Judy --- I’m impressed by your openness, initiative, and experience. At the start, it might be hard to fine tune in a meaningful way what is stated in a number of bullet points, a broad listing of diverse jobs/professions, and a lot of experience packed into a few paragraphs. Not a criticism, of course, but due to the wide range of your issues, chances are some of my comments will be off target until they can be clarified. The overview you provided is necessary and helpful, but where do we start?Surprising, perhaps, but I chose to focus on your message’s last paragraph. You said --- “I have done several info interviews and I end up thinking that I’m not quite a fit, though everyone says I have a great resume.”
What made you think that you were not quite a fit could simply be exactly that you were not. I expect that you followed up such thinking with coming to conclusions regarding exactly why you were not quite a fit.
That aside, could it be something else of influence? Something as basic differences in jargon, i.e., the “sales speak” you would have naturally brought to the interviews from your business career, where there was “development speak” from the non-profit’s interviewer? In my experience with interviewing, hiring, and advising professionals making the transition from a for-profit sales environment to a non-profit solicitation environment, I have seen greater success coming from initial meetings where the same language is spoken, giving a greater chance for the sense of a good “fit.”
From a fellow who had a nineteen year career in sales of light bulbs with the General Electric Company, and who went on to a thirty-three year career as a non-profit fund-raising professional, I feel confident enough to suggest the process for you to follow during your next interviews.
(1) Read my article:
--- A Development Director Needs More Than A "Smile And A Shoeshine," But It's A Good Start
http://www.raise-funds.com/699forum.html
(Note the references and connections I make regarding sales persons and development professionals.)
(2) Study the following exhibit:
--- Non-Profit And For-Profit Similarities - Differences
http://www.raise-funds.com/exhibits/exhibit51.html
or use .....
http://www.raise-funds.com/exhibits/exhibit51.pdf
What is on this page will greatly encourage you to know that your for-profit experience and skills will work in a non-profit setting. Just remember to cite the many line item similarities and be at home to the simple differences in terminology for the others which function in the same way. But, the “big,” and most critically important differences for you to understand and be able to communicate, are the “Missions” and the “Bottom-Lines.” Those two components completely separate businesses and charities. Being totally comfortable with those two major differences, and citing the close parallels of the other components will help you a great deal during your interviews.
(3) Preparing for, and during your interviews, transfer your for-profit skills to the non-profit world by changing your “jargon” accordingly. Speak in terms of donors, not customers; fund-raising goals, not sales quotas; solicitations and proposals, not sales presentations; constituency, not market area; etc.
(4) Convert your commercial business one-on-one personal selling experience toward being regarded as a development professional facilitator. This, in my opinion, is the one critically important thing you must do. In your for-profit sales position, you were probably expected to be the one directly making the sale. However, when it comes to non-profit organizations, most successful fund-raising officers do not ask for money, or very much of it; they get others to ask for it. Now, if those people with whom you will meet want “you” to raise the money, that will spell trouble for you regarding how you will respond. It will be your choice, but I know it is the wrong thing to do when a non-profit fund-raising officer raises most, or all, of the money. Read my newest article on this topic:
--- Who Should Raise The Money From Within Your Organization?
http://www.raise-funds.com/092004forum.html
Additionally, for more “development speak,” and more important, for you to be comfortable with the fund-raising process, you can easily compare your step-by-step sales process experience to the very close parallel step-by-step non-profit fund-raising process by reviewing those many companion components in the following article on my website:
--- Check Out Your Organization's Fund-Raising Readiness And Learn The Secret Of Fund-Raising Success
http://www.raise-funds.com/a98forum.html
Believe me, just spending a little time to review those steps in the fund-raising process to the point with which you are comfortable, will surely make the best possible impression on any interviewer --- no matter your lack of experience in the non-profit world. Your applicable, and transferable skills could very well overcome the experience requirement.
Judy --- Lots of words from me on this, and maybe not the right ones. But were you sitting across from me inquiring about a development job, I too, would be impressed with your resume’ but if that business background was not somehow made to be related by you to what I do in fund-raising development, the mythical gulf between the two might not be bridged. Thus, I don’t see the fit, and you walk away feeling the same.
Finally, and with mercy, in tune with your succinct bullet points, are my equally brief, but candid, comments:
> * I don't want a high stress job with long hours
(Don’t get into a key development job. It’s like being a Doctor --- you are “always on call.” And “stress” is what we make it. No job can be labeled as such in advance.)
> * I don't want to manage people accept for volunteers or admin people.
(I don’t know of any other kind. And while you can manage staff, you can manage as well, volunteers --- but you actually serve them more.)
> * I want to have fun and love what I do
(Then you might need to have fewer “dont’s” which would surely interfere with fun and love.)
> * I need variety-hate repetition.
(You’ll need to accept and love, that in fund-raising at least, success comes from doing the same things that work, over and over again.)
> * Need organization that has stable structure and adequate pay.
(Your drive and skills can help to make it stable, and the pay, sooner than you might think, would be more than adequate.)
> * Prefer lots of people contact,project mgt and collaboration.
(That’s why stress control is in your own hands, as the mixture of those elements will require a very high degree of responsibility, accountability, and compatibility --- with a clear head having little, if any, room for stress to take over.)
Go get ‘em!
Tony Poderis
