For many human rights professionals, their careers start at a small non-profit organization. Others intentionally choose to stay local, striving to impact their own cities, protecting and increasing human rights in their local communities. Regardless of how you get there, if you work for a small human rights NGO, it can come with plenty of challenges and rewards. But your time at a small NGO can ultimately shape your career and your outlook on human rights work, so it’s important to understand what your experience there could look like.

Challenge: With limited staff, everyone has to play multiple roles.

A smaller staff means less room for delegation and specialization. While everyone has their designated role and job description, everyone also ends up pitching in when work gets busy. That means that some weeks, your time for your actual job can be taken up by tasks done for other coworkers. Most small NGOs have the bare bones minimum staff to run their organization, or they may only have one or two people in each department. Even with a small staff, they still have to run like a larger organization would in order to keep up with clients, services, and funding needs. In some cases, burnout can happen quickly, especially working with human rights issues. Time management is important to make sure that you get your own work done, even when you’re trying to fill in other gaps and help out coworkers.

Reward: You quickly gain experience and can usually volunteer for areas of work that you’re skilled at.

Limited staff can also have its advantages for career and skill development. On the other side of everyone contributing to multiple areas of a small NGO, you quickly gain skills and experience in a wide range of areas. This can help expand your expertise for future jobs and understand how the organization functions together as a whole. Additionally, if you have skills like writing, social media, fundraising, or event planning, smaller organizations typically need staff to volunteer to run those areas and help out. Volunteering for these areas can help you use skills you have outside of your normal job and gain experience doing a variety of tasks. This can really help you develop your career and contribute to specific areas you’re passionate about, while potentially gaining other interest areas in the process.

Challenge: Funding can be limited, which can be hard on staff and services.

Funding is one of the most challenging areas for small human rights organizations. Most local NGOs struggle to obtain grants and donors, especially because they typically don’t have as much capacity for fundraising and outreach. However, donations and funding are absolutely essential to continuing their operations. When funding is limited or low, organizations can struggle to find flexibility within their programs and services, and they may even struggle to keep a solid team of staff. Individual donors are also difficult to obtain, as they require outreach and fundraising on behalf of the organization and commitment to the cause on behalf of the donors. Losing funding or lacking enough funding can bring an organization’s programs to a halt.

Reward: Small organizations are likely candidates for smaller, local niche grants and funding.

Small human rights organizations that pay attention to grants can often be great candidates to receive funding for specific programs. Especially for grants offered at the state and local levels, investing into an organization that benefits the local community is appealing for funders. For small NGOs that can show that they know what they’re doing, have success with their existing programs, and can use the grant money effectively, they have a greater chance of gaining funding to continue their programs and even start new ones. Many funders will be more interested in funding local organizations that can directly impact the community, especially when they know those organizations depend on funding to run their programs.

Challenge: You won’t have as much room to move up in your career.

One of the major problems with staff retention at small organizations is that they usually don’t have many upper level positions to move into. Local NGOs can be a great place for professionals to start, but they often can’t offer many promotions or higher-level, better-paying jobs to their employees. Some people will choose to stay with the organization for lengths of time, but anyone who wants to advance their career will not be able to stay long. This problem leaves a lot of shifting in staff, abilities/skills, and expertise depending on the background and experience of the new employees coming in. Small organizations offer great entry-level opportunities, but they often don’t have many opportunities to advance your career within the organization.

Reward: Small organizations typically offer great, team-centered environments.

A major advantage of working for a small human rights NGO is that the office environment and culture is usually team-centered, giving you a great chance to learn from your coworkers and participate. For entry-level positions, this can be an especially good experience because you learn how to work as a team and fill in for coworkers, and it also creates a good work environment, giving you a better experience overall. In general, small organizations that are team-based give employees an opportunity to have more of a say in what happens, use their individual skills to contribute, and understand how the whole organization operates. Especially in the field of human rights, working as a team can help the organization reach their goals and strengthen their outreach and credibility within the community. The team-based environments that local NGOs offer is a huge advantage to working with one.

Challenge: Small organizations typically have less resources, such as technology, etc.

Similar to funding, another problem that small NGOs face is a lack of resources (often due to a lack of funding). Many are faced with using outdated technology, lacking sufficient office space, and paying out-of-pocket for various expenses for fundraising, office supplies, etc. The lack of technology and office space can especially impact how well the organization can function, limiting outreach and possibly even programs. For human rights organizations working directly with clients, limited office space can become a major problem, and a lack of technology and even office supplies can impact the effectiveness and reach of the programs and services offered.

