the background are sadly mistaken because customers will call in and complain about you!  And the calls are listened to by management at any given time!!

Most work-from-home jobs are customer service jobs, for insurance companies, airlines, subscription TV services, etc., and you don’t work when you want: you have a fixed, strict schedule. And these jobs don’t pay well. The trade-off is, of course, that you get to work from home, but if you think you are going to be doing child care at the same time, think again!

I work from home most of the time, and I don’t have a strict fixed schedule: I work in marketing and press relations for one nonprofit, I manage the online community for another, and I pick up marketing or volunteer management-related gigs here and there. I work from home 90% of the time, and I don’t have a strict schedule: I can walk my dog when I want, for the most part, I can take a break to watch a movie on TCM if I have time in the middle of the day, I can sleep late some days… but I have to work real hours most every day, and I can’t have distractions while I’m working. The deadlines are real. And I have to be available for phone calls and emails from clients. As flexible as my schedule is, there is NO room in it for child care.

The myths around working from home are important to me for three reasons:

There are so many work-from-home scams out there. I have a plate on my web site about What Work-At-Home / Remote Jobs Look Like and how to avoid scams because there are so many scams (and so many people falling for them).

There are so many desperate people in developing countries that believe the myths about working from home, that think it’s work you can do with just a smart phone and you can do whenever you might have some time, that you don’t need a computer or absolutely perfect and fast Internet access. They are among the prime targets for work-from-home scams.

The myths about working from home are similar to myths about virtual volunteering: that volunteering roles online don’t require a schedule (they do – extra time for online volunteering does not magically happen), that the deadlines aren’t strict (they are – if you don’t do an assignment, it often leaves the nonprofit scrambling to get something essential done that they were counting on you for), that you don’t need any skills (you do), etc. Here’s a list of myths about virtual volunteering, from the Virtual Volunteering Wiki.

cover of Virtual Volunteering book with hands raising up various Internet connected devices

There are a LOT of parallels between working online from home and volunteering online from home. My book The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook is focused primarily on people who want to engage online volunteers, and covers how to create online roles, and how to properly onboard and support online volunteers during their engagement. If you are a manager of online employees, you might find it helpful. It’s available both as a traditional print publication and as a digital book.

If you have benefited from any of my blogs or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help.

No foolin’: Things to do now so you don’t leave your best work behind when you leave an employer

I had meant to post this blog in December, because the following is a terrific activity for the days between Christmas and New Year’s Day, at least in the USA, when business at most nonprofits is usually at its slowest. But this activity is something you need to do twice a year anyway, and you are the best judge on when it’s best to do it:

Make digital copies of reports, proposals, project designs, graphic designs & other work you are particularly proud of at your current employer, that you think are the best examples of your work or that you might want to use elsewhere (and the company are working for hasn’t copyrighted it or patented it) and get those copies on your own computer at home.

Why?

You will want all this for your professional portfolio to show potential employers (changing all information to maintain confidentiality, of course), as well as to have it as a resource to draw on at other employers in the future.

If you are laid off or dismissed or your employer folds, you will be SO happy you did this.

I once created a template in Basecamp for managing the volunteers at a nonprofit employer. It was gorgeous, from a volunteer manager’s perspective: I populated it with policies, to-do lists (and ways for everyone to show their progress on whatever they were working on), standard responses to all sorts of various questions and situations, role descriptions, links to essential videos, and so much more. It had a shared calendar and a shared chat space. It was a place new volunteers could get up-to-speed/on-boarded quickly, current volunteers could find answers to questions before they asked me, volunteers could chat in-the-moment and keep our email boxes from filling up, and we could all know what everyone was working on. Its potential as a knowledge base would grow every week it was used. It was a masterpiece, from an intranet perspective. And just as I launched it and volunteers started using it, I separated from the nonprofit. It was a sudden departure, and the executive director not only immediately removed my access to online systems, but also, in a moment of anger and irrationality, she deleted the Basecamp project entirely – I couldn’t even ask a volunteer to screen capture the work for me.

I tried for weeks to recall and recreate so many of those materials. I had some success, but there are a couple of resources I have never been able to reconstruct.

