Working in a charity

wbt

Hi everyone

This is just a brief question I'm throwing out there. Please excuse the rambling - I stupidly had a late night coffee and can't sleep!

I'm feeling a bit unfulfilled with my current job. I had quite a nice freelance lifestyle for a few years and could travel around the world doing my job remotely but I'm now tied to where I am for the time being due to various issues.

I've been considering different career routes and working for the charity sector popped into my head. A relative of mine has been struggling with severe mental health issues all his life and receives a lot of support from charities and I'd love to be able to help to raise awareness/dispel ignorance about mental health issues and help provide support to people who need it. But I have no idea how to go about it. Some Googling makes it seem like it would be a difficult thing to get into.

As for skill sets, I suppose I have lots of 'transferable skills'. I'm pretty good at dealing with people. I have natural empathy and can see issues from all sides. My background is largely in education and I'm used to dealing with people from other cultures and language backgrounds. I'm a good writer (although this post might make you think otherwise!) and have written professionally in the past, although nothing very prestigious. I'm very good with computers/social media and have fluent Spanish and fairly good French as well as some German. I think I would be good at a role involving lots of communication like press or marketing, but the issue is I have no real experience of this!

Does anyone work for a charity and could give me some advice and an honest opinion?

K_P

I think your interest and enthusiasm in wanting to work with a charity is great, but you would want to be clear on what you have to offer. Your opening post doesn't say what your current career is (which is fair enough of course) but there are lots of skills in the private sector that are transferable to the charity sector. In fact, it's been my experience that some charities are actively seeking people from a private sector background - maybe a bit of private sector ruthlessness is needed in more difficult times!

I'd suggest having a look at various job websites to see what kind of positions charities are currently looking for. Activelink is a good website that lists job vacancies in the community and voluntary sector nationwide. You could see from that if there are positions that your skills, experience and expertise could meet. In the meantime, you could always look at volunteering for a charity that you feel particularly strongly about. You might find that that's good for your CV where your experience doesn't quite match what might be being sought from an employer in the C&V sector.

wbt

I'm basically doing the work of a university lecturer (although I don't have a PhD, just a Master's) and I am also a freelance writer (copywriting and content management).

K_P

Is your area of expertise in any way related to a charity area that you're interested in? I'm thinking if you were lecturing in any field related to health, that could have a direct relation to mental health, charities such as the Irish Heart Foundation, Irish Cancer Society, etc. If you lecture in social science areas (economics, social policy, sociology), that could also be relevant. You could be involved from a policy perspective perhaps.

Even if your area of expertise isn't completely applicable to the charity type you're interested in, charities will still need IT support, social media experts, accountants, all sorts of other roles that the private sector needs. You might be doing the same work, but perhaps for an organisation that you're happier to be a part of.

Best of luck with it, but do bear in mind that jobs within charities are as sought after as every other job out there at the moment.