We’re taking some holiday time to decorate my kid’s bedroom. Whilst endlessly painting, it struck me this is the end of a chapter. Gone are the cool calming creams and here are the bright bold blues and reds of a little boy’s bedroom. It’s the end of the baby era, the end of this chapter of our lives and now we move on to boyhood!
This also got me thinking careers. How as one chapter closes often another exciting time in our lives begins. Sometimes that closure is not of our own choosing and sometimes it is, never the less it often can lead to better things. As the old saying goes, things happen for a reason. This also lead me to think about the course I, along with my colleague Jane Stephenson, are busy putting the final touches to. The Beyond Profit Solutions course is to help people who have indeed come to the end of a chapter and are looking to the Social Sector to fulfill something they feel they have missed out on. By Social Sector we mean an NGO, not for profit organisations and Social Enterprises (businesses that make a profit but are driven by a social mission).
Each week at the 6-week Beyond Profit course we will discuss and look at the practical elements of changing career paths and sectors. For example the first few weeks we look at where to start, how to rebuild your CV and LinkedIn Profile. From there we will continue to guide you through the journey and look at what interviewers are really looking for and what culturally day to day it’s really like working in the social sector as the reality is it’s not all peace and love!
The course also aims to be very pragmatic as we will look at how personal finances need to be adjusted as salaries often don’t compare with what business people have been used to and how you can still pay the mortgage on an NGO salary. Finally, we will look at how will you know if you will actually like it? Making the move can be a big step, so you need to be sure it is the right thing for you to do and getting hands-on experience can really help with that.
The course aims at being very practical whilst opening-up ideas and opportunities for those who are disillusioned with working for shareholders and want something more out of their working life.
We still have some places left for anyone coming to the end of their chapter or is thinking about how their story is going and wants to explore the world of change-making and working for good. There is an opportunity out there for those who are willing to re-write their own stories.