Discovery & Advice
Guidance to help with your career transition
Here you will find links and guides to help you at the outset of your career transition. It includes exercises that will help you understand the essential criteria behind your new career, how to discover your true potential, information about the social sector and a selection of stories of those who have made the move to work with charities and social enterprises.
Making sense of the social sector: if you thought the private or public sector was complicated, you ain’t seen nothing yet! But understanding the dynamics of the world you want to get into is really important. Read our overview of the not-for-profit sector and myriad of organisations that make it up (e.g. charities, social enterprises, voluntary and community groups, clubs and cooperatives, schools and education, art, human rights, professional associations, medical research and more that comprise the not-for-profit, third or social sector.
Understanding your true potential: self-awareness and being able to articulate your core values, work preferences, skills and strengths is critical when it comes to finding the right opportunity for you. We have provided a set of exercises and links to other experts to help you do just that.
Identifying your essential criteria: finding your new role can be like finding a new home and involves a big investment of your time and resources. Here we have an exercise that will help you identify both the ‘essential’ and ‘desirable’ criteria that you will want out of a fulfilling new role.
Founding a social enterprise: Do you have a great idea for making the world a better place? Do you believe you can make it a reality and make a living from it? If so, you may want to think about setting up your own social enterprise. Watch our video interview between Eastside Primetimers Foundation manager Ruth Cane iand Ann Nkune, founder of Bloomsbury Beginnings, about Ann’s work supporting upstart social entrepreneurs. Together they explore what can be most rewarding about this career path, what to expect and key advice.
Tips for finding the right opportunity: Nine practical steps that will help you find the right portfolio career role in the social sector.
Sharpen your CV: Your CV is important and many recruiters will take less than 1 minute to decide if your CV is worth further consideration. Read about how to make your CV relevant to social sector leaders.
Why network?: It is estimated that between 60% and 70% of jobs are found through networking. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way in which networking works. We give advice on how to maximise the impact of your networking.
Five great benefits to volunteering: Uniquely, the social sector relies heavily on pro bono work, which presents you with an opportunity. So, how can volunteering help you build your portfolio career?
Are people designed to resist change? Most of us don’t like risk and uncertainty, so often even though we want to move on we hold ourselves back through fear and anxiety about what could go wrong. The key is to reduce the risk and uncertainty and have some fun, meet new people and learn new things (including about yourself).
You don’t have to dive in all the way straight away. You may not be able to try out actual jobs, but there are other things you can do to find out if a job/organisation is really what you imagine it to be. And because we are talking about low-risk roles here, they can be simple and easy to achieve in terms of your time and financial constraints. The key is learning, so as you carry out your research ask yourself the following questions:
How does this type of work make you feel? Does it raise your energy? Does it make you feel positive and want to experience more?
How competent are you to do it? How relevant and transferable are your skills, knowledge and experience? Does it play to your strengths? Unless you want to start at the absolute beginning, you will need some degree of competence.
Can you make a living from it, or part of a living if you are aiming for a portfolio career?
Note down your observations, reflect on them and talk them through with a supporter (friend or family member) or a coach.
Stories from individuals who have been through a career transition
Elaine’s story…
Elaine worked for an IT company providing financial software. When she joined the company it was fun and fast moving and she was their only salesperson, as it became more successful it also became much bigger. Soon she was managing a team of five people. Over the next few years, she felt more removed from the things that gave her energy and that she enjoyed doing – directly dealing with clients and winning business. As she became more dissatisfied with her work, she also developed an interest in complementary massage therapy, but had no experience other than benefiting from it herself to manage the stress of her existing job. Her first thought was to give up her current role and re-train, but that wasn’t financially possible, so she came to talk to us at the EP Foundation about how to get started. Here are the three things she did instead:
Elaine researched organisations providing complementary therapies and asked people working for them if they could spend just 15 minutes to talk to her about their work and the organisation, as part of her career change research;
She went to several complementary therapy events, including a conference and trade event. She discovered a whole range of other therapeutic approaches she was interested in, made contacts and followed these up, explaining to people that she was considering a career change and asking if they would spare some time to talk to her about their work and organisation;
She did an introductory massage therapy course at her local Adult Education College
From these steps, Elaine learnt three important things:
How generous people were with their time and thoughts
She discovered when she started her course that she had difficulty around physical contact with patients
There are many charities and small social enterprises offering all kinds of different therapies.
