Tag: Career Tips

write thank you note

A Handy Trick to Stand Out in the Crowded ICT4D Job Market

As a subscriber to the ICT4DJobs email list, you are a technologist in some way. You believe in the role of ICT to improve development and more importantly, the lives of people in developing countries.

Now I want to tell you about a very non-techie way to stand out in the job search. It’s probably one of the oldest tricks, and still stunningly powerful, yet its also one of the most forgotten.

Send a Thank You Letter

And I don’t mean an email. I mean an old-school, handwritten note on nice card stock, that’s put in an envelope, with a stamp, and sent to who you interviewed with. Either an informational interview or an actual job interview.

Why is this a trick? Because handwritten notes are so rare, you will certainly stand out from the crowd. I learned this lesson back in my first ICT4D job when years after I was hired, I was talking with my boss about hiring staff.

He told me that my thank you note is what got me my job there.

Then he reached into his desk and pulled out the very note I’d written years before. He said it was the only one he’d ever received, and so he kept it to remind himself who to look for when hiring staff.

From that day forth, I’ve sent handwritten thank you notes, and twice, I received them. I distinctly remember the two people who sent them – they’re top of mind when I think about who my friends should hire.

So simple, so effective, and yet so rare. Maybe you can start a trend?

ict4d job skills

Should I Specialize or Generalize in ICT4D Skills?

What questions do you have about digital development careers? Click here to ask yours! We’ll answer it in the next newsletter.

Q3: Should I Specialize or Generalize in ICT4D?

Another subscriber question: Will my career advance faster if I stay an ICT4D generalist, with different jobs that focus in each of education, health, and agriculture, or should I specialize in one sector for the majority of my career?

The Case for Generalists Skills

Spreading yourself over several sectors has two key advantages. First, you will not be bored, as each sector, while similar to the others, has its own opportunities, issues, and players.

The downside to this strategy is that it might take you longer to advance into a management role when you move from one sector to another, and have to learn its new norms and networks.

Personally, this is the role I’ve taken, as I thrive on the steep learning curve that comes with a new field. However, I’ve seen peers who stayed with one sector (though not always with the same company) move up faster than me.

The Case for Specialists Skills

If you decide to focus on one sector, say civil society, you can certainly become a key expert and make good progress in your career. If its something you love, by all means, go deep and enjoy.

However, you can become typecast – forever expected to only be in that sector. Then, the longer you stay in that sector, the harder it will be for you to work in any other. This can be very dangerous if that role phases out of need.

For example, at one point I was an expert in deploying desktop computers into computer labs. Yet that isn’t a role for international experts anymore, so I had to quickly adapt or I would’ve been unemployed and unemployable.

T-Shaped Skills for Sustainability

Many career counselors talk about T-shaped skills as the best of both worlds. Go vertically deep in a particular area and then be quick to horizontally collaborate with experts in other disciplines.

The benefit of this approach is a domain knowledge that can advance your career and a network of peers in other domains that will vouch for you if you need to move out of your subject area in the future.

This is what I recommend now too. For example: being a subject matter expert in democracy and governance, yet quick to share your social and behavior change communication skills with peers in health and nutrition. I think its the only way to ensure a life-long career in digital development.

Thanks,
Wayan

get new ict4d job

How Do I Get Back Into Digital Development?

A subscriber has an interesting question: they were in ICT4D before, then left to start a business that while in international development, was not a technology company. Now they are wondering how to return to ICT4D and the roles they should apply for.

First: What Do You Want to Do?

I think the hardest part of a job search is figuring out what you want to do. The role, responsibilities, work culture, and experiences that will make you happy. I’ve found that writing it all down and ranking what matters can really help you narrow down your focus.

This is the first task, because you don’t want to do a job search just to get a job you wind up hating. I’ve done that twice now – its not fun.

Next: What Are Your Transferable Skills

The person writing in realized they wanted to lead an ICT4D team, so next up was to think through all the skills and experience needed to lead a team and then to find examples of that leadership in their present work.

For this person, that was easy – they were managing a team and often had to overcome technology problems to get their product to the right market in the way their customers wanted. So they can list out those experiences in their CV with the right emphasis for each employer’s desires.

Finally: Who Do You Know?

For better or worse, ICT4D is a very small field and getting in by a recommendation, referral, or direct friendship is always faster than blindly applying to job ads (including those in our jobs newsletter).

In fact, you should use job ads as a rough gauge of which organizations are hiring and what they looking for, and then start informational interviewing your way into their social/professional networks. You want to be known before you apply.

For this person, they can start with the people they knew in ICT4D from before they left, and build their network from there. They are not in the USA currently, which does pose a slight barrier, but thankfully we have Skype, Zoom, WhatsApp and whole slew of connectivity options for them.

Their job search will not be easy.  No job search is ever easy. Its a long, hard, slog with many questions. Ask your questions now!

referral recommendation ict4d job

What Are Your Digital Development Job Search Questions?

What do you wonder about in the international development hiring process? What do you want to know the answer to in growing your ICT4D career? What has always been a mystery to you in digital development?

Click here and tell me!

I’d love to hear what you worry about, or are just plain curious about, in the job search and career growth process. I can’t promise you that I know the answer, but I will do my best to find out.

Ask Me So We Can All Learn

I’ll take your queries, research the answers, and then after anonymizing the question, post both the question and answer on ourICT4DJobs mailing list so we can all learn.

Ask now – there are no foolish questions

Some of the best advice I’ve learned has emerged from question you have, as it’s made me think about a new aspect of the job process and then get the answer from leaders in our field.

Thanks,
Wayan

Job Search Questions & Answers Part 2

Recently I asked you to tell me about your job search dilemmas and wow! I received a wave of responses. Here is the next installment. Ask me question to see it responded to here.

Their Question:

All the advice I see is to focus my job search on one cause or role. However, I see so many interesting jobs – I want to apply to them all. I also don’t want to limit myself to one type of job. What if no one is hiring for it? How can I make my CV flexible enough to apply to multiple opportunities?

My Response:

The cold reality is that you have to pick a role and bet on it. I know what sounds both scary and limiting , but its the best way to actually break into ICT4D.

For every job opening, an organization will get 100-300 inquiries, most of which will be generic. People who seem interested in the field in general, but not that excited about the specific organization and its mission. They will also get 3-5 people who are really engaged – they know the issues, the people involved, and obviously care about having impact.

Who do you think will get the interview? The job?

So while I does feel like you are cutting off options when you focus on one specific role within one specific cause, you are actually taking a big step forward towards an ICT4D job. People hire on passion. Show yours.

Want more depth to your career questions? Grab a career coaching session.

Thanks,
Wayan