Advice for a college Sophomore interested in sustainable development work

The email below came from a college student that I met after a speaking engagement last Fall. He spent this past summer working in South America for a public service organization and developed a passion for that type of work. In his message, he had a few questions for me about how he might be able to guide his career in that direction.

I’m not sure if my response was as definitive as he was seeking, but I hope that my words were insightful for him.

—–
JS wrote:

Hey Marquis,

How are you doing? How are things going at Aon?

Things on my end have been really good, but especially after my experience in Peru (where I consulted for a fair trade organization solely in Spanish), I believe I don’t want to go in corporate at all. I feel as if the work I do to always needs be striving towards serving others. I personally need the fulfillment. Specifically looking at what I would want to do, I found that sustainable development is where I think the most impact can be made. We need more fishers. What I have been looking into is small and medium business consulting in developing countries. What I have been founding is that there a plenty of really awesome opportunities, especially through USAID type of organization through UK and Canadian governmental organization that have specific opportunities for American citizens. The problem is though is that all of these opportunities require previous work experience and want MBA students or grads. I want these opportunities though. My question to you then though is: how should I approach these organization when the only connection and contact I have with them is a general “info@” email?

Have a great day Marquis!

Best,
JS

—–
My response:

Hey JS,

It sounds like you had a life-changing experience down in Peru over the summer and I’m excited that the work has ignited such a passion within you to help people. There aren’t many folks as young as you who are focused enough on service that they want to direct their careers on it from such an early point. Despite being impressed by it all, I just want to caution you about putting all of your eggs into the basket of working to serve others so early on.

Now that I’ve got that disclaimer out of the way, I can share a few thoughts that popped into my head when reading your message. I’ll try my best to make them as structured as possible.

• The desire for previous work experience and/ or a grad degree of some kind by many of these organizations isn’t surprising. The kind of work that they do requires a certain level of maturity and capability in order to be successful. While you are a mature guy for your age, an org that doesn’t know you could look at your age and assume that you’re just like many college students who aren’t exactly focus at this point in their lives. That doesn’t mean that you don’t have a shot, but it is a situation about which you should be aware.

• Something that you should consider is the importance of thinking about your longer-term career and not just the short-term. I totally get that you want to work in sustainable development, but, if you step back and think about how you might be able to transfer those skills to different industries or functions, you might come up empty. It is much easier to transition from a corporate type of gig over to something more sustainability or service oriented than the other way around. If you start off on the “save the world” path, you should know that it may limit your ability to go into a different direction without using business school or law school as a natural transition point. If you’re OK with that, then you’re all set, but, if not, you might want to think about this a little more. There’s nothing wrong with starting your career off in the commercial/corporate track and then moving more toward the area described in your email later on.

• Reaching out to organizations like the ones that interest you certainly isn’t easy. I’d recommend trying to leverage your network as a starting point. Hit up the career services office at Kelley to see if they know of any alums who either work for one of the organizations or may be active in the public service space. Talking to those folks may yield better results than sending a blind email to an info@ address.

• After you’ve covered all of the points above, don’t be afraid to actually use that info@ address. There’s no guarantee that you’ll end up with a job opportunity in the present, but it could be a great way to get connected and learn more about the organization. You’d be surprised how well some of these types of orgs monitor their inboxes. Don’t miss out on an opportunity to get plugged in with an org just because you assume that no one will respond.

I hope the above advice is helpful. When it comes to this thing, it’s all more of an art than a science, so you have to be flexible about your approach. If you can’t get the role that you want immediately, there’s nothing wrong with taking a more measured approach and laying the groundwork for that role, which you could take on in time. When it comes to one’s career, it’s a marathon, not a sprint…

Take care and enjoy the rest of your afternoon.

Marquis