Making the Most of Your Entry Level Nonprofit Job

October 12, 2010 · by ajlovesya · in , ,

I’ve never met a person who loved their entry level job.  Most of these jobs are administrative and you are often on call for senior or mid level managers.  It isn’t easy to see or appreciate the importance of your work (even more so if people treat you as if the work you do doesn’t matter).  Your job may not make the most of your skills and your spend most of your time staring off into space.

So there are many reasons not to love your entry level job.  Yet I think there are enormous benefits that are easy to overlook:

  • You get a bird’s eye view of your organization and the many people, skills, and resources it takes to keep it running smoothly;
  • You are exposed to different people and positions in that organization and the sector in general (I had no idea what development was until my first non-profit job);
  • You have many different tasks that are small pieces of larger responsibilities, such as doing background research on a foundation for a potential grant is a great skill to have should you want to get into fundraising/grant writing;
  • You have more time and flexibility to focus on what you want to do once it is time to move beyond your entry level job.

So the bigger question is how can you take advantage of the flexibility and openness of your job and position yourself to learn more and grow professionally?

1.  Reflect on what you’re doing: What do you enjoy most?  What do you enjoy least? What do you excel in or struggle with? Do you enjoy chatting with people?  Organizing projects from start to finish?  Writing or doing research?  Do you struggle with following up and finalizing events?  Managing files and systems?

2.  Meet people at your job and ask questions: What departments and positions look interesting to you?  Email folks in those departments and ask to chat with them about what they do, how they got there, and what they love about their job.

3.  Figure out what you want to learn: You’ve got a sense of what you enjoy and have a better understanding of different jobs.  What skills do you need to obtain some of the jobs you explored?  Which of your responsibilities is helpful to preparing you for a better position?

4.  Make yourself a new job description: After understanding what you do, what you want to do, and what others do, create a position that incorporates more opportunities and stretch assignments. Work with your supervisor on setting new goals.  This will help you develop the skills and network you need to eventually have the job you want.

There are also low-cost or free resources outside of work that you can take advantage of to push yourself even more.   Consider taking up a part time job or volunteer position in a field you are interested in.  Use social media to connect with your peers and leaders so that you always building a network while staying on top of trend in your field.

How else can we make the most of an entry level position?

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