Career Profiles of People Currently In The Field of Development

1) How would you describe your job?

Senior manager representing PATH in Tanzania on Organization and program issues such as business development and monitoring and supporting projects within the program.

2) What is a given day at the office like?

Busy, I usually report at 6h30 (after commuting for about one hour), about an hour before our work day begins. About 60% of my time is spent on my computer, responding to emails and working on issues related to the emails e.g gathering information, contacting staff or other people etc. I spend about 10% of my time in meetings, another 10% administrative issues such as approving document including financial docs and approving expenditure through internet banking. The rest of my time is spent on meeting with partners or contacting them via phone.

3) What is your favorite thing about your job?

Getting opportunities to provide public health interventions to the community

4) How did you become invested in this cause?

As a public health specialist and clinician and working with hard to reach and neglected communities which are poor, I decided to upgrade my knowledge and skills from those of a clinician to public health.

5) How did you become interested in your field/global development?

From the sufferings I have been observing my people encountering.

6) When did this interest develop and what is your educational background?

Since when I was in high school. I did 7 years of basic primary school education, 6 years of advanced secondary school education (high school), 5 years of medical training, and 2 years of post graduate training in epidemiology. I have also done some certification in team management of diabetes, health economics, primary health care, health sector reforms, management and leadership.

7) What did you do after graduation?

I did a one year national service in the army, and did temporary work as a lab assistant after graduating from High School. After graduating in MD, I did an internship for a year, worked as a general practitioner for 10 years, as Zonal Medical Officer for 2 years, as a regional medical officer for 5 years, as a health advisor to the Irish Embassy for 4 yrs, as a project director for 5 yrs and now as a Country director for PATH going into my second year.

8 ) What have your previous jobs been that led to this career path?

Answered in 7 above

9) What would you say is your biggest skill that has led to your success?

Perseverance, good listening skills and working independently with great devotion.

10) What are your Goals for the future?

I think I look forward to retire from active duty and do community support work or act as advisor to government on health matters.

11) If you could give one piece of advice to people entering the field of Global Development what would it be?

“Go to the field and learn from reality”

1) How would you describe your job?
I am retired.  I work as a volunteer as the Group Leader of Seattle RESULTS, the Seattle part of the ngo, RESULTS and RESULTS Educational Fund.
2) What is a given day at the office like?
I have telephone calls with members of Congress and/or their aides.  I communicate with RESULTS Volunteers, working on lobbying members of Congress to support legislation and appropriations.  I work on promoting media opportunities and try to get the media to work on our issues.

3) What is your favorite thing about your job?

There are children alive today that would have been dead, if we had not taken some of the steps we have taken to eradicate abject poverty.  And in the process, U.S. citizens have also discovered just how important their voice is, and the difference they can make.

4) How did you become invested in this cause?

It isn’t always popular to say in Seattle.  I am a Christian.  I know that just being an American citizen, I am incredibly blessed.  I think the Golden Rule is an important guide for my life.  There are people suffering.  Children and others with almost no power to tackle many of the obstacles arrayed against them.  But we can help make a huge difference in providing them hope, and making it more likely that they will be able to live a decent  life.

5) How did you become interested in your field/global development?

I have always been interested in eradicating hunger, and when I went to a fundraiser for RESULTS in 1989, I was blown away by their accomplishments, and their rational model for making change.  At the fundraiser was one of our Congressmen then, John Miller, along with the man who started RESULTS.  And there was a video narrated by an Oscar winning actor about the seemingly little things we could do to make a huge difference in the lives of the poorest people in the world.  I wanted to sign up immediately.

6) When did this interest develop and what is your educational background?

The fundraiser was in 1989.  I have always been interested in helping people who were not so well off.  I am a lawyer.  I have a BA in History, Minor in Sociology from the UW.  I was in the U.S. Army in Italy, and took one year of college course while there.  I graduated from Law School in 1976.  I initially hoped to be a high school social studies teacher, but there were no teaching jobs in 1971 in Seattle.

