From Corporate to Nonprofit Sector: Evaluating Transferable Skills

Are you seeing more people apply for your positions that don’t have nonprofit work experience?  Do you wonder if there skills are transferable and if they understand the work that needs to get done?  Are these potential employees worth the risk?

The answer may be: yes, no, yes.

Yes, people transitioning into the nonprofit workspace are worth the risk.  They have learned the same skills many of us have learned:  customer service, technology, time management, project management and how to work to a deadline.

No, many employees transitioning to the nonprofit world do not understand the work.  We have been under-resourced for many years and the daily work for our employees can be overwhelming.  But that doesn’t mean that we can’t change and that new employees won’t bring skills and perspectives that make us better at our work.

Yes, you should seriously consider a person transitioning to the sector as a potential employee.  When you look at the parts of the nonprofit job description that are hard to define, they are also, frequently, the most trainable.  The skills the person is bringing to the position may have been learned in a different way, but it doesn’t mean they aren’t usable and helpful to your organization.  As the demand for services continues to escalate, bringing smart, talented individuals into the sector is going to make us change and grow.  We need to be prepared to hire, train, engage and promote.