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Getting Your First Job in Relief and Development: How to Be A Humanitarian Aid Worker
Ever wondered how to get your first job as a humanitarian aid worker? Whether you want to run refugee camps, micro credit programs or health programs, this is my personal opinion about ways to make the transition to international relief and development work.
46 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 27, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 28, 2015
The overall message of this book seems to be that getting involved in humanitarian work is a lot harder than anybody thinks and it will really suck a lot until you have hardened yourself and sacrificed enough to be trusted by the NGO's and international organizations that run this stuff. Essentially, the advice contained here is:
-spend as much time as you can working abroad
-join the peace corps if you're in the US, but don't expect to get hired right out of it
-make connections with people in this line of work
-try to have actual skills that you can contribute
-speak more languages than English
-be prepared to be overwhelmed and have to figure out how to do things that you do not know how to do
-don't go for that master's degree right away even though it may help you get hired because it will put you that much more in debt and it is very unlikely that anybody will hire you just because you have a master's degree.
Overall, I don't know how this book makes me feel. I value the information in it and have certainly been helped by it (it was more useful than a coffee and bagel, so I purchased it), but I feel that at times it may have been a little too discouraging and not constructive enough. I understand the approach - after all, there are lots of people wanting to do this work and many of those are incompetent or not really prepared for it - but some more concrete advice would be helpful. Perhaps concrete advice is beyond the scope of this short e-book, though. At any rate, it's a valuable read and I recommend either reading it or my review of it.
-spend as much time as you can working abroad
-join the peace corps if you're in the US, but don't expect to get hired right out of it
-make connections with people in this line of work
-try to have actual skills that you can contribute
-speak more languages than English
-be prepared to be overwhelmed and have to figure out how to do things that you do not know how to do
-don't go for that master's degree right away even though it may help you get hired because it will put you that much more in debt and it is very unlikely that anybody will hire you just because you have a master's degree.
Overall, I don't know how this book makes me feel. I value the information in it and have certainly been helped by it (it was more useful than a coffee and bagel, so I purchased it), but I feel that at times it may have been a little too discouraging and not constructive enough. I understand the approach - after all, there are lots of people wanting to do this work and many of those are incompetent or not really prepared for it - but some more concrete advice would be helpful. Perhaps concrete advice is beyond the scope of this short e-book, though. At any rate, it's a valuable read and I recommend either reading it or my review of it.
January 27, 2017
Read it in one sitting, every line answers one of your questions...
Nick writes concisely in plain language, with a familiar tone. His manual reads like he sat down at his desk, wrting and publishing it in one breath. He is clearly a seasoned veteran of humanitarian fieldwork, and presumably a great deal of experience in organizational management. His book is like the Cliff's Notes of breaking into the field.
Sadly, there's no shortcut. The only way into the field is having already been in the field, luck and sacrifice, or some combination of the three. But Nick has put together this guide full of valuable incite and clarity, which may help decide how and where to sacrifice, and how to make your own luck. Thanks Nick!
Nick writes concisely in plain language, with a familiar tone. His manual reads like he sat down at his desk, wrting and publishing it in one breath. He is clearly a seasoned veteran of humanitarian fieldwork, and presumably a great deal of experience in organizational management. His book is like the Cliff's Notes of breaking into the field.
Sadly, there's no shortcut. The only way into the field is having already been in the field, luck and sacrifice, or some combination of the three. But Nick has put together this guide full of valuable incite and clarity, which may help decide how and where to sacrifice, and how to make your own luck. Thanks Nick!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews