Cementing a career in the development sector can be interesting, rewarding, and professionally fulfilling. Many accomplished professionals around the world choose to move to a consultancy career at some point in their lives to expand their impact and augment their professional skills. Nonetheless, the international development sector is also known for its rigidity and intense competition. This is particularly true for junior consultants who find it difficult to position themselves on the market and secure their first assignments.
Fueled with the aim of assisting junior consultants to enter this niche and to encourage established consultants to expand their significance, DevelopmentAid recently hosted a webinar on “Expand Your Impact by Becoming a Global Development Consultant” with Dan Maxwell Jr. and Irina Bondarenco sharing a number of tips on how to build a successful career as a development consultant.
Identify your most impactful specialization
The transition from a full-time job to a consultancy career can happen more smoothly if it is guided by pragmatic step-taking. First of all, junior consultants have to decide which their most impactful specialization is. The international development space is very broad and built around multiple sectors that require various specializations and expertise. However, Dan Maxwell Jr. advised against the idea of being a jack of all trades and instead focus on one or two skillsets that can enable consultants to make the most impact. From a broad perspective, three career paths can be considered by junior consultants: Administrative, Programming, and Quality Assurance.
Fig.1. Career paths and related positions
Source: Dan Maxwell Jr.
Position yourself as an authority
Following the successful identification of the desired career path, junior consultants are advised to start working towards positioning themselves as authorities in the field. This involves deepening individual capacity and expertise, developing research methodologies, performing actual research, or creating various types of knowledge resources on the topics of interest. Another important factor relates to the dissemination of such useful information across networks of development professionals. Dan mentioned the importance of aligning social media profiles (e.g., LinkedIn) to a junior consultant’s mission and interests in the development sector.
Choose the right tools
When asked what characteristics make a successful consultant, Irina mentioned adaptability, proactivity, the ability to market oneself, innate passion, and access to the right tools as being the most important factors. In this context, a well-presented CV, a focused cover letter, and a timely application play a huge role in landing interesting and rewarding assignments. Irina referred to DevelopmentAid as a one-stop-shop that offers consultants working in the development sector the full range of tools necessary to succeed.
The platform offers access to the largest job board in the field, updated daily with vacancies and calls for collaboration from high-profile organizations. The Career-Center department, on the other hand, provides timely assistance for experts who are looking to improve their CVs or cover letters.
Another useful tool, often used by senior consultants, involves the Organizations/Awards and Funding menus of developmentaid.org. These facilities offer the exclusive possibility for experts to identify funding opportunities that are open to individuals or to locate partner organizations looking for key/non-key experts for their upcoming proposals.
For all those who did not have the opportunity to join us for this online event, a link to the recorded version can be found here. The presentation materials used during this webinar can be requested at i.ilasco@developmentaid.org.
We invite you to join us for our next webinar on “Doing Business with the World Bank: Procurement Framework and Best Practices” which will take place on November 18, 2021. Our speaker, Nancy Bikondo-Omosa, a Senior Procurement Specialist at WB, will share tips on how to find and prepare for business opportunities funded by the World Bank. You can register here.
DevelopmentAid is the leading provider of business intelligence and recruitment tools designed to assist all those active in the development sector. Join today and gain access to the largest job board in the sector and to many other useful tools that can help you land rewarding assignments.
