Change Your Career: Transitioning to the Nonprofit Sector (Paperback)

by Laura Gassner Otting (Author)
Key Phrases: sector switcher, chief professional officer, nonprofit job, United States, Girl Scouts, San Francisco (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Change Your Career is an essential guide for anyone seeking to redirect their talent and energy to build a better world." - David Bornstein, Author, How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas

"The phenomenon of the baby boom generation turning 60 provides America with new assets in the form of unprecedented human capital. Laura Gassner Otting will help you catalyze a lifetime of experience and learning into a deeply meaningful second, third or fourth career." - Marc Freedman, CEO of Civic Ventures; Author, Prime Time: How Baby-Boomers Will Revolutionize Retirement and Transform America

"Laura Gassner Otting has created the perfect compass for anyone who has ever considered taking a journey towards work that is fulfilling and makes a difference in the world. Make sure you take Change Your Career with you as you walk the path towards your true calling!" - Michelle Nunn, Co-Founder and CEO of the Hands On Network; Editor, Be The Change! Change the World. Change Yourself

"Change Your Career is a great book for any readers who want to combine their skills and their passions through work in the nonprofit sector. The book is an excellent guide to how the 21st century will see a blossoming of nonprofit jobs that are as exciting and demanding as those in the private sector — and even more fulfilling." - Kathy Buskin, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, United Nations Foundation; Former President and CEO of the AOL Time Warner Foundation; Former Senior Vice President and Chief Communications Officer at America Online

"Many people have the motivation and skill to work in the nonprofit sector, but don’t have the knowledge or confidence to transition into a nonprofit job. This book is a wonderful introduction to career opportunities and considerations in the rapidly expanding nonprofit arena. Change Your Career is part instructional guide and part inspirational coach. It offers a practical overview of the nonprofit sector and shows you how you can join in important work that gives back to others." - Lawrence S. Bacow, President, Tufts University

"Individuals ‘bridging’ thoughtfully from business to the nonprofit sector can be of tremendous value to the organizations and causes they serve, and benefit greatly as well. Change Your Career will be a welcome resource for those considering making the transition to mission-focused work." - David L. Simms, Managing Partner of Bridgestar, Boston

"In Change Your Career: Transitioning to the Nonprofit Sector, Laura Gassner Otting shares her hard earned wisdom regarding the not-for-profit world. Her engaging style captures the reader’s imagination with pithy descriptions of nonprofit organizations and insightful biographical sketches of nonprofit managers. Charitably inclined readers will benefit greatly from Laura Gassner Otting’s comprehensive framework for evaluating careers in the non profit world." - David Swensen, Chief Investment Officer, Yale University; Adjunct Professor, Yale School of Management

"Nonprofits can't do great things without great talent. Laura Gassner Otting inspires you to think broadly about the change you wish to make in the world and provides the tools to make it happen." - Linda Babcock, James M. Walton Professor of Economics ; H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management, Carnegie Mellon University; and Co-Author of Women Don't Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide

"A much needed resource for anyone even considering a career in the nonprofit sector." - Andrew Wolk, President, Root Cause Institute; Senior Lecturer Social Entrepreneurship MIT Sloan School of Management

"As the nonprofit sector continues to grow and evolve at an astounding rate, there are increasingly numerous opportunities to Change Your Career. With this book, Laura Gassner Otting offers a comprehensive guide to transitioning into the sector and provides a vital resource for us all." - James Weinberg, Founder and CEO, Commongood Careers

Product Description
How can you be certain that a new career is right for you? Change Your Career: Transitioning to the Nonprofit Sector contains all the vital information that professionals will need to figure out if a career in the non-profit sector is right for them, and if it is, how to make a seamless transition into this sector. Topics include:

• An overview of non-profits
• Transferable skills
• Searching for new jobs
• Updating your resume
• Real-life transition stories

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 270 pages
• Publisher: Kaplan Publishing (May 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1419593412
• ISBN-13: 978-1419593413
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 7.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #181,663 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The definitive book for business people moving to the nonprofit sector, May 7, 2007

By	Steven H. Goldberg (Needham, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a remarkably comprehensive and well-written book. It not only covers everything you need to know as a newcomer to the nonprofit sector -- the different types of nonprofits, their "personalities," their business models, their developmental stages, the issues they address -- but also how to identify the right positions and to best present yourself to a new and quite different audience. Gassner Otting provides informed analysis about cutting edge developments in the nonprofit sector, such as venture philanthropy, social enterprises, and socially-responsible businesses.