Luckily, much of the other material I had created for this client was created at my home, on my own computer, and then transferred to work, so I still had copies of it for my portfolio and to use when creating something for new employers. But I still think about that intranet…

Don’t let this be you!

Also, don’t rely on the Wayback Machine at the Internet Archive to always have the backup of the web site materials you will need. I love the Internet Archive beyond measure, I use it for my work at least once a week, and I donate a bit every year to show my appreciation. But I know that nothing is forever and, a few times, an old version of a web site I have looked up many times there is suddenly gone, without explanation.

Also, please note that I’m not encouraging you to steal from your employer. But look through my blog and my web site: well more than half of the material was born out of work I was doing for an employer. I’m proud that my blog and web site advice are based on real-world examples and, often, my own, specific experiences and first-hand observations. It means that most of my advice, including The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook, isn’t something I’ve only thought of: I’ve also tested it, or I’ve seen it tested firsthand.

Adhere to legal agreements, of course, but remember that what you create is yours, and you may need it down the road.

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site or my YouTube videos and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help.

Abilities you need to work in humanitarian development successfully

image of a panel discussion

I’ve been working on this for a while: a list of abilities that I believe a person needs to work in humanitarian development successfully – including to work at the United Nations. For my purposes here, I define such success as meeting the requirements of your job and the goals of your program and getting along well with others while also staying personally satisfied.

These are the skills I’ve seen that have made the difference in success, as I have just defined it, for oh so many people – and myself. Many would call them “soft skills.” These skills usually won’t be listed in job requirements. You can’t major in any of these skills at a university; you get them from working, volunteering and collaborating on anything with others (co-workers, neighbors, family…), and you can do all of that (and gain these skills) no matter where you live.

Also, it’s good to approach at least some of these as job interview questions: “Tell me about a time when you needed to adapt and improvise regarding a strategy you had planned out but you realized wouldn’t work as planned…” or “tell me about a time when you broke down a process into smaller steps so that it was easier to understand by co-workers or community members…”

To work in humanitarian development successfully, you need the abilities to:

  1. read large amounts of text, and to understand what you have read and apply it to your work.
  2. memorize.
  3. manage time effectively.
  4. speak comfortably in front of audiences, including those that may be hostile to your subject matter.
  5. shut up, listen and learn from others (and I am using “shut up” because too many don’t understand “listen quietly”).
  6. adapt and improvise when you realize a strategy has to be altered or something unexpected happens.
  7. negotiate.
  8. write words to educate, persuade and influence others.
  9. cultivate trust quickly and on an ongoing basis with others.
  10. make decisions based on facts and not on emotions or just your “gut” – and be ready to do that despite what you wanted to believe in your gut.
  11. break a process down to smaller steps.
  12. reframe complex ideas into plain language.
  13. delegate tasks appropriately and frequently with an eye to building the skills of others.
  14. build the skills of someone to eventually take over a process you currently undertake.
  15. guide without micromanaging.
  16. work with co-workers, community members and others you don’t like.
  17. know how to quickly tell your boss what you are doing and why you are doing it, what you are achieving and what is challenging you – and make sure your boss’s boss knows all of this too.
  18. not let an insult of you derail the work you need to do.
  19. read the room, to be aware of the feelings and opinions of those you are talking to, and to be able to alter your approach if you realize it’s not going to work or be inappropriate in that circumstance.
  20. keep trying and experimenting, and learn from failure.
  21. do self-analysis and let go of ideas when it’s clear they won’t work.
  22. stay positive and hopeful – and get that back when you lose it.
  23. understand what others feel, even if you disagree with their values.
  24. ask for advice and help and know how to seek and find the expertise you don’t have.
  25. recognize situations that are unnecessarily dangerous or when you are personally at risk and react to keep yourself safe.
  26. process your own stress, anxiety, and other negative feelings, and address feelings of loneliness in a healthy way.
  27. balance priorities with personal needs and know when it’s time to take a break.
  28. pick your battles.
  29. know when to ask for permission and when to do it without prior approval and be ready to ask for forgiveness.
  30. own your mistakes.
  31. know who you are working with that has your back and those who do NOT.
  32. how to get back up when you stumble and fall.

No one person can have all of these abilities all the time, by the way.

