You are here: Home / Archives for social impact job

social impact job

Social Impact Jobs — What They Are, and How to Find Them

by

We talk a lot about social impact jobs here at MovingWorlds, but if you’ve ever found yourself wondering, “what exactly is a social impact job, anyway?” you’re not alone. Part of what makes the social impact space so exciting is how quickly it’s evolving and changing, but for job seekers, that also makes it confusing. Particularly if you’re new to the space, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the buzzwords: social enterprise, B Corporations, nonprofits, ESG, impact investing, corporate social responsibility, circular economy….the list goes on and on! 

In this post, we’ll help you understand what a social impact job is, and how to uncover the right social impact job for you. Continue reading to learn helpful frameworks for exploring the career landscape, thinking through your options, and advancing your job search.

What is a social impact job?

“Social impact career” doesn’t automatically mean quitting your job to join a nonprofit. In fact, part of what we do in the MovingWorlds Institute is help professionals expand their future possibilities by realizing that social impact isn’t limited to a specific field or organization type; it’s a spectrum. While nonprofits are certainly on the social impact spectrum, the reality is that social impact can happen in every sector – including corporate and governmental.

A social impact job is one where you put your strengths to work in a way that is aligned with your purpose and contributes to achieving the SDGs. There are two main ways to do that: you can work on mitigating the negative impacts of an organization (“doing less harm”) or you can work on solving the problem directly (“doing more good.”)

For example, let’s say that you are most passionate about Goal #13: to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. You could do more good by joining a social enterprise like Seabin, whose products and education platform are directly fighting climate change. You could also do less harm by joining a large corporation like Amazon to reduce the amount of packaging material used and waste generated. 

It’s not about whether one type of role is better than the other; the truth is that if we’re going to achieve the SDGs we need social impact professionals across all sectors, organizations, and functions. 

Examples of Social Impact Jobs

The “Organization vs. Role” framework shared by the brilliant Katie Kross on the MovingWorlds webinar The Insider’s Guide to Sustainability Careers is a valuable tool to help you think through your options. The key point to understand is that you can make an impact in multiple ways: by doing traditional work in a sustainability-oriented organization, by doing sustainability work in a traditional organization, or by doing sustainability-oriented work in a sustainability-oriented organization – all of these will create a positive net impact.

The chart has two axes: organization, and role. Each is on a spectrum from ‘traditional’ to ‘sustainability-oriented’. 

On the organization side, ‘traditional’ refers to companies where the product or service is not based on sustainability. Examples include large consumer goods companies, multinational corporations, banks, or consulting firms. ‘Sustainability-oriented,’ on the other hand, refers to organizations whose core service product or mission is sustainability oriented. Examples include social enterprises, benefit corporations, nonprofits, and certain government agencies.

On the role side, the same framing applies. A more ‘traditional’ role would include typical business functions, like data analysis, marketing, or business development. ‘Sustainability oriented’ roles on the other hand are fully centered on that aspect of the role.

As you can see, there are a multitude of social impact careers in each quadrant. In the next section, we’ll share more about how to narrow down which area (or areas) are right for you. Here are a few more examples, segmented by popular professions, to make this organization and role distinction more clear: 

  • Investing: Director of Sustainable Finance for a multinational bank, Investment Officer for an environmental trust, ESG Advisor for an accounting firm
  • Marketing: Brand Manager for the sustainable portfolio of a major corporation, Content Developer for an ocean cleanup social enterprise, Marketing Director for a climate nonprofit 
  • Supply chain: Sustainability Manager, Supply Chain Innovation for a major retailer, Social Procurement Director for a major corporation, Supply Chain Consulting for a B-Corp
  • Program management: Environmental Program Manager for a government agency, Sustainable Materials & Innovation Program Manager for a major retailer, Educational Program Manager for a climate justice nonprofit or social enterprise

Narrowing Your Options: Key Questions to Ask Yourself

The good thing about the organization vs. role matrix is that it can help you uncover options you hadn’t considered before. The bad thing is having to choose from so many options! As we mentioned earlier, there is no single right direction for your career – what matters is finding the right fit for your unique combination of strengths, purpose, and autonomy. Let’s take a closer look at each of these factors:

