NGOs an emerging career option for the youth today.

 

NGOs and CSOs are doing a great job across the world. They are one of the pillars of our modern-day society. Over the period of time, social work has evolved from being a simple charity work that people engaged with either in their retirement years or in part-time. It has now evolved into a place where people look for some serious career option. India is home to a large number of NGO’s in the world. According to a rough estimate, there are over 3.4 million registered NGOs in India. They cater to almost every cause.  

The Option of long-term career: young generation today can find some serious career options in this sector and explore long-term career prospects here. Today a larger number of people have found steady employment in this sector. According to a rough estimate over 19.2 million people are working in this sector.

Departments: In any NGO there are four major departments namely Programs, Fundraising, HR, Finance, Admin, Communications. These are the core departments in any NGO. There are various NGO’s that provide good career options not just to the fresh grads but also to the retired people as well. Many retired executives from the corporate and PSU sectors get a good opportunity to manage these departments. They bring with them a vast experience of managing such operations with unmatched skills and knowledge which they accumulated over the years and thus make a valuable contribution to this sector.

With the advances in this sector, many universities and colleges have come up with specialized courses that cater to the growing demand of trained manpower for this sector. BSW, MSW, MBA- CSR are few popular courses that a student can study to get an entry into this sector.

Stability and long-term perspective: Initially people had this perception that this sector is suitable for those who are low on talent and cannot work under pressure. But this myth has been broken now. The social sector is now full of highly talented people who work on many complex projects. On the contrary, this sector has a high demand for people with specialized skills. Graduates with engineering and law background, MBA’s, science and medical background are all required here. This sector has emerged as one of the key pillars of our social structure. Our society will be more robust and progressive if its social sector is thriving. In India, CSR laws have made it compulsory for corporates to spend at least 2 percent of their profits on social development projects. 

Salary: Salaries are getting quite competitive in this sector. The NGO’s have come a long way since the good old days and have become quite professional in their approach. Many of the NGOs/CSO’s are being run or established by senior executives who have switched over from the corporate sector and have completely redesigned the culture and salary and deliverables. Salaries are now quite competitive and so is the pressure to deliver.

Using technology: NGO/CSO’s are now increasingly resorting to the use of technology in their project work. You would be surprised to find that some of these organizations have their in-house tech departments. They have made considerable investments in tech. Tech is being used to monitor and measure the results

Career avenues are quite bright in this sector. There are NGOs who have grown quite big over the years. Helpage, Smile, Care, Childfund, Humana People to People, Sight Savers are some of the secular ones. Many faith-based organizations have won the trust of the donors by delivering excellent results. Some of the faith-based organizations are Jesuits, Don Bosco, Salvation Army, World Vision, Compassion International. 

Select a cause that is close to your heart and an NGO which is working for that cause. Do your research to join the one which meets your expectations.