And, yes, it’s helpful to have abilities like being able to learn another language so that you can work in a language other than the one your own family and neighbors speak – your native language. And you need the abilities to obtain a university degree and a lot of work experience and on and on. But you need these “soft skills” as well – and just as much.

For those of you who have worked in international development, what abilities would you add – abilities that might not ever be named in a role’s Terms of Reference?

Also see:

If you have benefited from this blog, my other blogs, or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help

Young nonprofit consultants? Starting today, Halloween, don’t be afraid to CHARGE MORE.

One of the biggest mistakes of my consulting career is this:

I didn’t charge more for my services in my first years of consulting. Sometimes, I didn’t charge at all.

I charged very little for my consulting and contract work when I was younger because I was trying to prove myself, and thought that the “exposure” would lead to more high-paid gigs.

As years passed, nonprofits, including several very large ones that paid their executive directors in the triple digits, would tell me how strapped for cash they were, how it was impossible for them to pay me anything but an honorarium (which they often noted many past consultants donated back to the nonprofit), if they paid anything at all. And I believed them. Then I would find out that they paid another consultant, someone from the corporate sector – and, often, a man – much more than me.

I was an employee for a nonprofit a few years back, and I spent a weekend – hours and hours – editing videos from various events into videos that showed how great a particular program of the nonprofit was. To this day, I think they are some of my best work. Later, I found videos from years before that a private consultant had done, and they were largely unusable: the sound was horrible and they weren’t edited at all. And I found out that, for the same amount of work that I had done, he’d been paid thousands of dollars.

By not charging what I should have, I devalued my work. I reinforced the idea that nonprofit employees and consultants don’t deserve competitive wages, because our work isn’t as important or as worthwhile as work in the corporate world. I contributed to a negative stereotype that affects professionals to this day.

If you are a consultant in the nonprofit world, or looking for contract work, here is my advice: don’t give nonprofits a special rate that devalues your services. Find out what people that do that kind of work charge in the for-profit or corporate world, and if you want, knock 10% off of it for nonprofits, but don’t offer deep discounts to nonprofits, especially those that have paid staff. And remember to charge for ALL of your time, including travel time and preparation time!

Nonprofits, if you need consultant or contract help, write a funding proposal for such and talk to your corporate donors. Remind them that nonprofit staff do not get discounts on their home mortgages or rent, their health care, their child care, their children’s university educations, gas for their car, etc. Remind them that if they want nonprofits to behave more like businesses, it means paying competitive wages.

If you have benefited from this blog, my other blogs, or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help

Contributing to online communities can help you professionally

I see lots of young people online who are wondering how to build up their skills and résumés in this time of COVID-19, or to explore careers with so many onsite experiences closed to them. I want to remind them all (they all read my blog, right?) that volunteering to help with an online community is a great way to get experience, to build your skills, to build your knowledge, to build your portfolio and to network for jobs.

Don’t believe me? I’ve been helping with online communities since 1993 or so, mostly as a volunteer. And those experiences have played a substantial part in both getting professional positions and getting experience that’s helped me in my offline work.

The first online community I participated in was the soc.org.nonprofit USENET newsgroup. It was created in June 1994 and gatewayed to the email-based mailing list USNONPROFIT-L. The community was for the discussion of nonprofit management and program issues. I found it soon after it was created and, after a couple of years of participating, because I was such a prolific contributor, I got asked to co-moderate it, as a volunteer, and I did so for several years. My participation there, and some onsite volunteering and collaboration, lead me to being offered a paid position: to direct the Virtual Volunteering Project.

In the late 1990s, I participated in three other online communities, all on YahooGroups: CyberVPM, UKVPMs, and OZVPM, all focused on managers of volunteers. It was because of my participation in those three communities, talking about the VV Project and virtual volunteering in general, that I got noticed by a United Nations agency in charge of the online volunteering portion of NetAid, and ended up directing what became the UN’s Online Volunteering Service. I also have lifelong colleagues and friends because of my volunteer participation in those three communities specifically.

In 2001 or so, while living in Germany and working for the UN Volunteers program, I started participating in the then newly-launched TechSoup online community. You can see an early version of that community on the Internet Wayback machine. I was a very active volunteer contributor and ended up getting asked to be a volunteer moderator, helping to introduce topics, answer questions and delete spam, and to lead a couple of online events. And years later, in 2009, after volunteering on and off, I got a part-time contracting gig helping with the community and some online events. I’ve done that off and on ever since (including now!).