7) What did you do after graduation?

After my BA, I looked for a job for two years.  Gave up on teaching, and went to law school.  After graduating from law school (UW), I worked for a private law firm for 12 years.  Then with three of my partners in that firm, we left that firm, and started our own firm.  11 years later, I was diagnosed with cancer, with a prognosis of 1 to 20 years.  I decided to stop practicing law, and spend my time, however long it might be, doing something more valuable.

8 ) What have your previous jobs been that led to this career path?

No previous jobs with NGOs.

9) What would you say is your biggest skill that has led to your success?

If I am a success, I owe it mostly to my parents.  I am relatively well organized, hard working, and care about the work I do for RESULTS.

10) What are your Goals for the future?

To continue working as hard as I can, for as long as I can, doing whatever seems like the most effective work I can, to help people in poverty.

11) If you could give one piece of advice to people entering the field of Global Development what would it be?

Take the long view.  You will have great successes, and you will see lots of ridiculous obstacles. Don’t give up.  Realize that being persistent is one of the most important things you can do in this work.  Don’t give up.  Its all about the people you are serving.  Don’t get a big head just because you do something helpful.  People who have nothing are surviving day to day.  Most of us would probably not be as successful as they are, if we traded places with them.

1)  How would you describe your job?
Some adjectives I would use are busy, unpredictable, fun, interesting! We are a new organization with a small staff, so there is always something to do and something new and exciting happening. As the Office Manager, I am in charge of all the administrative work in the office: processing invoices, ordering supplies, answering the phone, making copies, and anything else you can think of. But I am also involved in events coordination, managing our database, supervising volunteers & interns, and coordinating organizational communications. Those are some of the basics, but I also work on other projects as they come up.

2) What is a given day at the office like?

It varies a lot! Some days—-like when we have events—-I am not even in the office for most of the day. An example of a day in the office could include answering questions over email and phone, putting in some work on a number of ongoing projects, maybe a meeting or conference call, coordinating details for one of our upcoming events, and writing up and sending out our email communications.

3) What is your favorite thing about your job?

I like that there is so much going on that I never get bored. I also love being plugged into the global development community in the state, finding out about the work that our members are doing, and planning and attending interesting workshops and events.

4) How did you become invested in this cause?

I received my master’s degree in International Care and Community Development from Northwest University a few years ago. In my subsequent job search, I was fairly specific about looking for a job that related to Global Development. I had been an administrative assistant for several years before that, so when a friend told me about this job at Global Washington, it sounded like a perfect fit!

5) How did you become interested in your field/global development?

I grew up going to church where I was always told that it was important to help the poor, but I never really knew how to do that in practical ways. During college, I  did some volunteering for an AIDS awareness campaign sponsored by World Vision and realized that there were some important, tangible ways to make a difference in global issues that could address core problems instead of just providing handouts or temporary solutions.

6) When did this interest develop and what is your educational background?

I graduated from college with an English degree and thought I wanted to go into business, but I had nonprofit work in the back of my mind. My first job was as an administrative assistant for a Fortune 500 company and I hated it. However, during that time, one of my friends and I started a small microcredit nonprofit and I worked on that as a volunteer project. I realized that I was much more interested in that type of work as a career path. When I had the opportunity to go back to school, I chose a master’s program that related to social justice and global development. And the rest is history.

7) What did you do after graduation?

After graduating from college, I did the only thing an English Lit major can do who doesn’t want to teach—-office work! I love to write and thought I could use my writing skills in the business world. The place to start was doing admin work. After grad school, I did some temp work while I looked for a job in the development field.

8 ) What have your previous jobs been that led to this career path?

I have had a number of administrative positions during and right after college. I also worked as a temp at the Washington State Hospital Association for a year, which gave me great exposure to what a membership organization is like. Prior to working at Global Washington, my main exposure to the development sector was academic and through volunteer work.