Building on her learning, Elaine took a further step and started volunteering with a clinic, providing their welcome and reception service for one evening a week. She learned to love the contact with the patients and soon started helping with open day events, to introduce potential patients and medical practitioners to the service. Over time, she managed to persuade her employer at the software company to reduce her hours so that she could do more volunteering. As she became more involved, it became apparent that her great interpersonal and organisational skills and experience were invaluable in convincing medical practitioners to refer their patients to the clinic, and for securing funding for some of their key services.
Her career change is still work in progress, but Elaine now has great experience and a refocused CV. The clinic she works with is keen to create a paid role for her and she is also using the experience and contacts she made in her early research to network and look for opportunities elsewhere. From this, we can pull out three vital early steps:
Identify a simple career discovery project that you can afford and which does not pose any risk
Observe and record your feelings, experiences and reflections - what are you learning about yourself and your ideas?
Learn from your experience. Build on it and take another step - this might be in the same direction, sideways (like Elaine did), or another direction altogether
And finally – get some support! Friends, family and colleagues can be good sounding boards in the initial stages, and for an objective and professional coaching approach, contact us to discuss how we can help you on your journey.
Helen’s story
What led to you being involved in the social sector? Following a successful marketing career including a senior role with Mars, I landed the role of Director of Supporter Marketing with the Woodland Trust as I had a passion for ecology and nature.
How does the not-for-profit sector differ from big business? The most obvious thing is the difference in resources. My corporate career was with a large and very successful global business who invested heavily in attracting and developing the best people. They had highly competitive selection processes; once people were on board their ongoing development was critical to the success of the company and so they invested a lot in this. I see great people at all levels too in the social sector, but the investment in their development is just not comparable. However, their passion for the cause is such a strong driver and goes a long way - people give a massive amount!
One of the other differences I notice is the pace at which things get done. Certainly, in my experience in the corporate world, things move fast, decisions are made quickly, and the focus is all on the value created by the work you do. Things generally happen more slowly in the not-for-profit sector. Decisions take longer and projects and work programmes are often slower to get off the ground and involve more approval stages, which just presents different challenges.
Do you have some advice to consultants in the social sector? Watch out for ‘objective creep’! A client may start off expressing a need for something, but then as you work with them to understand their situation and challenges, it becomes apparent that what they want and need is something different.
Alison’s story
What led to you being involved in the social sector? For as long as I can remember, I have been interested in social justice issues and been driven to make a difference. Even at school, I wanted to embrace a wider world and cared that things were fair. So whilst I enjoyed the technical side of being a Chartered Accountant, I didn’t really find it fulfilling. My introduction to the not-for-profit sector came when I had the opportunity to head up the Charity and Trusts work at my firm, and from there I switched to the voluntary sector full time. I haven’t looked back since.
What are the advantages of a portfolio career? I am now employed two days per week and self-employed for three. I have really enjoyed the variety of work that my breadth of experience has prepared me for, as well as working with charities with a huge range of mission objectives. It is especially rewarding to see charities serving causes that you care about being able to operate more efficiently and effectively as a result of the support you have given.
What advice would you give to someone starting on a portfolio career? I found two things initially difficult with being a self-employed consultant – the fact that I wasn’t part of a long-term team, and the uncertainty about long term workstreams. Finding a consultancy, like Eastside Primetimers, helped both of these, and finding a two-day per week permanent post alongside my consultancy has given me the ideal working situation.
Richard’s story
What led to you being involved in the social sector? After nearly 30 years in the energy sector, I had the opportunity to take an early retirement and start a career change. Initially, I managed a facilities rebuild project (from raising finance to completion) for a sports charity I had already been a trustee of for some years. As this came to an end, I reconnected with a former colleague who introduced me to what was then called Primetimers, and he encouraged me to take on some volunteer assignments.
What advice would you give someone new to the sector? Starting with some pro bono work is a good introduction to the sector, and it also helps in managing expectations all round. With your confidence hopefully built, then taking on paid roles should be a good next step. Another vital thing for anyone new to appreciate is the need for flexibility with clients who are generally under-resourced and often not experienced in working with consultants. Timescales often slip and getting necessary data and information can be slow. The key to success though is being patient and encouraging the client – badgering is usually unhelpful and can lead to breakdown of relationships.
New consultants also need to be realistic about earning potential, as working in the not-for-profit sector alone is not going to deliver sizeable financial rewards.
Do you have advice on being a consultant in the sector? Every client organisation is different, so find out what really matters to the client and try to keep the focus on helping them to increase their impact (or at least preserve what they already do). Learn to embrace flexibility, but do not lose sight of what this sector is all about – helping organisations and their beneficiaries to have better lives.
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