Around that same time, someone set up an online community for people working in international aid and development work. I joined that community and, once again, I was a prolific contributor, as a volunteer, and eventually got asked to be a volunteer board member of the newly-formed nonprofit that got set up to support the community. The Aid Workers Network lasted for just a few years, but I got asked about that experience regularly in job interviews, and there are two people that remain my professional colleagues to this day.

On Reddit, I’ve been the volunteer moderator for the volunteer community, the community service subreddit, and the inclusion subreddit, for a few years now – and I got a short, well-paid consulting gig earlier this year because of my activities on the volunteer subreddit specifically.

So, that’s my story on how volunteering to contribute, moderate, facilitate and lead online communities has helped me professionally. It could help you, too:

  • Look for Reddit communities that represent what you want to do professionally or as a volunteer. Read a lot before you contribute, and always read as much as you yourself post. When you feel ready, post helpful, on-topic questions, advice and comments. Follow the rules. If you do this regularly, don’t be surprised if you end up getting asked to be a moderator. Even if you aren’t asked to be a moderator, if you think your contributions show your expertise, workstyle and character, consider including a link to your Reddit profile on your résumé.
  • If you use computers or your smart phone as a part of your volunteering or professional work with nonprofits, NGOs, charities, community groups, advocacy groups, libraries, religious groups, etc., and you want to share your experience and help others that might be trying to do so, consider joining the TechSoup online community and contributing to the subjects there, like Databases and Software (including apps), Web Building, Digital Engagement, Hardware, Servers & Networks, Security, Privacy & Safety, Tech in Disasters, Tech Planning and Policies or Tech4Good, Tech Making a Difference, Tech in Society.
  • Use Google, Bing or Duck Duck Go, and on Facebook, to find online communities hosted on other platforms that relate to what you want to do, whether its humanitarian work, nonprofit theater management, rescuing wildlife, logistics after disasters, whatever. As always, read a lot before you contribute, and always read as much as you post. Post helpful, on-topic questions, advice and comments and follow the rules. You might get asked to be a moderator, but regardless, you’ll create an online profile potential employers might find quite interesting.

And if your nonprofit, NGO, charity, library, etc. has an online community, the contributors to that community are volunteers, even if you don’t call them such, even if you also call them clients or community members instead. If they are asking questions, offering comments and advice, introducing discussions on your community, even debating (but are staying on topic) and you aren’t paying them, they are online volunteers, they are contributing their time and talents, and you are engaged in virtual volunteering.

cover of Virtual Volunteering book with hands raising up various Internet connected devices

For detailed advice on creating assignments for online volunteers, for working with online volunteers, for using the Internet to support and involve ALL volunteers (including those providing service onsite), and for ensuring success in virtual volunteering, check out The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook. You will not find a more detailed guide anywhere for working with online volunteers and using the Internet to support and involve all volunteers. It’s available both as a traditional paperback and as an online book. It’s co-written by myself and Susan Ellis. If your organization wants to better engage the people who contribute to your online communities – and, yes, those are online volunteers – this book can help.

Also see:

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help

“Gender & Politics” Panel, Washington County, Oregon

Last week, I had the honor of moderating a panel discussion on “Gender & Politics” in Washington County, Oregon. The discussion was hosted by the local chapter of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) and was held at Taylor Auditorium at Pacific University.

The panel featured three women holding voter-elected offices in Washington County: See Eun Kim, a Hillsboro School Board member, Kate Grandusky of Gales Creek and the Forest Grove School Board, and Felicita Monteblanco and Chair of the Tualatin Hills Park and Recreation District Board of Directors.

Women’s involvement in government, and their overall civic engagement, is something I’m passionate about. I’ve participated in initiatives that support this abroad, including in Afghanistan, and it’s fascinating to participate in initiatives here in the USA – so many of the challenges are exactly the same. Since moving to Oregon in 2009, I made it a personal mission to encourage more civic engagement by everyone, including women, by posting on various social media channels every publicly-announced opportunity I could find for the public to hear from city council members and county officials where I live, local state representatives and senators and national officeholders, as well as those running for any elected office. I’ve also made it a goal to engage much more myself, such as serving on the Canby Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee, the Forest Grove Public Safety Advisory Commission and the Washington County Cultural Trust, as well as joining and volunteering with the League of Women Voters – Washington County Unit.