9) What would you say is your biggest skill that has led to your success?

Adaptability. You can’t always find your dream job. During tough economic times, it’s hard to find a job in development when organizations have limited budgets. Adaptability helps you learn important skills, even in less-than-ideal jobs. Or to volunteer for a great organization if a paid position isn’t available. It’s also a great day-to-day skill because there is always something new and challenging!

10) What are your Goals for the future?

I feel like I am just starting to really grasp what’s going on in the development sector in this state. I just want to continue to learn and advance in the field!

11) If you could give one piece of advice to people entering the field of Global Development what would it be?

Get involved! Volunteer. Find an internship. Go abroad. The people you’ll meet and the skills you’ll learn by just jumping in and doing the work will be invaluable and will really put you ahead of the crowd when you start looking for a permanent job.

1) How would you describe your job?

I am a finance manager for World Vision. Our department prepares World Vision International’s consolidated financial statements. We make sure our external financial statements receive the support they need from World Vision’s various offices around the world. We also collaborate with other World Vision finance staff to improve our global financial reporting systems and processes.

2) What is a given day at the office like?

• Resolve issues with external auditors
• Attend and/or present trainings
• Work with my team members answering their questions and working together to solve issues
• Gather, analyze, and present financial information to decision makers
• Write, review, or advise on financial policies
• Identify, design, and advocate for improvements in global business processes

These activities are done via in-person meetings, through email, skype, webex, and telephone calls.
I work with a global finance team in many countries. About once a week I have an international meeting. These calls or webex meetings are usually outside normal business hours (5 am when there are many global participants, 7am for Europe and Africa, and after 5pm for Asia and Australia).

3) What is your favorite thing about your job?

I love using specialized knowledge to make our organization more efficient and effective. And I have great coworkers too.

4) How did you become invested in this cause?

I’ve always had a lot of respect for World Vision. I remember being impressed by what I read and heard about them while I was in college.  I wish I could say that I was always passionate and invested in global development, but I think I was more casually interested before coming to work with World Vision. It’s clear that God has used my job to change my view of the world and to break my heart for what breaks His.

5) How did you become interested in your field/global development?

My parents were missionaries and as a young boy I wanted to grow up and be a missionary too. However, as I grew older I realized I really didn’t have the right skill set for missionary work. (I’m a horrible fundraiser, and quite the introvert. The idea of raising my own salary and seeking out and speaking to people I don’t know does not sound like fun).
So I went to college and majored in accounting.
I remember seeing a news article when I was in college about World Vision hiring a new CFO. The article outlined the recruit’s significant public company experience. I remember thinking: “Wow, it’s cool how God can use someone’s strong business skills to do good work at a not-for-profit.”  I would love to have that job someday.

6) When did this interest develop and what is your educational background?

I have an accounting degree from Seattle Pacific University. I became a CPA about a year after graduation.

7) What did you do after graduation?

After graduation I went into public accounting. I worked in Deloitte’s audit practice for three years. Ironically this had nothing to do with global development or nonprofits. I don’t think I had a single nonprofit client. But I learned a ton! This is great experience and I would encourage all students considering a career in not-for-profit accounting to consider spending some time in public accounting due to the breadth of experience you get.

8 ) What have your previous jobs been that led to this career path?

While I was in college, I worked part time for the Agros Foundation in their accounting department. This is a great organization with good people. This job gave me a good understanding of how a smaller (at the time) nonprofit runs. I wish I could claim this was a strategic move on my part, but the truth is I was far more interested in “a paying job” than experience in not-for-profit finance.  In hind sight this was clearly God lining up experience for my current roll.

My time at Deloitte gave me deep technical experience and a breadth of experience in working with people, clients, and areas of accounting. Many of my clients were banks, and I’ve used some of that knowledge on World Vision’s microfinance subsidiaries. But the most valuable skill is an understanding of audit. This led me to my first job at World Vision (as an internal auditor) and eventually to my current position which still interacts with auditors.

