'downsizing' career

[neva]

I was in a professional job, am now unemployed and basically I don't want to go back to the same type of high pressure, high stress work. I'm prepared to accept significantly lower pay for an admin role. My main criteria is that I'm working for an employer which has a social purpose eg public sector, charity, education.

Have put in a lot of applications with zero result. I think I'm seen as vastly overqualified. Also, as I have not worked in these sectors I am being passed over in favour of people who have more relevant experience - understandably. Does anyone have experience of having made this type of career change? Any tips from HR people please?

You are wanting to make a very big change and so, understandably, employers are going to be wary. People in your position wanting to "do good" are quite common and lots of employers are not keen on that sort of move.

Have you thought about trying to be a school governor / non executive director of a charity or perhaps volunteering for a whole to get some relevant experience?

The thing is you might be "prepared to accept" significantly lower pay for an admin role, but that doesn't mean an employer will think you are the best candidate for that job, as you are finding out.

For admin roles employers are looking for recent experience, demonstrable skills and expertise in a similar role. Someone who is an unemployed professional isn't going to be their first port of call when looking for something who is very efficient at filing systems, or a high standard on Excel, or whatever. It's not necessarily about being overqualified, it's about being differently qualified.

As well as that, even if they did think you were going to be a better administrator than the other candidates they had, they would still be wary because they would assume there's a high likelihood you will get bored or frustrated, or will be looking to move on as soon as possible. Frustration in a low paid, low responsibility job can be enormously stressful in itself as well.

Can you tell us what your professional job was? That might help with suggestions.

If possible, make one move at a time. So to an admin role in the industry you used to work in, or a professional role of the kind you used to have in the new sector of interest.

I'd suggest internships/volunteering opportunties for the charity sector.

If you can do it, it should provide you with the experience/sector knowledge you need. You might also find yourself in the right place at the right time re any jobs.

I worked in the charity sector and lots of the interns ended up being employed.

Good luck.

What does your CV look like? I would make it functional so you can highlight transferable skills. Good luck!

local councils usually have a social purpose?

Thanks for all suggestions. I realise i am not an obvious choice so I'm getting some additional IT training so I can highlight that a bit more on my CV. Also hoping to do some voluntary work. I'm hoping there are at least a few open-minded employers out there. I don't think I can be alone in wanting a less pressured career; and surely wanting to do good - as opposed to just wanting to work for the pay cheque - should be seen as a massive plus by an employer, provided the basic skills are there too?

As an aside, given that most of us choose our career paths in our late teens or early twenties it seems horribly limiting to have to do the same thing until we are 70 or whatever age we are expected to work to these days. I'm going to encourage my children to choose career paths that will not limit them to doing one thing for possibly half a century. It would be great though if employers could start to see that bringing in people from other spheres could be a big plus rather than a minus - fresh thinking, etc.

I was in your exact situation three years ago. I made the move by contacting previous clients (who knew the standard I worked to etc) and made the move that way. It started off as temporary contract work.
Is that possible for you?

Temping will be your friend I think.

Don't be under the illusion that admin will be a stress-free walk in the park though. There are fewer administrators than ever and it's a job where everyone thinks you are there to serve them. I'm a PA and I spend a lot of time pushing back on people asking me to do things they can't bothered to do themselves. It's very frustrating. People will think you are the office mignon regardless of your level of education. Yes, I have a degree too!

I also moved from a commercial environment to a not-for-profit which turned out to be hell on earth and very stressful.

Yes, I would suggest temping as well, to gain some of the experience employers will be wanting for the role.

eggyhead - mignon means 'kind' or 'pretty' (in French) which sounds rather better than minion

Op, everyone going for those kind of jobs will talk about wanting to do good.

If, say, your skill set is in marketing, volunteering for a small charity needing that skill set might be helpful - more so than administration.

"wanting to do good" really isn't that important in an administrator tbh, particularly if it's not even a charity. Certainly won't be considered a "massive plus".

"Wanting to do good" is a reason people volunteer, it's not a criteria for a job at admin level in, say, a college or local council.

