Category: Career Advice

How To Get Started in ICT4D?

I love subscriber questions – please ask me yours! I answer each question to help you, and then anonymize them here to help us all improve our chances for a dream digital development job.

For example, here is a recent subscriber question:

Where are the entry-level ICT4D positions?
I am currently pursuing a Masters degree in Computer Science and will graduate in 2018, but I am worried. I am interested in pursuing a career in ICT4D, yet all opportunities I find require heaps of work experience. How do I get a start in ICT4D?

My usual response to this question is two-fold.

  1. Don’t sweat prerequisites. Job descriptions are the ideal candidate, and just like an online dating profile, should be approached with a healthy skepticism. Use the job ads as general guidance on the skills you need.
  2. Network, network, network. The final year of graduate study is when you should be networking, doing internships, and getting exposure to real-world activities and future peers and employers, even if you need to volunteer, so that on graduation day, you have job offers in hand.

But what about the day after graduation? I asked my colleagues in ICT4D for their views.

What ICT4D Experts Say About Starting in Digital Development

I tossed the subscriber’s question out to my Facebook network, and 34 responses later, here is their generalized response:

Get Industry Experience

They will be a Computer Science graduate, so they should focus on getting a job directly in the tech industry in an area where they will have transferable skills. This will build your skills and your income faster than if you start in ICT4D.

Keep Involved in International Development

While they are working on this space, keep abreast of development trends, build solutions that address real world problems, and share their results. These basic entrepreneurial efforts that will give them experience, feedback and get them noticed by the sector.

Make the Transition to a Small Tech Firm

When they’re ready, get a job w/a tech-oriented firm liked Dimagi, InSTEDD, etc. as a coder or project manager-type position. With the previous private sector income, they should have financial cushion to go into a lower paying position to pay their “development sector dues”.

See Where Your Career Takes You

A person with a Masters degree in computer science shouldn’t have any problem if they have industry experience. Employers who who run tech companies in international development are looking for tech experience and a willingness to learn.

If they’ve started int he tech space, then moved into international development, they obviously have both and they’ll have a long a rewarding career.

What the Subscriber Said About this Advice

I shared the Facebook post with them in real time, so they could follow along and ask questions if they wanted further clarification. And their response?

Wow! This is amazing. I have gotten a lot of valuable insight. I will keep following the thread and ask where I can. Thank you very much!!

So what are you waiting for? Ask me your career questions too!

Thanks for reading this far,
Wayan

How Do You Invest in Your Career?

How We Invest in Ourselves

In the last newsletter, I asked you all how you invest in yourself – build new skills, competencies, knowledge and expertise that can help you in your current and next role.

Wow! You responded to that question with a plethora of examples. I’ve condensed multiple people’s feedback into themes below.

Regardless of which approach you choose, habitually investing in yourself is the only way to strengthen your career resilience over time.

Invest in Conference & Event Networking

I scrimped and saved to self-fund work conferences and events on my vacation time for 4 years that led to contacts who hired me for my current job, which has a conference travel allowance because my employer knows how valuable it is for our work.

Bonus: I get free conference attendance now in exchange for helping facilitate sessions since conference organizers also know how good I am in conferences.

Invest in Formal Education

I invest in myself through formal online education such as TechChange classes and technical courses at major Universities. I am contemplating a Master’s Degree in International Development to compliment my technical knowledge and give me a more well-rounded educational profile.

I’ve found that I need a Master’s Degree to move past mid-level program manger roles into more senior management or even senior technical advisor roles.

Invest in Informal Learning

I was glad to see Wayan included “time” in investment activities. I spend time on things like podcasts, informational interviews, and following people I admire on social media (especially people who post about what they’re reading). This has been more useful than paid courses I’ve taken.

I invest in maintaining my foreign language skills through speaking clubs, audio books, Internet radio, and volunteering with organizations like Translators without Borders.

Invest in Paying Off Debt

First on my self-investment list is retroactive investment in the form of paying off my student loans for undergraduate and graduate degrees.

My spouse and I will be in debt for many years to come, and I feel frustrated that others have the time and money to invest in current and future skills when we are paying for degrees that just got us entry-level jobs. I get the sense that development is only for those already privileged.

Invest in In-Country Experience

I kept hearing that I needed “in-country experience” to get an entry-level job, but I wasn’t willing to dig wells for two years in the Peace Corps, so I invested in a 6-month internship with a local NGO.

The experience itself was awesome and eye-opening, and it got me interviews with a major iNGO and a job offer the day my internship ended.

Invest in a Start Up

I used a small raise, freelancing gigs, and vacation time to help bootstrap a startup. It was very hard at first, but the startup is now supporting everyone involved, we all genuinely enjoy what we’re doing.

I started a side gig with a friend of mine, and while the money isn’t the same as my day job, it is 30% of my family’s income, and a life-saver when I was laid off recently. I still had money coming in and a professional accomplishments to cite while I looked for a new job.

Thanks for reading this far,
Wayan

Do Not Rush the Job Search

When you are looking for a new job, especially if you’re in-between jobs, every day can feel like an eternity. You wonder why people don’t respond instantly to your inquires, why HR takes forever to get back to you, and when the pain of unemployment will ever end.

Yet the job search takes time. They say, whomever “they” are, that it takes one month for every $10,000 in annual income, so most international development jobs should take at least 5-6 months to secure.

And that’s if you approach job searching, and the networking that entails, as a full time occupation.

If you are kinda looking, sometimes doing informational interviews, and occasionally working on your professional profile, it will take you much, much longer.

Also, don’t forget that the actual hiring process, from interview to offer letter, to first day, takes its own time too. Time that is usually governed by an organization’s bureaucracy, which is beyond the control of anyone – including your hiring manager.

So although its the hardest thing to do, have patience with the job search process. It too will end one day with you in a new dream job.

Thanks for reading this far,
Wayan

Who Are Your References?

Who do you work with today? Is there someone at your current employer that you could trust to be a reference? What about ex-colleagues, peers at other organizations, or mentors?

You should be able to come up with at least one person you worked with, preferably a manager, one person you are currently working with, and one peer who can all vouch for you.

Why? Because references still matter.

You want people who know you, know your skills, your abilities, and your potential, and who can convey that to a future employer. And you should have that list always at the ready.

Ask them before you have a job. Especially those in the specialty that you want to work in. Make sure they are thinking about you as a potential peer, so they will be eager to represent you in a positive light to a future employer.

If you’re really lucky, they’ll even help you find that future employer.

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Thanks for reading this far,
Wayan

What to Wear to an Interview?

You never get a second chance to make a first impression, which means the initial job interview attire still does actually matter in 2017. This still means a suit – for men and women – even if the organization’s work culture is business casual.

Yet wearing that suit has many complications.

The most basic, which suit, comes down to taste and what makes you look good. The more challenging is how to wear the suit without your current employer finding out.

If you’re going to an interview from work, its all about changing in your car or a public restroom, then hoping no one you know sees you in the suit till after you take it off post-interview.

Even if you’re gainfully unemployed (ahem!), getting access to a suit when an interview is eminent is a challenge in itself. More so if you’re living on friends’ couches and you don’t usually travel with a suit.

If you’re lucky, you’ll get a video interview and only need a nice shirt and a tie. Just don’t step away from the camera!

Can you relate? Tell me your story – I’d love to hear it!

Thanks for reading this far,
Wayan