9) What would you say is your biggest skill that has led to your success?

Well, I don’t think a CPA or accountant can answer this question without mentioning a comfort and familiarity with numbers. However I think my most useful skill has been an ability to quickly understand information coupled with the ability to teach/present it to others. I actually do this more often than creating a spreadsheet.

10) What are your Goals for the future?

Someday (God willing) I’d love to work as a CFO for a Relief and Development organization. That’s a ways down the road, so for the mean time I’m working on learning as much as possible where I’m at. I’m amazed at the complex business processes it takes to carry on effective Relief and Development in a global organization. I’m also working to broaden my general business skills by (slowly) pursing an MBA.

11) If you could give one piece of advice to people entering the field of Global Development what would it be?

My Dad once told me, “if you want to work for a nonprofit or a ministry, get a skill first”. This has proven so true. If you want to make a difference in global development get a skill. Nonprofits have to do the same thing s as for-profits. They need lawyers, nurses, Computer and IT experts, auto mechanics, writers, accountants, supply chain managers, nutritionists, photographers and warehouse workers.

Be excellent at something others are not. You will quickly find that you’re using that skill in ways you never thought you could, to make a real difference in the world.

1) How would you describe your job?

Right now, my job has taken me to Anloga, Ghana – a small town on the coast of Ghana. I’m working for the Seattle-based microfinance organization, Lumana, as their Field Operations Director, and so I have a hand in pretty much every part of their Ghanaian operations, while giving regular updates to the US. 

2) What is a given day at the office like?

 We have two offices here in Ghana – one in the town where I live, and another in a smaller town about 20 minutes away. In order to collect repayments and serve our clients who are scattered between both, we stay at one of the offices Monday through Wednesday, and then move to the other Thursday and Friday. After yoga and working from home with a cup of tea in the cool of the morning, I head over to the office around 10.30am when the office opens. From there, we can expect to receive a handful of clients popping in for repayments, several cooperative meetings with our loan officer either in the office or at another location, and on certain weeks, holding business courses for new clients. Of course, the slow pace of Ghana means that there is usually a lot of down time in the office – and with the unreliable internet and long blackouts, it sometimes takes up most of my day working with our staff to figure out new projects for them to take on! 

3) What is your favorite thing about your job?

 Learning more about clients. The longer I’m here in Ghana, the more I realize that the economy in Anloga and the rest of the Volta Region is, at the same time, complex and simple. Coming up with financial products that fit our client’s needs and timelines is the most important thing Lumana can do to increase their options for financial diversity and thus inject more money into their businesses. 

4) How did you become invested in this cause?

Lumana is a great organization with an innovative approach to microfinance – very high-touch (i.e. client to loan officer ratio) and education-driven. I also believe that young people need better opportunities to learn more about how they can affect global development, and Lumana is in the process of developing a Fellows program that speaks to that exact need. 

5) How did you become interested in your field/global development?

 When I was in university, I took an internship in DC at a public-private partnership training firm. We had a lot of government officials and ministers come from developing countries like Nigeria, India, and the Caribbean to take week long courses in creating public-private partnerships in sectors such as education, water/sanitation, and health. Learning more about their professions and how they were tackling real problems in their home country switched on a new lightbulb for me. 

6) When did this interest develop and what is your educational background?

 I studied linguistics in college. Loved it, but wasn’t actionable enough for me… which is why I took the internship described above. 

7) What did you do after graduation?

 I worked at Social Venture Partners Seattle as an intern, and then was hired on as their social media coordinator. 

8) What have your previous jobs been that led to this career path?

 Not necessarily previous jobs, but previous opportunities like volunteering at the Global Social Entrepreneurship Competition and taking courses at the Global Business Center and Foster School MBA program, such as Social Entrepreneurship 101. 

9) What would you say is your biggest skill that has led to your success?

