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About admin

Jill Sarah Moscowitz is an Executive Recruiter with a NYC based search consulting firm that serves the nonprofit sector. She has reviewed thousands of resumes, interviewed hundreds of candidates, and worked with dozens of Boards of Directors in the executive search process. Jill Sarah has a keen understanding of candidate selection and development. She is especially astute at understanding nuances within an executive search such as stakeholder roles and perspectives. She has a track record of helping prospective candidates to gain clarity in their job search so they can position themselves most favorably in their career transition.

Résumés Matter: Tips for Nonprofit Job Seekers

Will code for foodIn her article “Résumés Matter: What Nonprofit Employers Want to Know About Job Seekers” Jennifer C. Berkshire writing for the Chronicle of Philanthropy outlines some good tips for nonprofit job seekers.  Based on interviews with recruiters and nonprofit job-market experts, Ms. Berkshire shares some good advice on résumé writing — whether you are a seasoned executive or an entry level professional.

Creative Commons License photo credit: pvera

Based on my experience as a nonprofit executive recruiter, there are few tips that deserve emphasis;

1) Personalize your résumé and cover letter. Make sure your résumé and cover letter speak to the requirements of the position.  Get a copy of the position description, or use the position posting, to really understand the key requirements of the job.   The person reading your résumé wants to see how you can be successful in this position so include information that directly addresses the job requirements. Do your due diligence!  Look at the organization’s website and use the information there to help you understand the culture and unique qualities of the organization.  Based on this, structure a cover letter and résumé that speak to how you will be successful in this organization, in this particular culture, for this particular mission.

2) Show your skills and accomplishments. Include any past accomplishments that could be transferable for success at this organization.  If the position requires ability to “grow an organization” include specific (even quantitive) information about an organization’s growth under your leadership.   Or, a position that requires demonstrated success as a major gifts fundraiser, include quantitive examples of gifts you solicited or even helped to solicit.

3) Don’t be afraid to show your age (whether your a well seasoned professional or new to the field).  Many times, I speak with executive leaders who tell me they want to keep their résumé short so they have left off 10-20 years of work experience.  And of course I ask if the first position on the résumé is the first held position.  More often than not, I learn of a breadth of relevant experience, and sometimes this experience is volunteer.  If you are trying to conserve space, then simply list the name of the organization, location, dates of employment, title held.   For less seasoned applicant’s, my advice is to consider structuring a résumé by skill set rather than be employer.  The résumé should include an “Employment History” section but the bulk of the resume can be set up by way of Skills.  That way, you can include your professional and volunteer experience to create a good description of who you are, what you’ve done, and what you are capable of doing.

click here to read the full Article (which may require subscription to the Chronicle of Philanthropy)

Executive Vacancies in Nonprofit Sector

A 2009 study conducted by the Bridgespan Group,  Finding Leaders for Americas Nonprofits , which looked at position vacancies during the 18 months from June 2007 to December 2008, found about 77,000 senior-level jobs were open at nonprofit groups nationwide.  This figure was about 43 percent higher than was forecast in Bridgespan’s 2006 study. About 25 percent of those leadership vacancies were filled from within, but 41 percent of were filled from other nonprofit groups, and 21 percent came from the business world.

According to the Executive Summary of this study:

  • “In the next 12 months, 28 percent of nonprofit organizations with revenues of $1 million and above plan to make one or more senior management hires, translating to 24,000 vacancies in 2009.
  • Projected vacancies are largely the result of retirement, since much of the existing leadership is comprised of boomers. Vacancies also stem from new roles being created due to an increase in organizational complexity based on growth in prior years. The need is especially acute in human services and arts organizations.
  • Top barriers to finding suitable leaders included compensation and difficulty finding executives with specialized skills, as well as competition for the same in-sector talent pool and lack of resources to find or cultivate new leaders.
  • The most important attributes recruiters are seeking include anticipated relevant experience as well as “cultural fit,” or shared passion for the mission (68 percent on average cite fit as a very important asset. That number climbs to 82 percent in the education field).
  • 73 percent of respondents said that they value for-profit experience in a candidate.
  • 53 percent of U.S. nonprofits surveyed have significant for-profit management experience represented on their senior management teams, including 20 percent in financial roles.
  • Additionally, 42 percent of the EDs surveyed had significant management experience in the private sector.

In addition, a series of messages emerged from the survey data, further highlighting key data and its implications in the hiring and recruiting plans of nonprofit organizations.”   Read more

A full copy of the study can be downloaded by downloaded from Bridgespan’s website .

Finally, a Remedy for Annoying Co-workers

During my daily walk to and from work, I often hear people complaining to their friends (or anyone who will listen) about the person at work that drives them crazy.  I wonder about the effect of this venting process.  Will the irritating person magically hear these complaints, and thus consider the option of changing their irritating behavior?   Does the listening friend have some secret connection to the irritating person, and the ability to alert him or her about these disturbances?  Or, is there a transformation through the venting process, where the “victim” realizes that the problem is theirs and the irritating person is just the “trigger” of some underlying issues yet to be uncovered?

Alas, in the June 21st Career Couch column in the New York Times, Phyllis Korkki’s does a great job at laying out some options for these unhappy street “venters”. In I Find You Annoying, but I Can Cope, Korkki summarizes some common sense wisdom about managing day-to-day perturbances that come with most workplaces.

For example,  “How can you can minimize the impact of co-workers who talk ad nauseam  … or who talk loudly on the phone… or who eat smelly food at their desks or slurp their coffee? “   In this Career Couch column we learn that these perturbances can be due to the other (irritating) person, you, or the layout of the space.     The good news is that rather than “seethe inwardly and complain bitterly to family members and friends after work”, there are creative alternatives such as purposeful venting with a friend, direct communication, taking a break, and/or involving a manager.

Purposeful “venting” involves talking to a friend (or other good listener) about the problem with an ear toward how you might take responsibility and/or action to transform it.   In my experience direct communication of the problem is the most effective tactic (once you’ve had a productive venting session).   If a problem is not communicated to someone who can fix it,  chances are it will not get fixed.  By communicating directly with the “irritating person”, you give that person the opportunity to know that a behavior of theirs is annoying to you.  This communication should not be blaming “You did this or that” but should be explanatory “When you do this …”   By communicating directly, you may even learn that you are not disempowered by the will of that “inconsiderate co-worker” but rather you are empowered to impact your work environment.

Sometimes this sort of direct communication will uncover an underlying cause of the problem that actually unifies the unhappy co-worker with the person causing the annoyance.  For example, you discover that the noise in the “open” office is due to your co-worker’s hearing impairment and as a solution, the co-worker moves to a location that is more suitable for you both.

But, will the culture of your organization support this type of direct communication?   Are there unspoken power dynamics (due to gender, age, race, ethnicity, culture) that prevent us from using  “direct communication” to unravel workplace annoyances.   Or, does the culture of the organization create and support instances where co-workers can safely communicate with one another.

In their books, Becoming a Conflict Competent Leader and Building Conflict Competent Teams, Craig Runde and Tim Flanagan help leaders “learn how conflict naturally occurs as well as what they need to do to get the best out of it”.

The good news is that there are creative alternatives to responding to the workplace nemesis.  And, workplaces that are “communication and conflict friendly” can provide an environment where these “annoyances” can be managed at the lowest level of conflict intensity and serve only as a bump in the road, and not as a pothole!

Career Change: Will Academic Training Give A Competitive Edge?

nonprofit-career-advisor-jilsarahIn an already tight and tenuous job marketplace, competition for nonprofit executive positions will become stiffer as corporate executives consider making a move to the nonprofit sector.  According to The Nonprofit Times March 12, 2009 article Fundraisers Fighting For Jobs, some career changers are preparing to increase their appeal by enrolling in nonprofit management programs.

But, what ultimately qualifies an executive for nonprofit work?  To what extent will a graduate certificate in nonprofit management give a career changer a competitive edge?  And, will a nonprofit management degree hold more value for someone aspiring to be a nonprofit CEO than for those aspiring to a COO or CFO position?

Ultimately, nonprofit employers want to hire someone who can demonstrate their commitment to the nonprofit sector. To that end, the time and money devoted to a nonprofit management program can certainly help. But candidates need more than a certificate. They must also be able to show a track record of successes using skills that are transferable to a nonprofit setting.

Nonprofit employers also seek candidates who understand a nonprofit organization’s mission, and fit in to their organizational culture.  So, career changers who have served on a nonprofit board or worked as a volunteer will be stronger candidates than those who simply possess an academic certificate.

Career changers seeking a CEO position may stand to gain more from academic training than those seeking a COO or CFO title.  There are simply more new skills for a CEO to learn such as fund development, donor cultivation, and working with a nonprofit (volunteer) Board of Directors, where the internal skills of a COO or CFO can be more easily transferred.