But what are the skills and experiences that social enterprises are looking for? This is the question I wanted to answer by analyzing the professionals who have gone through the Impact Business Leaders (IBL) program.

As I mentioned in my last post on the right mindset for social enterprise, the data is not perfect. IBL transitions professionals into social enterprise careers, but over the last two years they have slowly transitioned away from entry level professionals in developed regions of the world toward mid-level professionals in developing regions of the world.

The insights I gathered are by no means conclusive, but do provide an interesting glimpse into what skills and experiences are most sought after by social enterprises.

SKILLS

Analysis: The three most prevalent skill sets among IBL participants are general operations, financial management/analysis, and general research and analysis. Of these three skills, the only one that clearly differentiated successful placements from unsuccessful placements is financial management/analysis.

Strong competencies in finance such as budgeting, modeling and investment management are applicable to a variety of investment and operations role. Understanding finances also conveys a level of business competence that is harder to quantify among other skills. Not surprisingly, this advantage is especially relevant in investment positions. 75% of IBLs placements in impact investing already had strong finance skills.

Other skills that differentiate successful from unsuccessful placements in IBL are deal sourcing/due diligence, engineering, and team management. IBL has successfully placed every participant with deal sourcing/due diligence skills and engineering skills. Both are highly sought after in growing industries such as impact investing and renewable energy, and both are less common skill sets because they require a great deal of technical training. Team management skills are valuable in any organization and are also less common because there’s no substitute for real experience when it comes to leading people.

Takeaway: The ability to demonstrate financial, technical and team management skills makes career switchers more competitive in the social enterprise job market. While IBL has successfully placed professionals with a wide variety of skills, the ones above seem to be in the greatest demand.

Career switchers should consider how their current skills translate into these areas. They can also search for opportunities to develop a working understanding of these skills. Being able to demonstrate competence in one these in-demand skills will set career switchers apart from other impressive applicants.

TYPE OF EXPERIENCE

Analysis: While certain skills make IBL participants more desirable, there was not a specific past experience that differentiated successful placements from unsuccessful placements. IBL has successfully placed professionals from both the for-profit and non-profit sector, and with many types of past experiences (entrepreneurship, MBA, international).

Takeaway: Career switchers don’t have to come from a specific sector to successfully switch into social enterprise. Even participants with prior social enterprise experience are not statistically more likely to land a role in social enterprise through the IBL program. More important for career switchers are having in-demand skills and the mindset for a career in social enterprise.

AMOUNT OF EXPERIENCE

Analysis: Certain experiences do not differentiate successful placements, but amount of experience does. IBL is most successful placing participants between 5 and 10 years of experience. These participants have a strong base of skills that are attractive to social enterprises, and are primarily looking for exciting work with greater responsibility. This makes them ideal for small, growing social enterprises.

IBL has also been pretty successful placing participants with less experience, as long as they are willing to consider temporary or part-time positions in social enterprises. Because IBL is focused on placing participants in full-time careers, it has moved away from this demographic.

Participants with more than 10 years of experience are the hardest group to place for IBL. These professionals generally have a narrow scope of opportunities they are willing to consider because they have greater responsibilities outside of work.

With this insight it is important to consider that all IBL participants who have this level of experience and have not been placed are still in an on-going placement process. It may be the case that the placement period is simply longer for these professionals. Over time they may be placed at the same rate as IBL’s younger participants.

Takeaway: If a career switcher has five to ten years of experience, now is the time to switch into a full-time role in social enterprise. At this level of professional experience, a full-time role with social enterprise aligns the aspirations of career switchers with the expectations of small, growing social enterprises. These professionals have the ability to make an immediate impact on the organization while taking on increased responsibility.

A career switcher with less experience needs to be open to part-time or temporary positions that will help them build experience. Unfortunately these are often not sustainable long-term positions, so a good alternative for these professionals is to stay in their current roles a little longer, and take on part-time projects in social enterprise. These projects will help build social enterprise specific experiences and networks that will be invaluable in an eventual career switch.

If a career switcher has more than ten years of experience, it’s important to be patient. The space does need the considerable talents of an experienced professional and the right role will emerge if they are able to wait for it. In the meantime, more experienced career switchers can build social enterprise specific experience and networks as advisers or board members of social enterprises. By getting involved in the space, opportunities will open up.

As I mentioned before, IBL’s dataset represents just a glimpse into what skills and experiences are successful in social enterprise. Placements are decided over a myriad of unique factors for each position. What these takeaways can do is steer career switchers in the right direction as they prepare to make the jump into a social enterprise career.

What skills and experiences do you think are most valuable to the social enterprise space?

This is the second post in a blog series called Switching In which explores how experienced professionals are switching into social enterprise. Get all of the insights from the series and more by signing up for the Mission Driven Monthly Newsletter.

At Impact Business Leaders (IBL), I get to work with these professionals every day. Sometimes this mindset comes out in their application, but it certainly shows up in our interviews. Beyond being passionate about creating a better world (i.e. the universal prerequisite), these professionals are open to a variety of opportunities, ready for a challenge and eager to learn.

IBL has worked with 94 professionals looking to switch into social enterprise careers. The application and interview data collected on these professionals provides powerful insight on what makes a professional ready to make this transition.

It’s important to note that over the last two years IBL has moved away from entry level professionals in the developed world and toward mid-level professionals in the developing world. This skews any hard conclusions since the career equation for a graduate in Amsterdam is very different from a manager in Accra.

But even with stark differences in experience level and region, common themes are beginning to emerge on the right mindset needed to switch into social enterprise.