 Always striving to understand what I am best at and where my skills lie: it definitely wasn’t so obvious from the beginning. 

10) What are your goals for the future?

To push money into places that need it by connecting impact investors with rural small enterprises that could impact a community’s economy. That includes building trust between the two components, and doing the due diligence for investors so they feel comfortable investing in risky places like Africa. 

11) If you could give one piece of advice to people entering the field of Global Development what would it be?

People always say that you need to have experience abroad in order to work in the field of global development; I definitely agree to some extent, but there are plenty of opportunities to wet your feet in Seattle. With all of the globally-based nonprofits and NGOs in Seattle, volunteer at a couple to figure out what interests you and never stop seeking out new opportunities. Usually, it turns out to be a domino effect – you start looking and changes happen. Also, take some of your mentors or people that you admire out to lunch and learn from them!

1) How would you describe your job?
My official title is Associate Editor in the Publications department of World Vision USA. I do various editorial assignments on our magazine and newsletter, mostly copy editing and coordinating with our designers, and I manage our online content.
2) What is a given day at the office like?

I’m in front of my computer for almost all my tasks, but those are quite varied. I’m often searching for stories that can run in our publications, checking those stories for grammar and style issues, proofing and editing the design of our publications, or writing and editing blog posts.

3) What is your favorite thing about your job?

The stories we tell. Our magazine is a reporting tool back to our donors, showing how their donations are making a difference for specific people all across the globe. I get to tell the stories of people climbing out of poverty in some of the most difficult places on the planet. And seeing the photos of a child smiling because they have a new home, a new uniform for school, or a new well for clean water, I can’t help but be inspired. I get to play a part in something big-something that matters.

4) How did you become invested in this cause?

I had always known that global poverty was a big issue, but I wasn’t really passionate about it until I stumbled into my internship position. I was looking for a journalism internship during my senior year of college, and, at my school’s internship fair, World Vision was one of two companies offering a writing position. Once I got into the organization, I quickly learned about many of the issues that lead to poverty and how many of them can be prevented. And at that point, I think that natural human compassion kicked in. I was presented with an opportunity to help children escape the dangers of poverty. How can you say no to something like that?

5) How did you become interested in your field/global development?

I’ve always been interested in reading and writing, so I think the editorial side of my job came naturally. I worked on yearbook in high school, wrote for the student paper in college, and I wanted to find a place where my interest in words could be used for a good cause. The specific cause wasn’t my focus; I just knew that I wanted to use my skills in a way that bettered the world.

6) When did this interest develop and what is your educational background?

In college I majored in communications, with a journalism emphasis, and philosophy. I’ve always loved good writing, and I’m one of those nerds that points out grammatical errors whenever they appear. So copy editing is pretty much the perfect fit for me.

7) What did you do after graduation?

I started working here the Monday after graduation (which was on a Saturday). I interned in the same department my last quarter of school, a position opened up in the midst of my internship, I applied, and they hired me.

8 ) What have your previous jobs been that led to this career path?

Well, before working here, my only writing experience was for the student newspaper. I had written a few of my stories about international issues or covering events on campus where people were coming from other countries, and I think that helped a bit.

9) What would you say is your biggest skill that has led to your success?

For my success, the skill that matters most is how to identify and craft a good story. That takes knowing what the organization’s purpose, knowing what our donors care about, and finding a way to connect those things in a compelling manner.

10) What are your goals for the future?

To become a better writer, and to keep working to make this world a better place. Those are hard goals to track, and I probably should define some concrete steps to achieving those goals. And to speak Spanish fluently.

11) If you could give one piece of advice to people entering the field of Global Development what would it be?

Master another language. Honestly, I don’t think it really matters what that language is, but in an increasingly-interconnected world, the ability to speak to people across the globe and translate for those of us that can’t is invaluable. If I could do college all over again, the one thing I’d do differently is at least minor in another language.