It was because of these activities that I was invited to be the moderator of this gender and politics panel here in the county where I live in Oregon. It was an opportunity to hear first hand from local women about their experiences in running for public office, the systemic changes needed they might think are needed for more women in office, and what we can do to encourage more women to run. And it was a terrific cross-section on the panel, in terms of ages and ethnic identities.

Before the discussion began, I noted a few things about women in politics in the USA and in Washington County, Oregon specifically:

  • Women make up at least half of the population here in the USA. Yet, as of now, women represent just over 20 percent of US Congress members – but that’s IS a record with just over 100 women serving. One of those members is the representative for our area here in Oregon, Suzanne Bonamichi (yeah!).
  • While it’s a record number of women overall in the US Congress, it’s the lowest number of Republican women in the House in a quarter-century (just 13).
  • Women have run for President and for Vice President in the USA, but have never held those offices. Meanwhile, many other countries, including the UK, Germany, New Zealand, and Pakistan are, or have been, lead by women.
  • In Washington County, of our 13 Oregon state representatives, 6 are women – that’s almost half.
  • There are five members of the Washington County Board of Commissioners, and two of them, including the chair, are women. The chair is Kathryn Harrington and member Pam Treece represents District 2.
  • In Forest Grove, where the panel was held, of the seven members of the city council, three are women: Councilor Elena Uhing and Malynda Wenzl, both elected, and the newest council member, recently appointed Councilor Mariana Valenzuela.

Some food for thought I offered as moderator to set the tone for the evening:

  • 2018 data from the Pew Research Center shows that Republican and Republican-leaning women are roughly twice as likely (44 percent) as Republican men (24 percent) to say that there are too few women in office, and are also significantly more likely to say that it’s easier for men to get into office.
  • Majorities of Republican women, Democratic women, and Democratic men say that women have to do more to prove themselves, compared to that 28 percent of GOP men. Likewise, while nearly half of GOP women and majorities of Democrats believe discrimination keeps women from office, compared to just 14 percent of GOP men.
  • Republican women are also significantly more likely than men in their party to say that sexual harassment, differences in party support, and voters “not being ready” to elect women keep women out of office.
  • Like Republican men, Democratic men are significantly less likely than their female counterparts to believe that Americans “aren’t ready to elect a woman to higher office.”
  • The poll also shows that Americans see women and men as having different abilities regarding both leadership and policy.

Some things I learned from the panelists’ comments:

  • None had run for office before and all said a version of, “I didn’t know how to run. I never did anything like this before!”
  • Two of the three were graduates of the Emerge program and said it was incredibly helpful in their campaigns. Those two also felt being mentored by women who had run for office was essential to their success and says there is a need for even more mentoring.
  • All three said personal connections with the community they wanted to represent and “social capital” were fundamental to their success as candidates and as officeholders. All of them knew a lot of people in their communities and were trusted by those people.
  • Two noted that women need to start asking, explicitly, for childcare to be provided at candidate forums, city council meetings, school board meetings, etc., if we truly want more women involved in politics.
  • One noted that, for many women, “We do not look in the mirror and see a candidate. But many men do look in the mirror and say, ‘I should run for office!” She also talked about imposter syndrome (something that I also suffer from!).
  • Two members of the panel noted that it was important to never be embarrassed to ask questions or to not know Roberts Rules of Order, that if someone says, “You are not following the rules!”, immediately ask for guidance and advice on how to do it.
  • One emphasized something I emphasize myself: go to the meetings of the government body you want to serve on. If you are going to run for school board, you need to be going to school board meetings. Become familiar, first hand, with how it works.

Here is the article in the Forest Grove News-Times newspaper about the event, and it does a good job of summarizing the candidates’ comments from the evening.

Questions I didn’t get to ask:

  • Do you feel like people have treated you differently as a candidate or serving in office because you are a woman and, if so, could you give an example of this?
  • How do you handle criticism?
  • How do you achieve work/life/office/family/volunteer balance?

