Nice to meet you, here’s a little advice
I get requests to meet with job-seekers, grad students and younger people pretty often — maybe once a week. They’re looking for career advice and job tips. I do as much as I can, and especially try to help kids who are foreign-born and/or come from underprivileged backgrounds. I enjoy it, even if it can be a bit repetitive to say the same stuff and give the same advice. But everyone is different and interesting in their own way.
I’m not sure I’m the right guy to be giving career advice. I’m no model of career planning or experience. I confess that I don’t really have a “career.” I’ve had a series of jobs that got me where I am. I have vague notions of what I might want to do next, but no grand plan, and no clear destination. So, is that a career? I don’t know.
I’ve met a lot of people and I’ve hired a few. So there’s that. And, I have few stock pieces of advice, so I’m writing it down.
1/ pretend you know
The thing is, I don’t know you very well. You’re an interesting and complicated person. There are things I might be able to help you with, but many more things I can’t. I can’t help you decide what you want to do with your life — whether you want to go back and do pre-med or pursue international relations, whether you want to do something entrepreneurial or look for a job in a big organization. I can talk about these life choices, but since I don’t know you very well, I can’t really give you good advice on big life stuff.
What I can do is help you navigate your way towards a destination. Once you decide where you want to go, I can help. I can’t help you decide what you want to do, but I can help you if you do know. I’ve been around for a while, seen how my sector and Washington work. I know some things and some people. So I can be helpful. But only if you know what you want. So tell me what you want, and I’ll see if I can help you — or at least talk it through with you.
Now, if you’re like me, the truth is you don’t really know what you want to do with your life. If that’s your situation, then my advice is to make your best guess of what you want to do and then pretend like you know.
“I want to work in international maternal health or international nutrition policy for 2 or 3 years, then go back to grad school in public health.”
Ok — let me think about how I can help you. I bet I know some people you could talk to. Or…
“I want to work in West Africa and use my French and work on something with farmers organizations.”
Now we’re talking! Or…
“I want to work on international development policy. Which is more important? Getting experience on Capitol Hill or getting field experience?”
Great question!
On the other hand, maybe you really don’t know and just want to learn about what it’s like to work in this field, or in Washington, or for a nonprofit, or whatever. That’s fine. I can tell you about my experience, my job, my life. If that’s helpful, I’m glad to do it. But I can’t really help you decide if it’s right for you.
2/ be a fisher of opportunities
Contacting me is engaging in an important activity for someone looking for a job: networking!
That’s good; keep doing it. Before our coffee is over, you should ask me for the names of 3 other people to talk to based on our conversation — and ask if I can introduce you. That’s what you’re supposed to do. That’s what a job-seeker should do.
I want you to think of yourself as a fisher-person. You’re out here in the ocean, hoping to catch a big fish: a job. Fisherfolk use nets. To catch a job, you need a net — or rather, a network. By talking to me, you just made your network a little bigger, and your chance of catching that fish a little better.
You’re hoping everyone in your network — like me — is going to help you catch that fish. Maybe we’ll hear of a job that you didn’t know about. Or maybe we’ll need some consulting help, and hire you, and that will eventually turn into a job. Or something like that. Your network will help you get the job you want.
If you’ve ever been to a fishing community, you’ll see men and women sitting on the beach in the evenings, mending their nets. You see, nets tend to fray and get holes. They get caught on coral and propellers and the knots unwind. So the fishermen and women have to mend them constantly, retying the knots, fixing holes, etc.
The same is true for your network. A month from now, I won’t remember our coffee. And if I don’t remember you, I won’t be helping you or serving as part of your network. Today, I’m helping you fish, but within a couple weeks, I’ll be a hole in your network.
Unless you maintain your net.
So here’s what you do: you keep in touch. What I suggest is that you send me (and everyone in your network) an email once a month. It may feel awkward or weird. And you may feel like a pest, but you need to remind me who you are, what you’re looking for, and how I can help you. So you should invent some reason to email me — just to say hi, or to update me on your job search, or to ask me a question: “Have you ever heard of this organization, or do you know anyone who works there?” Anything or nothing, really. Just stay in touch. Just ping me. Otherwise, I’m not going to be any use to you and you haven’t maintained your network and you’ll have a harder time catching fish. You should contact me once a month and you should do the same for everyone in your network — all your friends, your grad school friends, your former bosses, everyone. Let them know how you are, where you are, what you’re doing — or trying to do. Maybe they can help.
I give this advice to everyone. Anyone who will listen. You would be amazed at how few people actually do it. I should be getting dozens of “hey, how are you” emails a week, given how many people I’ve met and how many I’ve given this advice to. Instead, I get maybe one or two a month.
3/ what used to work might not anymore
In general, our society is becoming more educated, more credentialed, more sophisticated, faster. Communications tools emerge quickly and become important — like twitter and facebook. The way people make careers has changed. And, being honest, I don’t really understand it and am not that good at it.
When I got out of college and, and after I spent a few years doing odd jobs and traveling the world, I came to Washington with a pretty clear idea of what I wanted to do. That was the good news. The bad news is there weren’t many jobs. I interviewed for a few jobs that I didn’t really want, but considered taking because they would provide a salary and maybe get me closer to my goal. But, I decided not to take them, and waited almost a year to get a job I really wanted. Meantime, I did all the temporary jobs and consultancies and special projects. I did some unpaid internships. Some of them were interesting and relevant to my interests. Many of them were not. But overall, I decided that it was better to hold out for something that I really wanted and that would launch me in the right direction than compromise for something that wouldn’t.
There’s a lot of reasons this worked for me, but might not work for you. I didn’t have any debt, I had a very low cost of living, and I was able to find reasonably-well paid temporary jobs and consultancies. So, I think it’s a good idea to be patient and wait and try to get the job you want, rather than compromise too early. But that’s easy to say and everyone has different circumstances. You won’t be doing yourself any favors by going into long-term debt.
In the development sector, there has been a growth in professionalism, credentials, and organizational density. So, it’s much harder to crack into it than it once was. I don’t necessarily recommend grad school unless you actually want to study and learn. And I really don’t recommend going into serious debt for it. On the other hand, jobs that once went to people with undergrad degrees, now require masters. And in the biggest institutions (like World Bank, UN, etc), these kinds of credentials are required for jobs and career advancement.
….to be continued.
RESOURCES:
LinkedIn is increasingly good source of job listings. See here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nicholascmartin_internationaldevelopment-nonprofit-socent-activity-6808044944671019008-4zFX
Other job boards:
[updated January 2025]
ENDS///