  • Strengths: Where are you most likely to find a job where you can put your strengths and experience to work? In helping hundreds of professionals transition their careers for greater social impact, we’ve found that the most successful career changes happen from a foundation of self-understanding. Research has proven that we perform better when our individual strengths align with our job tasks, which also leads to feeling more fulfilled at work, too. You can learn what strengths are (and aren’t) along with an interactive template to help you uncover yours in Step 1 of our #SocialImpactCareerGuide.
  • Purpose: What type of impact do you need to see to feel like you have purpose at work?. Taken together, your strengths and purpose form the foundation for the rest of your job search, acting as a compass to ensure you’re heading in the right direction to end up somewhere where you can truly thrive. Purpose matters because it’s a key component of meaning, which in turn drives satisfaction at work. You can learn more about each of the three dimensions of purpose, along with an interactive template to help you make your own purpose statement in Step 2 of our #SocialImpactCareerGuide.
  • Autonomy: What type of organization and manager is most likely to honor your working style and preferences? It can be tempting to jump right into researching specific companies, but before you do, first develop a mental picture of the workplace environment that would be the best fit for your unique combination of strengths, purpose, and causes of interest. Your work environment is one of the biggest determinants of your ability to activate these satisfaction drivers, particularly when it comes to autonomy. We all have different preferred levels of autonomy, but generally having too much of it results in feeling overwhelmed, while not having enough of it results in feeling stifled. You can learn how much autonomy you personally need to be most successful with the autonomy audit exercise in Step 4 of our #SocialImpactCareerGuide.

Keep in mind that the combination of the above factors is dynamic rather than static, so it’s a good idea to validate your career hypotheses throughout your journey. You can find a career-validation board template and explainer here.

Where to Find Social Impact Jobs

There has never been more interest, and therefore more opportunities, in the growing social impact space. Corporations are making more bold climate commitments, demand for ESG investing has expanded dramatically, consumer goods companies and retailers are getting more serious about the circular economy, and the growth trajectories for renewable energy alternatives remains strong. 

In addition to mainstream job boards like Monster and Indeed, there are tons of social impact specific job boards, including many for individual industries or sectors. You can Jump-start your search with this list of the 70 best social impact job boards here.

How to Be Discovered by Social Impact Recruiters

It’s a good idea to maintain an active presence on LinkedIn before, during, and after your job search – as a professional branding tool, networking tool, and source of information about the latest job opportunities from brands you follow. You can find tips for optimizing your LinkedIn profile for networking here, and a template here to take the guesswork out of asking for an introduction. 

In Summary

There are a lot of different kinds of social impact jobs out there – across industries, sectors, and specialties – and there is no single ‘right’ path. Try the tips above to start thinking through the many potential paths ahead of you, and for customized support transitioning to the right social impact job for you, apply to the MovingWorlds Institute. 

From Nonprofit to Social Enterprise: Launching a New Career In Business as a Force for Good

by

Clare Healy has always been intrigued by the idea of business as a force for good. As she explained, “My parents own a small business, and growing up I spent a lot of time there with them. I really got to see the power of business in people’s lives and the communities.” She followed this interest to the University of St. Thomas, where she pursued a business degree grounded in the spirit of “all for the common good” and continues to mentor current students today. 

After graduation, Clare set out to find the place where she could leverage her unique talents for the greatest good. She began her career with a fast-paced nonprofit organization, gaining invaluable skills and experience along the way. But eventually, she found herself wondering: is there a place I could have an even greater impact and put my business background into practice? Continue reading to see how Clare navigated the transition to her dream job, and the role of the MovingWorlds Institute Global Fellowship in helping her get there, below!

Growing as a Nonprofit Leader

Clare’s search for meaningful work led her to Partners in Food Solutions (PFS), a nonprofit working to support the growth and competitiveness of food processors across Africa. Clare initially joined the team as a Process Mapping Intern, where she provided program support. She enjoyed the work – and found that it was the perfect first job for her to hone her skills in a small team that wore many hats.

After a few years, however, Clare remembers “I started to feel stagnant, and was ready for a new challenge. Shortly thereafter, a new role opened for me on the Volunteer Operations side of the team. Part of the new role involved learning and managing Salesforce for our organization, which initially I wasn’t sure I was interested in, but as it turns out I ended up loving it.”

The new role was an effective short-term fix, but Clare realized that she might not be able to find all of the new challenges and growth she wanted at PFS in the long-term. But she still felt stuck – even if the job didn’t have everything she wanted, it did have a lot of things she wanted. She wavered back and forth, sharing that “I had half-heartedly been exploring what other opportunities were out there, but because I was in a good spot with PFS, I felt like my next job had to be equal to or better than what I already had and that’s an incredibly high bar. I was starting to feel pretty disheartened when it came to looking for work because I wasn’t sure if anything would surpass my amazing first job.”