Rewards: You have a lot more chances to take and show initiative for the organization.

A small human rights organization means that everybody needs to and gets to play a part in what’s happening. In general, you can present your ideas to the staff and be heard. If you see a need in the organization, you can take the initiative to present an opportunity or idea to fill that gap. These types of opportunities can help you gain skills in problem-solving, creativity, and communication. When a coworker sends out an email about needing help, take the opportunity if you can. Because local NGOs have small teams and somewhat limited resources, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to gain experience, and you can take the initiative to point out gaps and offer solutions when you see them.

Working for small, local human rights organizations can definitely present some challenges, especially with limited funding, limited resources, and limited opportunities to advance. But for as many challenges as you might face, the rewards can far outweigh them. Every challenge presents an opportunity to gain experience, learn skills, and take initiatives to improve how the organization runs. Small organizations can offer amazing entry-level jobs, and they can also offer great opportunities for human rights professionals who want to invest locally, in their own communities. For those considering their career options in human rights, applying to and looking into small human rights organizations could be a great experience and a good starting point to launch your career.

The post Rewards and Challenges: Working for a Small NGO appeared first on Human Rights Careers.

When you first enter the workforce, whether after graduating from a human rights master degree or after completing a human rights course, it can be difficult to find a job. There is a complicated catch-22 situation where you can’t get a job without experience, but you can’t get experience without getting a job. Luckily, there are some ways to still get a job even if you don’t have experience in your field.

Utilize College Placement Resources

If you are just completing college or have just graduated, speak to your advisor/thesis supervisor and ask about potential placement resources – Don’t be shy! Many colleges, including universities, training schools and community colleges, will offer this to their graduates. While they might not guarantee you will get hired, it can help to have their professional reference for various areas of work. This not only proves you have the education required for certain positions but helps to get your foot in the door, which is often one of the most difficult aspects of finding a job.

Start With An (Unpaid) Internship

While you definetly want a job that pays, it isn’t always possible in certain areas without experience from the very beginning. If you want to work in the human rights field, it can be very competitive and hard to get a job with benefits without previous working experience. In this case  consider to start with an unpaid internship. Without question this is always some kind of exploitation and unpaid internships should be abolished…but: we aren’t there yet. Internships wether paid or not give you networking opportunities and help you to determine, where your strengths are.

Demand Useful Work

If you managed to get one of the competitive UN internships make sure that you ask for relevant work. Many interns are too shy to ask for duties that suit their expertise and qualifications. If you aren’t sure what type of work to ask for: Try to be helpful to your colleagues. If you come to listen to a conversation regarding a specific task and they have difficulties to get it done (e.g. due to time constraints), intervene and offer to do it. Show that you are ready.

When You Are Done – Move On

Don’t add one unpaid internship after the other. This would be counterproductive for your employability. Focus on paid internships and entry level vacancies instead – even if you think you have no chance. If, after your 400th application, you still don’t get a positive reply (which is nothing unusual today), it might be time to broaden your job search: In fact there are very few human rights jobs that require human rights expertise only. Most human rights jobs require a set of interpersonal, linguistic, leadership, IT, research, psychological, educational etc. skills. If you can’t get your human rights dream job at first, apply for a job that helps you to build skills relevant to your dream job. This will boost your chances when applying for your dream job later.

Be Active. Be Authentic.

Networking is still one of the most effective ways to get a job without experience. That’s why you should take part in some of the local human rights events and get involved. When you are there don’t try to be a boss greeter – it won’t help you get a job nowadays. Better talk to those people you really like and whose company you enjoy without trying to fit in. Being authentic is a very effective way to be successful long term.

Create your own projects

Another possibility is to start your own human rights projects. This way you can follow your passion, learn by yourself and make mistakes without risking too much. The skills and knowledge you gain will be useful for your future human rights job and if your project has some kind of achievments you might also add it to your references.

Don’t take “required experience” too serious

Are you still searching for the entry level jobs that require 0 years of experience? Do those jobs still exist? We rarely see them, if ever. Therefore, especially if you are applying to a human rights NGO, do not take the required years too seriously. If you just finished doing your second internship it is absolutly fine to apply for a job that requires 2 years of experience.

Good luck!

The post How to Get a Job With No Experience appeared first on Human Rights Careers.