Open to a Variety of Opportunities

IBL's successful placements so far are willing to consider roles in social enterprise that are outside of their initial preferences. In the IBL application, each candidate explains their interest in either an operations or investing role. While initial interests are evenly distributed between the two, over 30% of successful placements end up taking a different type of role than they originally intended.

This isn’t just a matter of being open to a greater number of opportunities (although that certainly helps). Often times there are opportunities in social enterprise that professionals outside of the space didn’t know existed. Part of IBL’s value is in exposing professionals to new opportunities that often change their perspective on what they want their next career move to be.

It’s important to note that most of the professionals who took roles that differ from their initial preference wanted to get into the investing side. Over 50% of participants who were originally interested in impact investing ended up taking an operations role instead. Impact investing is a great space for business professionals looking to create a better world, but the hard truth is that it’s a small space with limited hiring needs. When the right investing opportunity isn’t available, IBL’s successful placements pursue equally satisfying roles on the operations side.

I expected that entry level professionals from the early days of IBL would account for most of the professionals who changed their initial preferences. But I found that a larger percentage of IBL’s experienced professionals took roles outside their initial preferences than entry level professionals. This data point suggests to me that being open to different opportunities as a career switcher is a universal advantage in pursuing a career in social enterprise.

Ready for a Challenge

Something in the applicant data that surprised me was how many times the sentiment of “the more challenging, the better” explicitly came up iamong IBL’s successful placements. 20% of them expressed this explicitly, and another 57% expressed interest in working for early stage, entrepreneurial ventures or building a skillset where they had little experience.

As an emerging sector of mostly small, growing ventures, there’s a lot of work to be done in social enterprise. This is not the space to clock hours and collect a paycheck. The social enterprise space is looking for passionate, committed professionals who see the value of their work extending beyond themselves.

I could spend an entire blog series discussing the pros and cons of this kind of culture, but the fact of the matter is that this is the prevalent culture in social enterprise. Professionals who have a “ready to be challenged” mindset stand out to employers.

Eager to Learn

Similarly, IBL’s successful placements wanted to learn and grow in a new space. They did not come to social enterprise thinking they had all of the answers. Almost every successful placement mentioned gaining or advancing their skills and experiences in social enterprise.

This does not mean that successful placements did not take on management level roles. In fact, many of them did. But their mindset was that they had a lot to learn going in and took advantage of job interviews to begin that process.

On the surface, many of these professionals seem to make lateral career transitions - not moving up in their career with their new role. It’s not uncommon to see a former project manager take a program associate role in a social enterprise. But, the same title or even a lower title can mean something very different depending on the organization. Small social enterprises give each role considerably more responsibility than larger corporate organizations.

IBL’s successful placements don’t get hung up on the title. They see an opportunity to grow by taking on more responsibility. Plus once they prove themselves, many social enterprise professionals are quickly promoted and take on even more responsibility in management level roles at these fast growing organizations.

The right mindset can make all the difference when switching careers into social enterprise. It’s also the easiest short-term adjustment you can make to become a more attractive candidate. Pursue opportunities you hadn’t initially considered, and prioritize how you will thrive from the challenge and learning of a new role. When expressed effectively, these small changes have led to fantastic results for IBL’s career switching professionals.

In my next post I'll dive into the specific skills and experiences that are common among IBL's successful placements. But for now, what other mindsets have you found to be effective in pursuing a new career?

This is the first post in a blog series called Switching In which explores how experienced professionals are switching into social enterprise. Get all of the insights from the series and more by signing up for the Mission Driven Monthly Newsletter.

The answer to that question is going to be a little different for all of us, but I've pretty consistently argued the latter on this blog. As you may have picked up, I believe we are driven by a mission. When we make this mission present in our lives, we're more activated to learn and just happier overall.

When the skills question bubbles up, I tell myself that in my dedication to a mission I'll build skills relevant to advancing that mission. I don't generally buy the "build your skills now, than follow your dreams" mentality. It's what your parents tell you, hoping that you'll get over your idealism and take the conventional success staring you in the face.

I thought I knew where that compromise led - disconnection with what really inspires us.

But now I get to work with people everyday who prove me wrong. And that's a pretty humbling experience.

At Impact Business Leaders, I help experienced professionals switch into careers in social enterprise. Most of them were very successful in the corporate world. In that time, they gathered skills, professional training and some wealth.

But contrary to what I believed, they never lost their sense of passion. They developed themselves and now they want to use their skills to make a dent in the things they're passionate about.

On top of that, my work has taught me that there’s a serious need for mid-level talent in social enterprise. The space simply hasn't built widespread, effective models for internal talent development.

So while many young social enterprise professionals consider an MBA, there's a huge opportunity for experienced talent to step into the gap.

This months series - Switching In - focuses on how these professionals are filling that gap. I’ve partnered with Impact Business Leaders - which is a fancy way of saying I asked to work evenings - to explore how the professionals they work with successfully switch into social enterprise.

With 64 successful social enterprise placements to date, there's a wealth of data on:
- The mindset needed to pursue the switch
- The skills and experiences that are most sought after
- The process necessary to make the switch happen

I hope to explore all of these aspects, and at the end of the month I’ll share the most important takeaways in the Mission Driven Monthly Newsletter.

This series on successful career switchers is designed to empower those who haven't taken the plunge, yet. You know who you are, and you know it's only a matter of time. The conviction grows stronger in your mind everyday and I hope Switching In can spark some action.

But I can only do that with your help. I don't have all the right answers or even all the right questions. So I encourage you to share your thoughts and responses. Your input will inform and enhance the posts I write and the newsletter I share at the end of the month. I eagerly await your comments, tweets and emails!

Speaking of the Newsletter, be sure to sign up! And check back on this post. I'll be listing the entire Switching In series below.