The tone is pitch perfect. There's no breathless fluff, no Dr. Phil, no "What Color is Your Parachute?" Gassner Otting knows her audience and treats them like the experienced professionals they are. The content is consistently meaty and extremely well-organized, and her observations are uniformly astute and insightful, never facile or cliched. Consider the following example:

"Nonprofits in transition tend to be three to seven years past their start-up mode. They are often on their second or even third executive director, and they have begun adding senior staff positions, like operations, finance, or administration directors.... Great opportunities exist for corporate career changes in these organizations, as long as you don't try to transition the organization too quickly."

And this:

"Founders can be enormously exciting to work for, especially when they are in their element... However, founder types in nonprofits in transition, at a steady and stable point, or in decline can be phenomenally destructive. As in the for-profit sector, the nonprofit sector recognizes 'founder's syndrome,' even if the founder doesn't. No founder wants to stay past their prime, but most simply don't see that it has passed. In fact, staff and board are often complicit in founder's syndrome, continuing to remain supportive in public even if they have begun snickering in private."

I was particularly impressed with the way Gassner Otting extracts patterns and grouped information in ways that are consistently useful to the reader. Examples include her descriptions of the types of nonprofits (including their personalities), nonprofit trends, nonprofit myths and stereotypes about private-sector expatriates, organizational life cycles, and analysis of job titles and org. charts. Her taxonomies and commentary are comprehensive and richly informative. Also, she provides a number of useful profiles of successful career changers, which, contrary to usual practice, don't sound like they were written for People magazine.

Her advice about job search strategies, networking, informational interviewing, and resumes and cover letters is far above average, with much more sophisticated examples of well-written communications. This is entirely appropriate for her intended audience of job seekers who already have successful careers behind them. She provides excellent advice about how to translate private-sector experience into the language of nonprofits. Her appendix of resources is both comprehensive and selective, including jobs boards by interest area, executive search firms servicing the nonprofit sector, and educational resources by state and online.

As Gassner Otting states, "even in the best of circumstances, job searches are long, arduous, and often lonely processes." I cannot imagine that any successful person thinking about transitioning into the nonprofit world would not benefit enormously from this truly outstanding and definitive text on the subject.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A worthy read - great perspectives and advice, June 29, 2007

By	L. Goetz (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is uncanny in its accuracy and surgical in its analysis of the issues those looking to change from the business world to the non-profit world will encounter. It seems at times that the author was there as I discovered the language, disposition, motivational, resource and work-style differences I have encountered in my own effort to transition to non-profit work.

Firstly, it demystifies the non-profit world by categorizing and organizing it for the reader, explaining the many and non-obvious differences between family foundations, advocacy and service groups, founder-led, executive director-guided and board driven organizations. Nowhere is the modern non-profit sector better explained.

Secondly, it is fantastically useful to help business people understand how they and their business accomplishments will be viewed in the non-profit world. Included is advice on the small presentation "tweaks" can turn a hard-nosed business `achievement' into a `contribution' interesting to the non-profit ear. The reader is treated like an interested and intelligent being while being taught these basics. While consistent themes run throughout the book, you are not bludgeoned with the constant repetition characteristic of so many career books. A vast majority of the many examples and war stories are told positively and with clear lessons.

Worth keeping as a reference or passing on to the next one you meet facing the change, I am surprised that Amazon has the book available for resale, but encouraged that resale prices are so close to the new price.....this book is a bargain at twice the price.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A terrific resource, July 17, 2007

By	kjkstar - See all my reviews

Laura Gassner Otting's new book is a terrific resource for people of all ages who are interested in moving into work in the non-profit sector. She demystifies the process, gives useful hints and fills the reader with tools, energy and hope. Her writing combines energetic idealism with practical ideas for moving forward. Anyone interested in jobs in the non-profit sector would be well-served by this book!