An observation that I found startling as I listened to the panelists: they were focused on policies and actions regarding health, education, housing and the environment – and never once mentioned anything about how to help businesses. I don’t think any are anti-business, but I find it fascinating that talk of business-friendly policies that absolutely dominate political discussions with male candidates and officeholders wasn’t mentioned at all by these panelists.

As moderator, I tried to keep my statements at the event at a minimum – this was an event to hear from the panelists, not me. But what I would add to the advice about getting more women to serve in office:

  • Take your daughters, other female family members and friends to a city council meeting, to a school board meeting, to a candidate debate, or anything else that would expose them to how local government works.
  • Encourage your daughters, nieces, sisters, etc. to run for leadership roles at school or in any groups they are in. Celebrate them even if they don’t win the leadership position.
  • Discourage everyone in your life from disparaging a female candidate or an officeholder’s appearance – her hair, her makeup, her style of clothes, etc. – and her voice. Encourage discussion instead of a candidate’s opinions, positions and actions, including criticism. Watch carefully what you yourself say about any female officeholder, candidate or other leader (or aspiring leader).
  • Teach young women how to walk into a room for the express purpose of networking. Talk about how to approach a group, how to introduce yourself, how to shake hands, how to be culturally appropriate if you realize someone might not shake hands, etc.
  • If you have any doubts about your public speaking abilities, join your local chapter of Toastmasters.
  • Remember that you have EVERY right to take up space in any room, in any conversation. Take up that space and own it.

I could say so much more… I desperately want a diversity of more women on citizens’ advisory committees, including planning commissions, in addition to wanting a woman President and Vice-President. I want to support that happening anyway I can.

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Why qualified people get passed over for jobs

image of a panel discussion

It is the number one question or topic of discussion on any online discussion group about looking for a job in the humanitarian sector: I keep applying for jobs that I believe I am perfect for and I keep getting rejected. Why?

I’m sure it’s a frequent self-question for many people looking for a job in any sector.

I have been a part of many committees and panels to review résumés or interview candidates for a variety of jobs, including at the United Nations. I have also been told a few times why I got passed over for a job. And all of the reasons I’ve heard first hand about why someone, including myself, aren’t going to be interviewed run counter so many things we hear regularly about job hunting, like It’s easier to get a job when you already have one (this has never been my experience) or you have to know someone at the UN to get a job there (all three of my jobs at the UN came without already knowing anyone at any of the agencies where I was hired). Yes, luck and good connections can have a lot to do with finding a job, and knowing someone at a company you want to work for can absolutely help you get a job. But don’t assume that that’s why most people get hired.

In many cases, an applicant that doesn’t make the cut for an interview actually isn’t perfectly qualified for what they are applying for. When I get a stack of CVs for a job, I can eliminate half of them at first glance just by comparing what the résumés say versus what the job asks for. I can eliminate even more by looking at them in more detail and quickly discovering that some very specific things asked for in the job description not represented in the person’s profile.

So before you complain about being perfectly qualified for jobs you are being passed up for, make certain your profile represents the exact skills and experience asked for in the job description – if the job says applicants must speak Spanish, for instance, part of your cover letter needs to be in Spanish. Your résumé must explicitly list the skills and experience asked for in a job description – not just inferred. And if the job asks that you have a certain number of experience in a certain field, and you don’t have it, you go into the rejection pile, period.

With that stack of résumés from qualified people that I glean, I then put them in the order that I think represents the very best candidate on down. That might be just 10 résumés. That might be 30. I then look for jobs on the résumés that are similar to what we are asking for, I look at the type of education they have and I look at the kinds of work they have done that are most like what we’re asking for. Then I look at the top 3 or 5 or 10, whatever we’ve decided is the number we’re going to interview, and I ask myself, “Self, are these really the top folks you most want to interview?” Indeed, some of the people who don’t make the cut are qualified for the job – but they get beat out for an interview by people who match the profile even more.

When I interview candidates on a panel, we always have the same questions to ask applicants, and we assign a score to each answer. Afterward, we compare scores. Usually, we all have the same top candidate – our number twos and threes might be different. Sometimes, we don’t all have the same top candidate. It only gets dicey and uncomfortable when our scores vary wildly and we stanchly disagree on high and low scores – and in more than 20 years of being on hiring panels, this has happened just twice.

