Journey from beginner to expert

Impactpool's career coach Michele Damon shares his journey in the impact sector from the beginning until reaching an expert level. 

His experience covers crucial career aspects such as:

1. Expectations from a journey into becoming an expert, the difficulties and rewards

2. Common mistakes in selecting potential organizations and misconceptions during job transitions

3. What does an analyst do? Learn how to convey competence as an expert analyst 

4. How self-awareness plays a role in becoming more effective during job hunting

Journey from Beginner to Expert

  

"My career did not start as linear as I thought and turning from one focus field to another brought to me a big amount of self-doubt. However, this self-doubt soon became my strength: the willingness to learn and the humbleness to always improve. In this article, I also share how breaking free from my comfort zone allowed me to experience an increased self-awareness, and how this boosted my professional development. 

My career in international relations began with the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC), where its field of work directly related to my expertise. At this point, I felt touching the sky with the tip of my finger. Everything was great, I worked in the field with the most admirable colleagues, in the area of my expertise and more importantly, I felt contributing to a bigger cause. I was exposed to directly working with the Director-General in high-level interactions, with Prime Ministers, Ambassadors, Representatives, Worlds’ leading journalists, including setting up the nomination of the Goodwill Ambassador, Nicolas Cage. I assisted in engaging the celebrity, preparing his travels and field mission to witness first-hand the work of UNODC in Eastern Africa. 

  

I loved the job, I loved my colleagues and the purpose behind all I was doing. However, like in the most beautiful dreams, at some point I had to wake up and face the reality: the project funding came to an end and so my short-term contract: I had to basically leave the job and return home. 

  

That was unexpected and it felt like skydiving without a parachute: I hit the ground and it was quite hard to accept. I worked hard and gained the respect of all my colleagues and even the Executive Management praised my work. But that wasn’t enough (at least I thought so).

   

While I struggled with the acceptance of this situation, for over 3 months I reached out to my networks, applied to various positions with UNODC, and sent out over 1000 unsolicited applications: nothing moved. 

   

I started wondering what I was doing wrong or if there was something wrong with me. Until a moment when, while browsing the internet, I came across the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). I vaguely knew this organization since its headquarters were just right in front of UNODC in Vienna, Austria, but I never looked at it as a potential employer. Simply because I couldn't picture myself working in a nuclear environment and had no idea how I could contribute to its mission: I couldn't have been more wrong!

  

At this stage of my career, I decided to work with a career coach and thanks to this, I was then able to narrow down why I wasn't getting any responses to my applications, as well as finding out the limiting beliefs that were blocking me to getting more from my applications. In substance, since I started looking for a job in international organizations, I believed that to find a job, I had to apply only to positions at organizations that work in the same area of my expertise. I went on with this inner belief for years, even during my experience with UNODC. I literally self-sabotaged myself and excluded by default any other positions that I came across simply because it did not relate to my area of expertise. 

   

With the coach, I focused on what was under my direct control (e.g. writing an engaging CV, a good motivation letter, etc.) and identified my strengths and natural talents.

Initially, it didn’t bring me job offers, but working with the coach helped me to become more self-aware, this helped me understand much better how to apply for vacancies and how to leverage my skills. 

I got selected! Little that I know, I landed a job that some months before, I wouldn't even think about!"

"My previous mistake was to focus too much on what I wanted, rather than expanding my horizons and seeking out opportunities in other international organizations where I could also contribute, using my skills and experiences, not just my expertise.

  

One day, I came across an associate project analyst position at the IAEA, and even though it was not my field of expertise, I applied. I focused my application on how my previous experiences could benefit the role as well as how I developed the competencies that could be related to being a successful associate project analyst. I couldn't have made that application without the self-awareness work I did with the career coach and without broadening my horizons towards other opportunities. 

   

Few months later, I was called for an interview and after three weeks of preparation and mock-up interviews with the coach, I went on and performed very well, I was myself, honest and confident about my past and present, and how I foresee my future doing that job."

   

This is an example of what an experienced analyst would convey in an application and pitching your interview:

      

"In practical terms, among the main tasks, I had to support the implementation of various projects and prepare financial or substantive reports to Donors. Now, to have well-written documents as well as to ensure that the quality of the data is good, I realized I could apply my expertise in research methods to perform these tasks. So, I started collecting data, extracting financial reports from the internal ERP system, then triangulate and validate these data against other sources; such as colleagues, previous reports, project implementation reports, donor funding agreements, delivery timelines. With these few steps, I was able to build a database that both, provided me with the data and the quality I needed to deliver a well-written report to the Donors. My skills on data collection and synthesizing evidence served me extremely well in this job, I had to digest a huge amount of numbers and consolidate these in a way that was easily understandable to a big audience of different backgrounds. Little that I know, how well that exam on research methods would help me in my future career."

   

Remember the importance of effectively communicating the competencies clearly needed to succeed in the job.
  

"A few months later in the job, my confidence grew as well as the competences I needed to perform well. It is then when the Fukushima nuclear disaster happened and I was promoted to be part of a so-called “Nuclear Safety Action Team”. In a nutshell, the IAEA focus group tasked to respond and deal with the Fukushima nuclear accident.  

  

Just a few months earlier, I was struggling to get an invitation for an interview and now I was being promoted to a highly selective group of individuals to respond to a historical nuclear accident? I felt again that working hard and being resilient brought me back to a fulfilled career path. 

  

However, this wouldn't' had been possible without my Supervisors and team members that supported me and my professional development. I contributed to the mission of that Nuclear Safety Action Team as best as I could and was committed to learning about topics that I wasn’t an expert and share with the colleagues my best competences: organizing, planning, and analytical. That brought me to be praised for the work and 5 years later it became the most wonderful and unexpected experience, both personally and professionally I could ever imagine."

  

This transition from UNODC to IAEA thought me that the only limitation to a successful career in international organizations was myself. There were and will be tough times, however, persisting and broadening my horizons was the best thing I could ever do. 

  

In conclusion, I learned not to limit myself when searching for a career, especially if I am transitioning to a new sector or environment. The opportunities are infinite and it takes time and consistency to move forward."

- By Michele Damone

Takeaways:

• Know how to verbalize effectively the competencies needed to succeed at the potential job, and match them with specific examples of tasks performed in previous professional experiences.

• Do not limit your search to the Impact organization that has the exact same focus of your profile. 

• Practice self-awareness and focus on your main competencies that can be justified with examples of your previous professional experiences.

  
Interested in working you a career coach to set your goals and steps to get there, work on your application documents or practise for an interview?