Using the Pandemic to Explore New Challenges

When COVID-19 hit and PFS transitioned to remote work, Clare doubled down on exploring what opportunities were out there for her to further her career goals. She shared, “I decided to use some of that extra time I wasn’t spending on commuting to get a formal Salesforce certification. I had really leaned into that side of my role at PFS, and wanted to get more formal authority related to being an administrator.”

Completing the Salesforce certification revived something in Clare – her love of learning. When the course ended, she wasn’t ready to stop growing and being challenged, so she went to her boss for advice.

Clare reflected that, “I was initially considering graduate school, but I didn’t have a specific focus or end goal in mind that laddered directly to a graduate degree, so my boss encouraged me to look at Fellowship programs as an alternative. It was good advice – the last thing I wanted was to spend all of that money on an MBA only to realize that I don’t want to stay in a corporate environment. At that point, I knew I wanted something more, but I didn’t know exactly what that looked like yet.” 

Taking her boss’s advice, Clare started researching and ultimately discovered the MovingWorlds Institute Global Fellowship. “Although I was already working in a social impact type of role, and unsure what my next career move would be, I was really interested in learning more about topics like human-centered design, the SDGs, sustainable development, and systems thinking. I wasn’t completely sure what to expect, but I took the leap and applied. I am so grateful I did.”

Gaining a New Perspective as a Global Fellow

The 6-month Global Fellowship starts with a 2-day virtual kickoff, where Fellows complete assessments and facilitated exercises to uncover their unique strengths and purpose drivers to get clarity on their right next move — based on who they authentically are.

These assessments were a major “aha” moment for Clare. She reflected that, “I had taken assessments like Myers-Briggs in the past, but this was a completely different level. It confirmed what I already knew but hadn’t been able to express: that my purpose is to help mission-driven organizations grow sustainably by creating processes and focusing on continuous improvement so employees can engage fully and lead with greater impact. In developing that purpose statement, I remember the workshop really challenged me to think about how I wanted that element of process and structure to carry through my work – whether that would be externally focused work like setting up new programs, or internally focused work like business process management. That prompt for reflection was like a lightning bolt for me because it helped me realize that where I really want to have an impact is at the organizational level, helping teams internally do their work more efficiently and effectively.”

This clarity of purpose helped serve as a compass for Clare moving forward, as well as a new way to frame her prior experience. Clare reflected that when she joined PFS, “it was a startup transitioning to normalizing and scaling its operations. They had a lot of visionary innovators on the team, but they needed someone task oriented who was ready to roll up their sleeves and put structures in place so that things could be done on a wider scale, and that was essentially what I was able to do over the course of my time there. So I would say that is what I’m most proud of: seeing my fingerprints on how PFS has grown as an organization over the years.”

Clare found that the kickoff weekend as a whole helped “put me on this path of being able to talk about my skills and experiences in a new way, and how I want to continue to apply them moving forward. Reflecting on the way my career has evolved at PFS, I’m proud of the impact I was able to help create, and also that I went about it in a way that was really authentic to my skills and strengths – even if I didn’t know they were my strengths at the time, like with Salesforce. At its core, Salesforce is helping people do their jobs better and more efficiently – and as I came to realize in the Fellowship, my dominant purpose driver is process and structure. Discovering and carrying that through each of my roles at PFS helped me see that I can, individually, have a big impact on how an organization operates when I help it develop structures that improve outcomes, and that’s something I definitely want to continue in my next role.”

From this foundation of self-knowledge, Clare was then better able to define what she was looking for. “I knew I wanted to find a company that was mission driven, preferably in a for-profit model so that I could leverage my business background, and where I could leverage some of those process, structure, and project management skills I’d gained at PFS in a new context. I also wanted to find a place where I could continue to grow and there was a path to leadership.” she shared.

Launching a New Career in Social Enterprise

The Fellowship helped Clare not only define new career goals, but also stay accountable for taking action to achieve them. She reflected that, “My accountability group has met every week since the beginning, and has been really proactive in figuring out how we can each make the most of our Fellowship experience. Coming in none of us were sure what to expect, but we’ve really leaned on each other to figure out how to tailor the program to our individual goals. They have been so incredibly supportive in building me up and helping me get both the confidence and motivation to finally start looking for new jobs.”