With all of that said, yes, I have heard arbitrary reasons for not considering a qualified candidate for a position. Not everyone chooses candidates to interview like I do and not everyone chooses the person to hire the way I do, and it’s when the arbitrary reasons for not choosing someone creep in that the process becomes unfair or impossible to navigate, that is absolutely true.

What are the reasons that don’t have to do with a lack of qualifications or lack of experience asked for that exclude a candidate? Here are reasons I’ve heard, blatantly or implied/inferred, as to why qualified people are not going to be interviewed or considered for a job:

  • This person already has a job. I’m suspicious of why they want to leave it.
  • They have a post-graduate degree, which is what we asked for, but this other person has a Master’s!
  • We asked for people who at least have a Bachelor’s – this person is overqualified because they have a Master’s.
  • They have applied for other jobs here. I’m suspicious of why they want to work here so much.
  • They might not stay long if they get this job. This person has never been at a job longer than four years.
  • They might want to stay in this job too long. This person has had only two jobs, both longer than 10 years.
  • They seem ambitious and will want a promotion quickly if they get this job.
  • They don’t seem very ambitious.
  • They seem overly-confident, maybe even arrogant.
  • They don’t seem confident enough.
  • This CV is too long. It has too much detail.
  • This résumé is too short. It doesn’t have enough detail.
  • Wow, this person has worked at insert name of very well known organization here. Why in the world have they left that company/that profession? Why do they want to work here instead? I’m not impressed – I’m suspicious.
  • Too old (50 or older)
  • Too young (26 – this was by someone at the UN who didn’t believe anyone in their 20s was capable of working abroad)
  • They don’t seem healthy (said about candidates over 50 or candidates who might have a perceivable disability).
  • They have a family. They might be too distracted for this work.
  • They don’t have a family. When they start one, they’ll need lots of leave time.
  • They don’t have a family. That means they have no ties to our community.

What has hearing these arbitrary and unfair reasons for not hiring someone taught me? For one thing, it’s taught me that it’s impossible to come up with that perfect résumé or cover letter – what one person will love another person will hate. It’s also taught me that it’s impossible to give a perfect interview for any situation – what one group likes, another group won’t. It’s also taught me that many career coaches and career consultants really don’t know what they are talking about – their ideas may or may not work, and there is absolutely no magical formula, no matter what they say.

Here’s my advice, in a nutshell, when applying for jobs,

  • Be accurate, be specific, be honest and spell correctly in your application
  • Make sure your résumé clearly shows why you are perfectly, exactly qualified for the job you are applying for, as described by the employer.
  • If you get the opportunity to ask someone why you weren’t chosen for a job or an interview, absolutely take that opportunity – but take the advice with a grain of salt. If someone says you seemed too confident, is that really something you want to change? Wouldn’t you prefer finding an employer who likes your confidence?
  • Apply for a job with absolute commitment and determination, as though it’s the only job you are applying for, and after you hit “send,” forget about it and move on to the next application.
  • Stay busy during your job search and, to anyone who is watching you, in person or online, stay positive.

Also see:

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The cost of my greatest weakness

logoIf you have ever been interviewed for a job, you are familiar with some version of the question “What’s your greatest weakness?”

My greatest weakness is the couch and a great day’s lineup on the classic movie channel here in the USA. But I know that’s not what someone in a job interview is wanting to know. Rather, they want to know what my greatest weakness is in the workplace.

Of course, so many people answer this question with, “I love to work! I’m a workaholic!” Spoiler alert: I don’t say that and saying it doesn’t make a person a good candidate. A workaholic is unhealthy for both employee and employer.

The reality is that “What’s your greatest weakness?” is a bad job interview question. All it does is make interviewees nervous and set them up for failure later. The potential hire is declaring to a potential employer, “Here’s what you need to be on the lookout for if you hire me!” And the employer WILL remember the declaration and be on the lookout for it – and probably be hypersensitive to any hint of a new employee showing it, in fact. Were it to be a truly fair question, everyone in the room would share their biggest weakness with each other, so the potential employee could decide if it’s the right office culture for him or her.

