In a Tight Job Market, Charity Workers Urged to Sharpen Skills

As nonprofit groups nationwide cut their job rolls, even veteran nonprofit workers with highly marketable skills may find themselves facing a tough challenge looking for a new position.

While laid-off workers may get despondent as they look at the tightening job market, it is important to recognize that opportunities abound, say career counselors and recruiters, as well as nonprofit employees who have themselves lost their jobs. They offer the following advice for countering the anxiety of an actual or threatened layoff:

Think strategically. At many nonprofit organizations in tough financial straits, there may be “lots of rumors and a certain degree of panic,” says Anne M. McCaw, a nonprofit consultant and author of the Vault Career Guide to Fund-raising and Philanthropy. She advises that workers try to stay calm while also gathering as much information as possible about the group’s fiscal health. “There’s nothing wrong with going to your supervisor, or your executive director if it’s a small organization, and saying, ‘I care, I’d really like to understand where we are at.’”

Kyle Caldwell, chief executive of the Michigan Nonprofit Association, in Lansing, urges workers at such organizations to “position yourself to negotiate your exit strategy, rather than having one just thrust upon you. You have to be a little proactive if you see it coming.”

For instance, David Hinsley Cheng, managing partner at DRG, an executive-recruiting firm in New York, recommends that top-level employees facing layoffs propose creative alternatives to traditional severance packages, such as offering instead to carry out a specific paid project on a part-time basis. The nonprofit group would take the same amount of money it would spend on severance and retain the employee to work as a consultant with clear-cut responsibilities and a time limit. Such an arrangement, says Mr. Cheng, would allow the employee to stay active and connected, “rather than just disappearing into their home office and worrying about what the next step is.”

Don’t take it personally. It’s essential not to let pessimism visibly affect your job search, says Mr. Cheng.

“We’re all seeing these cutbacks,” he says. “Don’t let it affect your ability to market yourself as an upbeat, optimistic professional.” He adds that particularly in the nonprofit world — where employers are looking for leaders able to motivate others — it’s essential not to carry the “weight” of a dismissal when talking to potential employers or job contacts.

Adds Ms. McCaw: “Even when circumstances are out of our control, we continue to feel it’s our responsibility, that we did something wrong. But there are so many domino factors — endowments, the fact that so much wealth is tied up in real estate and the stock market — and what we’re seeing is the ripple effect of that playing out in the nonprofit sector.”

Take time to reflect. Assess interests, strengths, and expectations before flooding hiring managers with résumés, says Mr. Cheng. “In the nonprofit community, it’s important to be able to convincingly demonstrate your interest in working for a particular organization or mission,” he says.

Ms. McCaw advocates taking care of one’s physical health to help alleviate anxiety, and perhaps taking a personality test, such as Myers-Briggs or the Strong Interest Inventory, to explore new career avenues. “Maybe this is the time to think about that range of interests, to revisit that job you wanted when you first got out of school.”

Anne M. Nolan credits a period of reflection after she lost her corporate job nine years ago with leading her to her current position as president of Crossroads Rhode Island, a Providence nonprofit group that provides services to the homeless.

Ms. Nolan was vice president of business administration at an environmental-engineering company that ultimately dissolved.

In the months after she left her job, Ms. Nolan says she spent a great deal of time walking and thinking.

“I used to always think that if I won the lottery, I would immediately quit my job in corporate and start a nonprofit helping homeless families,” she says. While she was unemployed, she says, “it dawned on me that I needed to do something I could be passionate about, be proud of, and that would make me cry for good reasons.”

Ms. Nolan says many people told her that her lack of nonprofit experience would preclude her ever running a charity. But after friends told her about Crossroads (then called Travelers Aid of Rhode Island), she says, “I made an appointment to meet with the woman who was in charge. I walked into the place and burst into tears and thought, OK, this is it.”

Sharpen skills — and add new ones. Education and volunteering can help achieve these goals, says Mr. Caldwell. And in the event of a layoff, he advises studying relevant trends and topics to remain knowledgeable. “Whatever area you’re in or hope to move into,” he says, “do your research and stay current with the trade journals and other resources, because you lose touch with all that when you’ve left a job, you’re not in those circles of information sharing.”

Be candid about the layoff and your passion for a cause. Job applicants must consider how best to market themselves after they have lost a position and be clear about why they are applying to work at a particular organization, says Mr. Cheng.

And when an applicant does land that critical interview, says Larry Slesinger, who conducts executive searches for charities and is the author of Search: Winning Strategies to Get Your Next Job in the Nonprofit World, it is essential that résumés be accurate and that references know they will be contacted. “It’s very important to be honest and open and just state the facts as you know them,” he says.

Make contacts. Build a network of people who can help identify new opportunities, a step that may lead to a new position more effectively than browsing online or print employment ads — although job seekers should continue to do that. Mr. Slesinger says that such a network may include current or former colleagues, but also other connections: “It may be neighbors or parents from your kid’s school or sports teams. Nobody knows about all the openings out there, but everybody knows about at least one.”

At the same time, says Mr. Cheng, stay involved with trade associations, attend professional conferences, connect with board members and counterparts at other groups, and, above all, give the impression of being active and available to work.

Ms. Nolan says that in her case conducting informational interviews at local nonprofit groups was “absolutely essential” to landing her position at Crossroads. “Right now, when there are openings, there are 40-plus people lined up, so the best way to get ahead is to know about the opening before it’s advertised, and the best way to do that is through networking and talking to people.”

Volunteer. When Ms. Nolan first visited Crossroads, her obvious enthusiasm caused the then-executive director to ask her on the spot to join the group’s board. “Volunteering and board service is a great way to get to know an organization and for them to get to know you,” she says. “It’s nonthreatening: You’re not interviewing for a job, you’re not having to make hard decisions at that moment.”

When the executive director left at the end of the year, Ms. Nolan applied for the open position — and got it.

Ms. McCaw advises laid-off workers who managed nonprofit programs to experiment with fund-raising opportunities as a volunteer. “Fund raisers are going to be less hard-hit by layoffs,” she says.

Be flexible and creative. Job seekers need to be open-minded about salaries, in particular. Mr. Cheng says that while some nonprofit groups are shaving their staff size, others are lowering salaries for new employees. Mr. Campbell adds that when it comes to salaries, laid-off workers “may need to sacrifice short-term expectations to maximize your long-term gain.” He says that unrealistic pay requirements can lead to turning down otherwise suitable jobs, potentially creating large gaps in a résumé.

In lieu of a higher salary, Ms. McCaw suggests trying to negotiate flexible work hours, telecommuting, an extra week of vacation, or other perks that might help soften the blow of taking a pay cut.

“Organizations are laying off people who for whatever reason are not flexible with regard to travel, hours, and other conditions,” she says. “The more able you are to articulate that willingness, the more likely you are to keep your job.”