Let me preface this posting by saying I am a typical Libra and making any kind of decision has always been hard for me. Life changing decisions, like what job to take, are even more difficult. So I’m having a hard time with my current decision.
Today I interviewed for a position with a nonprofit in the development department. It’s a position that would allow me to learn about every aspect of development, as well as allowing me to gain valuable experience in writing pr copy, development copy (such as donor letters, invitations, thank you letters, etc.), and grant writing. They would even pay for me to take classes in Grant writing in order to take the lead on all of the grant writing work.
Sounds great right? They’ll even pay me my asking price. What I’m worried about though is the organization itself. Though the organization is 40 years old, the foundation is relatively new. It’s still going through relatively obvious growing pains and they’ve already experienced a high turnover rate in the employees already. Their offices were dull, empty, and disorganized. My immediate supervisor was uncomfortably nervous and painful to speak to (and therefore conducted the interview poorly), which makes me worried about the development department since it is dependent on interpersonal skills. My big boss was extremely nice and has a successful background in development working for higher education. This would make him an ideal mentor. However, he was scatterbrained, easily distracted, disorganized, and spoke plainly about how he can be incredibly demanding as a boss.
So what am I to do? Should I take the position because it does offer the opportunity to learn so much about the development process and nonprofits? It’ll also offer a chance to gather so much needed experience writing copy and publishing it on a larger scale than in the past. Are these things worth sacrificing a positive, low stress work environment with people that will be easy and pleasant to work with? Is experience worth sacrificing everything else one looks for in a job?
Let me know what you think.
