Foreword

by Joyce Lain Kennedy

Are you a motivated, concerned person? Do you have a sense of mission for a higher purpose? Do you feel your job should be as important as the chief executive’s job? If so, I’ve got good news for you.

A non–profit organization or teaching may offer exactly the outlet for the self–actualization for which you’ve been searching. The Non–Profits and Education Job Finder will make your job search much more efficient than possible in past years because this book provides instant access to a veritable mega–mall of 2,222 online and offline job–finding resources for virtually every type of job hunt.

There’s more good news. The non–profit world is no longer an ivory tower for idealists who don’t mind living on pennies to serve a cause. As the millennium approaches, you need not be poor to do good. But you do need strong business skills (financial planning, marketing, management) or pragmatic operational abilities to earn higher salaries and to keep your NPO (non–profit organization) afloat. A good heart and wishing alone won’t make it so.

My comments stem from personal experience. Before I became a careers columnist, I spent several years working for two NPOs — a United Way and a Girl Scout Council, both in St. Louis, Missouri. Those were some of the happiest days of my life. The interaction with people of good cheer was delightful.

NPOs typically attract volunteers, and when people are interacting on a volunteer basis, they often are at their very best which makes them a joy to be around. Further, it was clear that the job I was doing in providing staff support and guidance to a large team of volunteers mattered a great deal to the lives and well–being of legions of beneficiaries.

It’s always been a real challenge to find jobs and internships in the non–profit world since so many have been filled by word of mouth. Today non–profits have joined the business community and government in using a wide variety of means to attract applicants for jobs and internships. In addition to networking, they’re advertising their openings in specialty and trade periodicals, on job hotlines, and on the Internet. More NPOs are using job banks and job–matching services to find qualified candidates. Nobody really knew how extensively non–profits are using these new vehicles for spreading the word about their job vacancies…until now!

Eight years ago I discovered Daniel Lauber’s outstanding research effort, now titled the Government Job Finder. This remarkable book helps readers go beyond the usual guidance in finding government employment by leading them to over 2,002 sources of information on openings in local, state, and the federal government. In my column, I called the book “the most comprehensive compendium of resources for government job hunters I’ve ever seen” — and I meant it. I added, “If you have a fair idea of the type of government job you want, this is a dynamite job hunting tool.” His 1989 edition of that book was among the first to include electronic job sources such as job databases available on bulletin board services.

Now Lauber and his research team have done it again, spending untold hours and dollars in completing another magnificent research project. With his new Non–Profits and Education Job Finder, he has uncovered and identified over 2,222 sources of job leads and job–search resources in the non–profit sector: jobs that focus on bettering prospects for education, housing, food, health, justice, safety, and peace. Jobs that make a difference. Jobs that make the world a better place to live. And he has added a slew of new electronic job sources that focus on non–profits: job databases, resume banks, and directories of non–profits and schools available on the Internet and on bulletin board services.

I didn’t meet Daniel Lauber until last year, but I developed an enormous respect for his uncommon willingness to turn over every rock and look in every crevice to find a source on the topic he is researching. The man is obsessive about collecting job–finding resources. I like that. I think you will too after reading this book.

You deserve an easier time finding work. After all, you’re dedicating yourself to helping society cope with the multitude of serious unmet needs it faces. With the Non–Profits and Education Job Finder in hand, I wish you Job Speed.

Joyce Lain Kennedy
Nationally–syndicated careers columnist and author of Job Interviews for Dummies, and other leading career books
June 1997

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