I do think you have a point about the bringing in fresh thinking, new points of view, other spheres etc. Some organisations think like that, some don't. Its great when they do, but if they do, it's in roles where they are looking for big ideas and new thinking, not in low level admin posts where the important thing is getting a fairly mundane job done efficiently and effectively.

People in your position run the real risk of coming across as thinking they are doing these organisations a favour by "accepting" a lower salary and doing lower level work because you want to "do good". I've worked in charities and there are people like that working in them and many more like that who apply to work in them. I've interviewed loads of them in my time. I'm sure you are not like this at all OP, and you do say some things to indicate otherwise, which is good, but I feel the need to point that out.

I'm sorry to come across negative, but I think it's worth me flagging that up. Focus on how to be the best person for these jobs, because that is always always going to be far more important for the type of role you are talking about than wanting to do good, or being professionally qualified in something else.

Thanks all for the advice. I think the temping idea is a good one. I can see that perhaps it's best to keep quiet about the 'doing good' thing. It just explains part of the reason I want to move, that's all, but I can understand that the emphasis must be on my skills.

I have worked in not-for-profit for most of my career and have worked my way up to senior positions. I strongly advise you not to go for admin roles if you don't have admin experience. Firstly admin roles get by far the most applications - we had over 200 for the last role we advertised for. We aren't looking for senior people looking to downsize, we are looking for experienced administrators who are able to hit the ground running and that means where possible probably only interviewing people who have worked for a charity in the past. I know that's not what you want to hear but it's the reality of the situation.

Please don't think that being an administrator is an easy option, it's actually quite stressful, you're often reporting to a number of different people, my administrator reports to 3 of us and you are juggling a huge number of tasks all of which are urgent. You need to be very on the ball and equally comfortable planning events such as receptions and training sessions, very good on databases, able to manage large mailouts and put up with people like me handing you reports which I haven't formatted properly because my IT skills have failed and I am on a deadline to the next job.

What is your background? You are far better looking for something which makes use of your current skills, a charity is far more likely to look for transferable skills in other functions. Are you a comms or marketing person? What about training? Are you a good networker and quick to pick up the phone to build relationships with partners? Can your skills be transferred into fundraising? If you have good corporate connections what about moving into corporate fundraising? If you work with lots of rich and well connected people you will be attractive as a major donor fundraiser. If you write well and are good at reports and analysis when maybe trust fundraising would work.

The charity will be interested in what skills and introductions you can bring to them. A word of advice - it's often hard to even out together a short list of strong candidates for more specialist roles and you're often one of 20-30 applications for a role as opposed to the hundreds of admin applicants and we are far more likely to take a gamble on someone from another sector at a middle management level than at admin level.

Are you able to do less work, but in your chosen field... In my case I went from full time to half time in a new organisation who wanted my level of experience, but were happy to receive it on less days...

So still stressful, but half money and more days off... And I could hit the ground running, which they would have had trouble finding without my 20 years in the same industry...

I did consider what you are considering, but the stress of learning it all again in a new industry wasn't appealing at all.

I've worked in charities for 10 years and recently downsized in a big way with very little trouble, but maybe my experience was closer to what they wanted.

There is a tendency out there to think charity work is an act of charity rather than a career that others have worked there way up to from volunteering.

I can suggest fundraising as a candidate short area (lots of different types of du dressing suiting diff skill sets and personalities) but I expect you still need to be a volunteer or intern for a few months before you will get paid work.

I agree about fundraising. Community fundraisers (the ones who organise walks / collections/ coffee mornings etc) are not in short supply in my experience and I think that it could be hard for you to break into - lots of grads able to work unsociable hours for fairly low pay. It's really hard though to find good trust fundraisers, the people who prepare applications to trusts and foundations often for specific projects.It lends itself well to PT and homeworking too.

Great advice, thanks, Nextyear and Jeggie. I hadn't thought of fundraising. Interesting, particularly the trust fundraising idea. Beachyhead, I have thought about doing my old job but on a temping basis so I can have time off and avoid the office politics and having to stay late aspects. That's my fallback if all else fails. That or writing next year's bestseller