Personal Branding Rules

Communicating your value to an employer is half the battle of getting a nonprofit job.  That's why personal branding is a handy tool for job seekers.

The success of your personal branding can make or break your job search.  If you do it right, employers will see the value you could bring to their organization.  If you don't, they will be left wondering why they should bring you into the fold.  Your brand should leave employers with no doubt about your abilities.  It should encompass the types of problems you solve, how you solve them, and the situations in which you excel.

How do you go about spreading your personal brand?  Here are some rules to get started:

• Your personal brand is not about you.  Kind of blows your mind, right?  You should be conveying to the employer how your skills will be of value to the organization.
• Your brand should change with every new opportunity you are presented.  The strengths that you emphasize must change based on your audience.  For example, you would highlight your people skills at an organization that works extensively with the local community.
• It's not what you want to hear, but you're going to have to do all the heavy lifting.  A nonprofit doesn't have time to figure out your value.  It's up to you to communicate your worth clearly and concisely.  If it takes more than one reading to see your value, you will have to go back to the drawing board.

Managing Nonprofit Diversity Conflict

Diversity has become the goal at every level of American life. Efforts to promote it have been rightfully applauded. Here's the real question: Are organizations correctly handling these efforts?

One reason people flock toward nonprofit jobs is the diversity in culture and the working backgrounds they support. There is a bigger lesson organizations missed if they are only promoting diversity for diversity's sake. In his book "The End of Diversity as We Know It," Martin R. Davidson argues that a better aim is to embrace and build upon differences among employees.

Davidson, who was a chief development officer at the University of Virginia, also acknowledges that diversity initiatives can cause resistance and even conflict among employees. This can manifest itself in what Davidson calls "identity abrasions," feelings of resentment or defensiveness that come up when people are criticized for being insensitive or ignorant. He wrote that to make these teachable moments positive experiences for all parties involved, he recommends human resources officers implement five "principles of behavior." They are:

• Pausing: There is a natural tendency to react, but taking time to identify feelings and consider options helps in responding effectively to criticism.
• Connecting to larger goals: Meaningful goals make it easier to remember why it is worth engaging with another.
• Questioning yourself: This will help you come to a realistic and accurate understanding of what is happening in the exchange.
• Seeking out balanced support: Rather than just complaining to your friends who will have your back, seek out the counsel of trusted colleagues.
• Shifting mindset towards opportunity: It takes persistent willingness to be introspective.

Nonprofit That Helps The Jobless In Danger

A nonprofit organization created to help the jobless get back to work is in danger of closing because of budget issues.

Stltoday.com reported today that the Go! Network is running short on money and might not survive the summer.  The organization, which is run by executive director Roni Chambers, was created during the midst of the Great Recession and is designed to help unemployed mid-level executives.  4,000 executives have made their way to the Go! Network since February 2009, and 68 percent of them found new employment.  Chambers assumed co-leadership of the nonprofit after her own lay-off from Anheuser-Busch in 2010.

The Go! Network relies solely on private donations, and Chambers sees the nonprofit running out of cash if things don't change soon.  Its co-leader, David Greenwalt, recently left for a full-time paid position leaving all the responsibility for the organization in Chambers' hands.  The Network has already outlasted its original expected life-span of 12 months when it was founded in early 2009.

Chambers has solicited help from donors but has been told that their priorities rest with helping the homeless, not the jobless.  Ironically, the Go! Network was founded in part to prevent members of the middle-class from slipping into homelessness.

You can read more about this story on Stlouistoday.com.

Featured Nonprofit Job: Higher Education Research and Policy Analyst

Looking for a nonprofit job in sunny Atlanta, GA?  The Southern Education Foundation (SEF) has just the position for you.

Effective immediately, SEF is looking for a highly motivated candidate to fill its brand new Higher Education Research and Policy Analyst role.  This position is being created to help expand SEF's ability to conduct research, analyze policy, and develop programming to improve access to college and degree completion nationally.  A particular focus will be placed on the successs of low-income and minority students.  As such, all interested applicants should have a strong passion for working with these types of students, and a strong knowledge of Minority-Serving institutions.

Interested in this position?  Before you apply, make sure you fit the following requirements:

• A doctorate degree in higher education, public policy, or a related field.
• Experience with conducting higher education research and reporting.
• Communication skills are a must, including written, oral, and electronic.