This time, Clare was able to enter the arena with a newfound sense of confidence. “MovingWorlds gave me the language and tools to refocus my job search in a way that actually was more authentic, but also actionable. I was able to realize things I hadn’t previously been able to put words to about what I wanted to be doing and how I wanted to be doing it. Reframing what I was looking for, plus the energy and motivation I got from my accountability group, is what helped me have the courage to keep moving forward.”

It didn’t take long for Clare’s efforts to pay off. She made it to the final rounds of interviews for not one but two different positions: one that involved doing the Salesforce work she loved from PFS at a different nonprofit, and one as a Business Systems Architect with a social enterprise called Angaza. As Clare explained, “Angaza is a technology social enterprise creating last mile solutions for people without access to credit or traditional banking services so that they can start on a path to financial inclusion and access life-changing products like solar lights and smartphones. The Business Systems Architect position on the Anzaga team is really my dream job: a for-profit with a social mission that would allow me to leverage both my business background and strengths around process and structure to make the organization as a whole even more impactful.” 

But before she completed interviewing with Anzaga and reached the offer stage, the nonprofit offered her the Salesforce position first. The choice she faced now was: do I say yes to a job that is a sure thing but doesn’t check all the boxes of what I’m looking for, or do I turn it down and continue interviewing for my dream job even though it’s not guaranteed?

The person Clare was before the Fellowship may have taken the safer choice, but the person Clare had become throughout the program was confident and brave enough to take the risk she knew was right for her. She remembers that moment clearly, reflecting that “when I turned down the nonprofit offer in favor or continuing with the interview process with Angaza, my accountability group was cheering me on and so encouraging every step of the way. Talking through the first offer with them and the MovingWorlds team helped me realize that I didn’t want to settle for good enough. Luckily, it ended up being the right decision, but it was a huge risk for me!” 

Clare’s next interview with Anzaga involved a real life case study – taking a problem that the Anzaga team was facing and putting together a proposal to address it. Again, the tools Clare had learned and gained over the course of the Fellowship helped her truly shine. “What I did was take the human-centered design approach to create an outline for this project plan, with timelines, a budget, Gantt charts, etc. I followed the flow of discovery, ideation and prototyping, testing, and then implementation, and the Anzaga team absolutely loved it. I got feedback from the hiring manager that it was clear, comprehensive, and easy to follow.”

The strong impression Clare left with her proposal translated into a job offer shortly thereafter. In fact, Clare remembers that “when I got the offer from the Anzaga team, one of the things they said was that my project management skills plus care and concern for the customers and end-users greatly exceeded that of people who had more years of direct experience than I did. That felt really, really good.”

In addition to leveraging her unique strengths and purpose, Clare’s new role also has the clear path to leadership she was looking for. “The Business Systems Architect position was a brand new role at Angaza – no one had been in this position before. So in a way, I’m getting to start from scratch and pave my own path, and I love that. If I can show the value of this kind of business process management and continuous improvement work, eventually it could expand into its own department. And I am more than up to the challenge!”

We’re grateful to Clare for sharing her story with us, and honored to be part of her social impact journey. Considering a social impact career change of your own? Apply to the MovingWorlds Institute for the tools, guidance, and network to achieve your career goals.

How to Change Careers to Social Impact: Step 10 – Ace the Interview

by

Welcome to the 10th and final installment of our #SocialImpactCareerGuide! In this step, we’re focusing on the culmination of all the hard work you’ve done introspecting, researching, and applying for jobs so far: the interview. In this final step of the screening process, both you and the hiring manager have an opportunity to decide if your unique combination of skills, purpose, and character are a good fit for the company’s needs and culture. It’s also your chance to leave a strong impression on the hiring manager about why you’re the right person for the job. 

In the sections below, you’ll find tips to help you prepare ahead of time, decode tricky questions you’re likely to encounter during the interview, and follow up afterwards – ensuring you’re confident, prepared, and ready to shine.

1. Do your homework on the company’s culture, impact, and hiring process

The more you know about the company’s culture and hiring process, the more confident you will feel walking into the interview. Knowing the cultural context will help you frame your answers (and own questions) in a way that resonates, and can serve as a guide when it comes to which key skills or achievements you want to highlight so that they are aligned. The company’s website is a good place to start your research, as most companies publicly share details about their mission, values, and culture on their ‘About’ or other informational landing pages.

If the company you are applying to also exists for a bigger purpose and/or social impact cause, make sure to research how they live into that mission. Once you know, reflect on your own purpose and strengths, and be prepared to tell the story as to why your personal mission aligns with this organization’s mission. 

