Friday, February 16, 2007

Recruitment woes

Very interesting article on a survey of nonprofit recruitment efforts. It shows that while new positions will increase, recruitment budgets are not for nonprofits.

This again speaks to my concern about not just new positions, but filling the slots left by the exodus of boomers over the next 10 years.

Hmmm.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi, Peter,
I've enjoyed your blog for some time, but this post and the next on "ageing down" make me want to share my experience a couple of weeks ago.

I'm a very young looking 33-year old female in DC who quickly rose to the #2 position in a nonprofit with a $3mn budget and 25 staff under me. I'm currently seeking a new challenge after 7 years at the same organization. I've had three interviews so far . . . and two of the three have mentioned my age. Not only is this illegal, it's ridiculous. Both positions would have been a significant step down for me in terms of responsibility and authority, but I thought they might be fun anyway. To have my age, which is not really that young, brought up in an interview is extremely off-putting.

And typical. It's so difficult to be taken seriously in this field, particularly in DC, as a young-ish woman (young men seem to have fewer problems). Those hiring in nonprofits need to understand that either they hire the best and brightest at the appropriate levels in their thirties, like corporations do, or there will be no-one to run the nonprofits when the boomers retire. Perhaps the boomers running the organizations are forgetting that they came into power in their thirties as well, and, like you in the symphony, are simply out of date.

Peter Brinckerhoff said...

Thanks for the great comment. You're right on both parts---asking age is illegal--something I emphasize over and over and over in my new book, but at the same time, you gotta be smart--if you don't hire 20- and 30-somethings, you are so, so screwed.
Of course, you need to add leadership development, reasonable pay and benefits, etc. But discrimination is still discrimination....good luck in your job search. I hope you find an organization that you can be passionate about and that gets it!