A career in the social enterprise sector you say?

An MBA and Skoll Centre Ecosystem Awardee, Tamer Azer is also an On Purpose Associate and the Co-Editor of The Renegade Times. In this blog post, Tamer considers what it takes to build a career in social enterprise. You can reach Tamer at tamer.azer@onpurpose.uk.com.

Walk into the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at the Saïd Business School on any given day or attend any of their events and you will be greeted with young and inspired students from a variety of backgrounds who are keen on being part of the Social Enterprise sector. Since the sector is still very nascent, the most popular question is, how do you become part of this sector when you don’t have any experience working with social enterprises?

The standard response is that the social enterprise sector is just like any sector. To succeed you require very much the same commercial skills and emotional intelligence you would require working in the private sector; because much like the private sector, any organization in the social enterprise sector needs to be financially viable and sustainable. Essentially, this makes the skills and experiences you’ve acquired throughout your career not only transferrable but also immensely valuable for this growing sector. However, there are a few more things you should keep in mind if you are considering a career in the social enterprise sector.

Experience and skills aside, most people think it’s enough to express their passion for the sector and all the good that it does in order to get in on all that good stuff. Well, it’s not enough. It’s not enough to show social enterprises you want to work with, how passionate you are about them; you need to give them reasons to be passionate about you. Here is how you do that.

1. Understand the sector well and understand where you can add value

Understanding the sector in relation to your skills and experiences gives you the ability to position yourself not just from the perspective of your passion and interests but also from the perspective of where you can add the most value to the sector and to the organization you want to work with. So while you think an organization like Aduna is really cool and you want to work with them to grow their sales, your experience might be best suited to working with a sector support organization like NESTA or Unltd where you can help develop the ecosystem.

2. Be brave

If you know you really want to work with social enterprises, then just do it, take that leap of faith and don’t look back. It’s much harder to make a career with social enterprises your priority from the start and it takes a lot more courage and dedication to take that leap of faith early. Want to show passion? Then show faith in the sector and make it your priority.

3. Prove it

Show on paper that you understand the sector and that you’re making that leap of faith. Sign up to an internship with a social enterprise, do a fellowship program like On Purpose, Acumen or the Shell Foundation Fellowship. You can also participate in one of NESTA’s many projects, just put a team together and submit an expression of interest. Attend social sector conferences, tweet and blog about the sector and show that you know what you’re talking about.

In the end, because the sector is still nascent, most people coming into the sector don’t really have any experience working with social enterprises. This is a great opportunity for people truly interested in careers in the sector to distinguish themselves from the pack. Especially since there is no shortage of opportunities out there to experiment and really show that you are keen on being a part of this growing and thriving community.

This article was originally commissioned for and published on the Skoll Centre Blog