NGOs reaching out to Corporate Sector

From MBA TO NGO

If I ask you about What experience did you have before coming to business school, what would you really say?

Do you need a traditional MBA summer internship to gain credibility, experience a new working environment, and/or demonstrate and enhance your business skills and acumen? Or do you already have significant business experience?

• What are your career goals post-MBA? Are you fairly certain that you want to work in the social sector upon graduation? Are you looking to transition into another traditional business field, such as from investment banking to brand management, where it would be helpful to have some concrete summer experience in the field into which you want to transition? Or are you planning on going back to your previous employer or field and feel like you have some flexibility for the summer?

• What are your goals for the summer? Are there specific skills or expertise you want to gain over the summer? Are you looking to build your network in a particular field or location? Are you seeking a position that has a strong chance of leading to a full-time position or are you primarily seeking a new or different experience? Are you interested in a very structured program and environment, or are you comfortable with a more flexible position with more emphasis on hands-on experience than training and development and where you might be the only MBA intern? Are there social sector internships that might offer the right types of opportunities to meet your specific goals?

The social sector has previously suffered and still does somewhat suffer from a negative image, with high vacancy and staff turnover rates in some areas and high profile child abuse cases bringing it under public scrutiny.Transparency in activities and accounts also add a lot to the unfair tilt of faith that many might still have with respect to social organizations and the kind of work they do in our societies.

Coupled with this is a lack of recognition for what social workers do. Additional impediments would be social stigmas and norms, superstition and lower education levels in a country like ours.

The question which might arise is that what kind of work can one person do in respect to this sector.
Well the list is endless

Adults – support for the elderly of our society, people with mental health issues, learning and physical disabilities, or alcohol and substance abuse problems, the homeless, and victims of domestic abuse.
Children, young people and families – work in fostering, adoption and child protection, and with young offenders, harrassment,and youngsters who are unemployed or homeless, or who have emotional, learning and physical disabilities.
Females : prostitution, illegal confinement, domestic violence, harrassment, trafficing, family health, hygiene, etc.

Social workers can have starting salaries range from Rupees4000 to 12,000. Staff in senior roles can earn around Rupees 25,000. Staff motivation and morale have been affected in some areas by high vacancy and staff turnover rates, related in part to low pay. Social workers in some teams have high caseloads, but they can be managed with adequate monitoring, understanding,support and training.

The nature of the work causes work-related stress, but this is balanced by the personal satisfaction gained from developing and maintaining relationships with the people you are trying to help. You can make a real impact on improving people’s lives.
SO , why dont you take a positive step ?