Another helpful resource to supplement what you learn from the company website is Glassdoor, a website where current and former employees anonymously review companies and share salary information. As for the hiring process itself, lean on the first, second, and third degree connections in your network to see if you know anyone who has worked there previously that you could ask about it, or if you don’t know anyone directly, searching the name of the company on reddit is another good alternative. Of course, like all social media sites, take the information you find with a grain of salt. 

2. Think through likely questions ahead of time

Here are some of the kinds of questions you’re likely to encounter, and tips to think through how to answer them:

The “so, tell me about yourself” question

Almost every interview will start with a question like this, giving you an opportunity to set the stage with a first introduction to who you are, what you do, and what you’re interested in. 

What this question is really asking is: Do you have the right skills, background, and interest to work at this organization?

Tips to answer it: Tell your story briefly in a way that shows that you like your profession and are interested in growth. This snapshot of your professional identity can include elements like your core strengths and skills, purpose and motivation, key achievements, and education. 

Particularly if you tend to get nervous during interviews, it’s worth taking the time to write out your answer ahead of time and even practice going through it a few times with family or friends. Here is a template to help you get started:

I’m a (job title/type of profession) from (location) who is passionate about (purpose).

 Most recently, I’ve been serving as (job title) for (company), where I have developed my (core skills/strengths) to drive (achievements).

 Previously, I served as (previous role), where I developed (core skills/strengths) to drive (achievements).

 I ended up in this line of work when I (connection from school, early career, or other entry to workplace).

While I enjoy the work I have been doing, I’m excited about the opportunity to use my transferable skills to support (type of organization/cause) because (reasons you’re a good fit).

Behavioral questions

Behavioral interview questions typically start with “Can you tell me about a time when…” and require candidates to share examples of specific situations they’ve been in where they had to use certain skills. 

What this question is really asking is: do you have the right skills and cultural fit for the way we work in this organization? 

Here are a few of the different types of behavioral interview questions you can expect, with examples from this complete list from the Muse:

  • Related to teamwork: Give me an example of a time you faced a conflict while working on a team. How did you handle that?
  • Related to client-facing skills: When you’re working with a large number of customers, it’s tricky to deliver excellent service to them all. How do you go about prioritizing your customers’ needs?
  • Related to ability to adapt: Tell me about a time you were under a lot of pressure. What was going on, and how did you get through it?
  • Related to time management skills: Tell me about a time you had to be very strategic in order to meet all your top priorities.
  • Related to communication skills: Give me an example of a time when you were able to successfully persuade someone to see things your way at work.
  • Related to motivation and values: Describe a time when you saw some problem and took the initiative to correct it rather than waiting for someone else to do it.

Tips to answer it: One of the best ways to avoid feeling like a deer in headlights when asked one of these questions is to come prepared with 3-4 short stories with details that you can apply to fit a number of different situations. To figure out the likely questions you will get, review the company’s cultural values as well as the key requirements on the job description. Expect questions to come related to both. To find the best examples to use in your answer, look back at your experience so far and try and find 1 example that shows your ability to navigate conflict or change, 1 example that showcases your best strength or achievement, and 1 example that shows your ability to manage time and get things done.

When you answer these questions, use the STAR framework: Situation, Task, Action, and Result. You can find a helpful template for using the STAR framework in Step 9: Fine Tune Your Professional Resume.

Potential curveball questions

Even the best prepared candidates run into curveball questions. Here are some likely ones:

  • Go through your resume and tell me why you left each job. 

What this question is really asking is: Are you looking to keep growing in a constructive way that respects the people and teams around you?

Tips to answer it: Don’t bash former employers. Emphasize that some of each previous experience was good – ideally the parts that map to the strengths and purpose that make you a good candidate for this job you’re interviewing for – but that growth in the areas you were excited about were limited, which is why you’re applying to this role.

  • Process and thought questions.

These are typically obscure questions like “how many airplanes leave your local airport every day?”

What this question is really asking is: What’s your logical process for working through things you don’t know?

Tips to answer it: Don’t worry about the “right” answer from a factual standpoint. Instead, focus on the steps of your thought process. For example, you could begin your answer to the example question above by saying, “Let’s assume that our airport has 20 terminals, each in operation for 10 hours. The average turnaround time for a plane is one hour. With this math, we can see that every terminal will have 10 planes per day. X 20 = 200 planes per day.

  • Challenge questions.

These are typically questions that ask “why should we pick you over the other candidates?” and “what makes you want to work here, specifically?”

What this question is really asking is: did this person really take the time to think about this and learn what it takes?