Along with the submission of your resume and cover letter, also submit a writing sample and the contact information for at least three references.  Apply for this job today at NPT Jobs!

Using Social Media To Get A New Job

Social media is the flavor of the month right now.  Everybody seems to have a Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or whatever new site pops up.  But can you really "like" or "tweet" your way to a new nonprofit job?

It's important to keep in mind that social networking should only be used as a compliment to traditional networking but, having said that, it can definitely help you with your job search.  One of the best things about social media is that it makes researching an organization much easier.  Reading the company website is useful, but only social media will give you the best idea of the company culture.  Look at pictures of recent company outings and see how representatives interact with their followers to get a better idea of how you would fit in at the organization.

I mentioned above how social networking should be used in conjunction with traditional networking.  There is no better example of this than using social media to get in touch with former colleagues or old friends.  By making a simple status update on Facebook or sending a tweet on Twitter, all of your contacts will know that you are looking a job.  Who knows, one of your friends may know someone at an organization you are looking to join.

Once you get a job interview, you can utilize social media sources to learn more about your interviewer.  Knowing this person's background will help you customize your talking points and come prepared with better interview questions.  It can also make for some good small talk, which can never be underestimated.  For example, you could discover that your interviewer graduated from the same school as you.  Even if you don't get the job, the interviewer may be motivated to help a fellow alumni.

How do you use social media in your job search?  Tell us your experiences in the comments section.

Nonprofit Jobs On The Rise

A new study by Johns Hopkins University is giving job seekers yet another reason to flock towards nonprofit jobs.

The NonProfit Times wrote about the report from the Baltimore, Md.-based school that showed that jobs in the nonprofit sector increased an average of 2.1 percent from 2000 to 2010, while for-profit jobs decreased by an average of 0.6 percent annually.  This trend even held up during the height of the Great Recession (between 2007 and 2009), with nonprofit employment increasing at an average of 1.9 percent per year while for-profit work declined.  The only year in the past decade that nonprofits didn't outperform for-profits was 2005, when both sectors reported a 2-percent increase in jobs.

If you are wondering which industries increased the most, the JHU study has answers to that, too.  It cited the greatest increase in jobs in the following fields: Healthcare, education, and social assistance.  Those three happen to be the largest employers in the nonprofit sector, with healthcare jobs making up 57 percent of the nonprofit workforce.

There was one bit of negative news for nonprofits.  According to the report, for-profit businesses outpaced nonprofit growth when it came to social assistance, education, and nursing home care.  As a result, nonprofits in these fields lost market share to for-profits.  The reasons for this aren't exactly clear, but insiders are blaming market conditions and the moral tenets of competing industries, which tend to become muddled in tough economic times.

You can read more about JHU's study of nonprofit jobs in The NonProfit Times.

10 Steps To A Modern Resume

Does your resume feel old?  Does it produce dust when you touch it?  Then it's time to do some updating to bring it into the 21st century.

Resumes are a lot different than they were years ago.  If you don't get with the times, you'll find your application resume collecting more dust.  Thanks to new conventions and the rise of applicant tracking software (ATS), employers are more strict than ever about which resumes make it past the sniff test.

Nervous?  Not to worry, there are plenty of easy ways to get your resume up to date.  Here are 10 tips to get you on track:

• Include a professional or executive summary at the top of your resume, followed by a bulleted list of qualifications and achievements.
• Don't use abbreviations.  An ATS is unlikely to have them programmed into its list of job key words.
• Speaking of key words, it's not enough to just litter them throughout your resume.  Frame them with material that demonstrates your expertise in the subject.
• Don't include any graphics, logos, or other pictures.
• Avoid the use of exclamation points or all-caps letters.  Use only standard capitalization.
• Mention if you are being referred to the organization by a current employee.
• Put your contact information, including phone number and e-mail, at the top of the page.  It's easier to miss at the bottom.
• Order your previous work experience by most recent.  Employers are more interested in the work you have done recently.
• Your dates should be in the month/year format.  Specific days are not necessary.
• The length of your resume should be based on the amount of experience you have.  For example, a recent college graduate's resume shouldn't be more than a page or two.