Like many of my university peers I pursued my master’s degree in international relations out of a sense of idealism and a desire to do work that could make a difference to the lives of the less privileged. But unlike most of my classmates in their 20s, I started my degree as a middle-aged career changer.
We all know that breaking into this field is not easy. It requires time, personal and financial sacrifices, great connections and a good dose of humility. But I had underestimated how big an obstacle ageism would be.
Several professional development programmes are available for those trying to get into this sector, and that is a good thing. The UN has a few: junior professional programme, young professionals programme, associate experts programme as well as Unicef’s new and emerging talent initiative. The World Bank, Asian Development Bank and other large international organisations also have similar schemes. But many, if not all, are designed for people under the age of 35. Where does that leave the middle-aged career shifters in the need of the same type of professional development opportunities but who have been ruled out as too old? It often leads you to take whatever job you can find, even if it does not suit your ideals and values.
Several years after graduating, that’s how I ended up working in an organisation that fosters “sustainable development” but is tightly controlled by several repressive governments. To cut a long story short, more than 130 internship and job applications had ended in two NGO volunteering placements: one where the founder told me he’d responded to my request mostly out of curiosity as I was so much older than its usual interns, and a short UN stint that was so similar in day-to-day tasks to my old work (my first career was in broadcasting as a producer and news reporter) I felt like I’d changed workplaces, not careers.
As someone aspiring to a career in human rights protection, it is frustrating to feel like a traitor, representing the interests of governments that limit and trample on the rights that I want to protect. But I had to put food on the table and I could no longer be too picky, dismissing any vacancy that didn’t fit into my ideal job. Through this job, I’ve now gained that several years of relevant experience all the hiring managers were after at the start, along with working with some great people and making good connections in the sector, but moving on from my current job has been difficult.
Is it possible to get typecast into a particular global development role? It seems that once you spend a couple of years in one function in one particular area, recruiters cannot see beyond the job title and function. If you go for a completely different position, your experience is deemed irrelevant, so you may have to continue to apply for the types of jobs that you don’t want to do because you have a better chance of being shortlisted and hired given your experience so far. It can become a vicious cycle.
At a recent interview I was asked: “How do you justify your interest in a human rights career when you’ve spent the last couple of years working in development and representing the interests of countries with questionable human rights records?” It was a good question – I still haven’t worked out how to explain in a cover letter that because of the difficulty of getting into this field and the need to pay the bills, I had to take positions that were not in line with what I really believe in and want to do.
Career changers can bring valued traits to the workplace and lots of transferable skills, but I don’t think that’s recognised in this sector. As one former colleague commented, perhaps it “creates confusion” for those in charge of the initial screening of candidates. It takes a huge leap of faith from a manager to take a chance on someone who doesn’t fit a job description perfectly, particularly as positions are usually tied to funds, and that makes it difficult for managers to take a risk that could jeopardise a project’s results and future funding.
I’m not looking for sympathy. I know that few people have the privilege of working in a role they really like and are passionate about. I also know that this is not limited to the humanitarian/development sector. The world is full of unsatisfied employees who wish they could do something else. I was unsatisfied in my previous career, so I left. It took guts to leave the comfort and safety of a well-paid job to plunge into something completely different after so many years. But now I’m not an effective employee, when I’m in a position that goes against everything I believe in.
Some might say it’s a matter of patience, waiting to be in the right place at the right time for the right job. But until I get a better job, how do I protect my credibility? Can I carry on with my job and at the same time advocate for the protection of human rights, without biting the hand that feeds me?
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