Tips to answer it: Get specific. Don’t just explain why you want to move into a social impact role, explain exactly why you want to move into that specific role with that specific company. Tell the interviewer about the work you did to prepare, and connect the dots between what you have to offer and what the company needs.

3. Have questions ready to ask the interviewer

Most interviews end with the interviewer flipping the script back to you, and asking if you have any questions that you would like to ask them. If you say no, it can appear that you aren’t interested or didn’t prepare. But even more importantly, this portion of the interview is where you get to make sure that the company is the right fit for you and your unique needs.

The Muse has a great list of questions to ask in an interview here, covering themes like the job, benefits, professional training and development opportunities, how performance is evaluated, and more. The Wall Street Journal also recently shared some helpful guidance about what questions to ask during an interview. This is where the introspection you put in at the beginning of this process will pay off – by understanding what your needs are, you can ask the specific questions you need to ensure they will be met in this role.

4. Avoid traps

Here are some common mistakes to avoid:

  • Badmouthing a previous employer: Even if you hate your current or previous job, don’t share negative feedback about the company in your interview. This can lead the interviewer to wonder “what would this person say about our company if we hire them and they later leave?” and can reflect poorly. Instead, try and couch your reasons for leaving in your core strengths and purpose drivers that will also apply to this job.
  • Not having a solid “why” behind your choice to apply: Even if you just learned about the company and role, make sure to communicate in a way that shows you’ve long been interested in moving this direction. Demonstrating that you’ve taken a thoughtful approach to applying for this specific job inspires confidence!
  • Not dressing professionally: Learn from either the recruiter or your own research what the company dress code is (ie business casual) and dress accordingly. A polished appearance that is appropriate for the company norms will help the interviewer see you as fitting in already, instead of distracting them from what you’re saying.
  • Arriving late: This one goes without saying! Being kept waiting is annoying, and that’s not the tone you want to begin your interview with. If the interview is in person, look up how long it will take you to get there the night before and plan to arrive about 10-15 minutes early. If your interview is virtual, make sure that all of your technology is working and that you have a neutral background that won’t be distracting on video.
  • Using your phone: It’s almost second nature to reach for our phones when there’s a lull in conversation or a notification pops up, but the message that checking your phone during an interview sends is “I don’t care” or “I don’t take this seriously.” The safest way to go is to eliminate the distraction altogether, either by keeping your phone on silent in your bag or putting it face down out of arm’s reach. 

In general, remember that the employer is looking for someone that:

  1. Has the right skills and experience for the role
  2. Is a cultural fit
  3. Wants to work at this company for the right reasons
  4. Is a positive person that makes the people around them better

Avoid the traps above to ensure you aren’t sending mixed signals!

5. Get – and stay – in the right mindset

It’s normal to get nervous for an interview. 24 hours before your interview, think about how you will likely feel in the 30 minutes before the interview begins, and make a plan. What can you do in those 30 minutes to get prepared? The answer to that question looks different for all of us based on our unique needs, but some possibilities include doing a meditation, drinking some water, going on a walk, etc. – by planning for this in advance, you won’t have to rely on your nervous mind to do the right thing.

There’s only so much you can do in the final hours leading up to your interview, so reassure yourself that all of the hard work and preparation you’ve done up to this point to prepare is enough. Do your best, and have a backup plan just in case you do get thrown a question that stumps you. Saying “That’s a great question, let me consider it for a moment” is a great way to buy yourself some additional time. 

6. Follow up with a thank-you

It’s always a good idea to send a thank-you note to the person (or people) who interviewed you after the interview is over. A hand-written note is a thoughtful way to stand out, but in today’s increasingly digital world an email is just fine. Here is a template to get you started:

Hi [Interviewer],

Thank you for taking the time to meet with me today. It was a pleasure getting to learn more about [what you talked about – the team, the company, the potential for this role] and I’m excited about the potential opportunity to join the (name of company) team.

I look forward to hearing from you with more information about next steps in the process, and am happy to provide any additional information your team might need in making this decision.

Best regards,

[Name]

Interviews can be intimidating, but with these tips in mind we hope you’ll be able to confidently put your best foot forward!

  1. Do your homework on the company’s culture and hiring process
  2. Think through likely questions ahead of time
  3. Have questions ready to ask the interviewer
  4. Avoid traps
  5. Get and stay in the right mindset
  6. Follow up with a thank-you

Looking for more support navigating a career change to social impact? Apply to the MovingWorlds Institute Global Fellowship.