When I am interviewing candidates, I never ask that question. Instead, I ask “What frustrates you most in the workplace and how did you address it?” I’m not looking for a “Oh, nothing frustrates me, I love work!” answer. I’m not looking for a red flag either. What I’m trying to do is to see how self-aware someone is and trying to just get a feel for what kind of person they are. A red flag would be “I’m never frustrated in the workplace!”

But, with all that said, when I’m asked that “What’s your greatest weakness?” question in a job interview, I am honest. And my answer is this:

I ask a lot of questions and, often, this really frustrates my co-workers. 

When someone introduces a new project, or when I join an initiative, even one that I’m familiar with, I ask a lot of questions. I’m not trying to be critical and I’m not trying to play “gotcha” – I trying to understand an activity as completely as possible. I don’t just ask if something happens, but how it happens and who is responsible for different pieces of a project. The answers help me be clearer in my communications, help me know my own responsibilities and help me to be able to better support co-workers. It also keeps me from making a lot of mistakes that can hurt a project later.

Unfortunately for me, people often find my questions annoying. So many people see questions as criticism, even as a personal attack, especially if they cannot answer all of the questions. People starting new projects or people who haven’t introduced someone new to a project in a long while often haven’t thought about some of the issues I raise, and I think they feel called out when I ask my questions. People managing established projects are often shocked that I have questions, especially if it’s a project that has existed for several years. Again, I’m just trying to understand so that I can do the best job possible and prevent avoidable mistakes on my part.

In an effort to not seem critical, I often find myself prefacing my questions with apologies, something so many women do in order to try to head off any feelings that we’re “too aggressive.” Apologies I find myself making are statements like “I’m so sorry to bother everyone with this, but…” or “I’m sorry if the answer to this is already on your project web site but…” or “I hope everyone can be patient with me, but I don’t think I’m clear on some things…”  These kinds of self-depreciating apologies that women are conditioned to do are not something most men are conditioned to do. Women are conditioned to want to be liked and to assume responsibility for others’ feelings. Women apologize for being direct in an effort to somehow justify our questions, even our opinions. Professional women are told in so many ways: be assertive, but only if it doesn’t upset anyone else. It doesn’t matter how calm a woman remains, how civil a woman’s demeanor, how cool and collected she remains: it DOES hurt to ask when you’re female in the workplace.

Dr. Robert Alberti and Michael Emmons, authors of Your Perfect Right, provide a few questions to consider before choosing to be assertive, as quoted in the blog “Quit Being a Pushover: How to Be Assertive“:

  • How much does it matter to you?
  • Are you looking for a specific outcome or just to express yourself?
  • Are you looking for a positive outcome? Might asserting yourself make things worse?
  • Will you kick yourself if you don’t take action?
  • What are the probable consequences and realistic risks from your possible assertion?

Note that this blog is from the blog The Art of Manliness, not from an article to help women… the advice for women trying to be assertive is far, far different. Google it for yourself if you don’t believe me.

Still, I find these questions helpful to me. These qeustions have often kept me from asking a question I really wanted to, but didn’t, because the political cost will be too great. It hurts not only to bite my tongue, but weeks or months later, watch someone have to deal with something that could have been prevented, and perhaps my question could have prevented it – but I chose not to speak up because the consequences for me in terms of hostility or defensiveness by co-workers just wasn’t worth it.

The other frustrating thing I do in the work place is to take notes. Later, I sometimes refer to those notes when there is some disagreement on what was said or decided. Again, I’m not trying to be hurtful or critical but, rather, to be clear. And, to be honest, I’m often trying to cover my butt, as we say in American English. If I’ve done something wrong, I will absolutely take responsibility for it, but if I’ve been directed to do it that way – sorry, but I’m giving credit where it’s due. It’s not an easy strategy because no matter how diplomatically or gently I try to reference decisions from a previous meeting, my thorough note-taking does sometimes end up making people angry – they feel called out. And, let’s face it, who likes to be proven wrong?

Perhaps my weakness is that I like things explicit and transparent.

I offer this blog both as sympathy and encouragement to others like me, as well as a warning to potential employers of me. But before you shrink away in horror, I also ask this: wouldn’t you rather it was me, someone on your team, asking tough questions, rather than a potential funder or member of the press? Bridges are supposed to be stressed tested. Think of your project as the bridge and me the test…

Also see:

Frank description of what it’s like to work in communications in the UN