How to stand out from the competition with DevelopmentAid’s career leverage tools

By Catalina Russu

How to stand out from the competition with DevelopmentAid’s career leverage tools

Who doesn’t want to get more done in less time? This also applies when you’re looking for new assignments. Spending hours every day working on cover letters and resumes and applying to open positions that you think would be the perfect fit for you is not necessarily a bad approach but obviously, there are tools that can help job seekers to optimize their searches infinitely better to find that ideal opportunity. In this respect, the DevelopmentAid platform is an incredibly valuable asset to anyone searching for a job, and therefore becoming a Professional Plus member is crucial if you want to stand out from the competition. Read on to find out why.

✔️ Jobs and Project Opportunities

DevelopmentAid.org is currently the biggest job board in the global aid sector. It provides access to 9000+ jobs, details the profiles of companies and their references, outlines donors’ procurement guidelines as well as featuring open tenders for individuals and organizations’ shortlists.

Finding a vacancy and applying for it is the usual way to secure a position and DevelopmentAid offers its members additional access to more than 9000+ exclusive opportunities every day. However, our new feature allows you to narrow down your searches and customize your alerts by regions such as ECOWAS, MENA, sub-Saharan Africa, etc. We constantly strive to ensure our system is carefully tailored to make your job search a personalised and intuitive process.

✔️ Сonsulting Opportunities and Grants

Did you know that, as an individual consultant, you can work directly for donor agencies and funding organizations without being subcontracted by an implementing organization?

By using Tenders or Grants menu on our website, experts can identify consulting opportunities and grants which are open to individual consultants and that are announced by donor agencies or banks.

By tracking these daily, experts can ensure that they are among the first to apply for better-paid positions and consultancy opportunities offered by major donors such as USAID, GIZ, JICA, UKAid (FCDO), and others. Best of all, you can apply directly to the donor agency itself via email or the link provided in the Terms of Reference – no need to wait to be shortlisted by a company first!

Experts with a DevelopmentAid Professional Plus membership also have access to tenders and grants that are at the Forecast and Open stages, giving experts a real advantage over the competition.

✔️ Donors

Professional Plus members can also check the Donors menu where they can find general information on the donors that DevelopmentAid works with. Another useful feature is the Country eligibility tool where members can check if they are eligible to work for a specific donor as an independent consultant as well as accessing donors’ procurement guidelines and any regulations regarding subcontracting procedures for individuals.

Another useful way to secure new contracts more quickly is to use shortlists. These feature the names of those companies currently bidding on tenders that are looking for experts to join their teams. This facility enables the expert to get in touch with each of the interested companies at the optimum moment and stand out from the competition by not restricting themselves to one single company and also avoiding recruiting agencies.

✔️ Organizations

As a member, you can use the DevelopmentAid Organizations menu to find the key people and their direct contact details within organizations you are interested in so you can send them your CV directly. In addition, you can reach out to those companies you admire and want to work for by filtering them by location, sector, type, experience, and other criteria and let them know about your availability. When you subsequently receive multiple invitations, you can identify the most successful partners to work with by undertaking an advanced search in the Organizations awards submenu to ascertain how many awards a particular company has in a specific sector/location/with donor. DevAid members can also exclusively access the names of any non-compliant firms by navigating through the sanctioned organizations submenu.

✔️ News

Also, did you know that sometimes instead of searching for a contract, it might just find you instead? Having your profile shown at the top of the search results will catch the attention of HR managers and guarantee more offers and you can increase the visibility of your profile amongst 200,000+key organizations via the DevelopmentAid network. Professional Plus members benefit from having their profiles featured at the top of searches all the time as well as having a member label and a personalized link to their accounts as online business cards. In addition, members can publish their own articles/reports in the news menu and make their names known among thousands of international development professionals. Being more visible at the international level means you are easy reachable by organizations.

✔️ CV Broadcast

An excellent way of making sure no project opportunities are lost is to make sure that each organization from your sectors of interest has your CV on its records. However, doing this manually requires a lot of time which is why DevelopmentAid has designed a timesaving solution – CV Broadcast – a bonus for Professional Plus members only. Using this service, we can introduce your profile to the top consultancy organizations and increase your professional network within just 24 hours! Organizations can then contact you directly with any openings or alternatively save your details on their records for any future opportunities.

Last, but not least, another bonus for the Professional Plus members is the CV revision service. Our professional recruiters can advise whether your CV effectively presents your experience, achievements, and skills. They will analyse your CV and provide written recommendations for its improvement.

See also: Be one step ahead of competition – 3 stories from DevAid Professional Members

In conclusion, DevelopmentAid membership offers you access to exclusive opportunities in a quick and easy manner, increases your profile visibility, and saves your valuable time. Opt for our career aid tools that can benefit professionals of any levels.

One of the best ways to secure your career is to invest in yourself, and one of the most proven ways to achieve this is to invest in a long-term subscription to DevelopmentAid Professional Plus Membership.

Between 21 and 28 November 2023, you can benefit from our special offer: 99 EUROS OFF Professional Plus Membership. Get full access to all the information relevant to individual consultants. Become a member now and enjoy a wide spectrum of opportunities!