MTMCareers Frameworks and Tools
As we interviewed working professionals, career services staff and university professors specialized in cognitive neuroscience, strength-based positive psychology, and behavioral economics, we honed in on a unique career development approach centered around three core steps: Get Clear. Get Connected. Get Hired.
GET CLEAR
Becoming fluent in what contributions you can make is critical to your career success. Our Triple Fit framework has helped thousands of emerging leaders and career switchers clarify and articulate their impact priorities on three core dimensions of professional success:
- Skills (as they relate to job titles) are critical to your credibility. I recommend that you revisit your results from reputable assessments (e.g. skillscan, CliftonStrengths, CareerLeader) to clarify your own preferences and match them with job types and job titles across sectors. Translating your skills into the currency of your new industry or sector will be critical for you to understand and articulate the contributions you can make through specific job types and titles in your sector and industry/impact area of interest. Also reflect on how each degree you have earned (e.g. STEM, business/MBA, social science, humanities) feeds into your career goals. Most degree programs provide a combination of skills and knowledge that are contextualized into different sectors and industries. Hence, you might feel confident in what is out there in one or two dimensions (e.g. skills, sector), but rarely in all three, which you need to be credible in your search.
- Clarify your culture and sector priorities. This dimension is particularly helpful in understanding your priorities in terms of your expectations related to your sector of interest (e.g. private sector business, a social enterprise, a non-profit, a government agency, or a multi-lateral organization) based on your needs related to salary ranges, prestige, personal and professional development, community, and work/life integration considerations.
- If you find it challenging to hone in on one or two impact areas, consider putting together your Passions Mosaic. This interactive exercise has helped thousands of emerging and established leaders take a deeper dive into understanding their motivators as they relate to different industries and impact areas, including impact investing, corporate social responsibility, global health, environmental sustainability, renewable energy, or education.
Articulating your triple fit of job title, organization (sector, organizational values, colleague types) and industry/impact area is critical to help you put together a credible elevator pitch where you can articulate your education and experiences in the terminology of your impact area of interest.
GET CONNECTED
As you become clearer about your impact career goals, you will be more effective at identifying and articulating your fit with potential employers and jobs.
- Explore Our Career Opportunities Map (See for Example our Net Impact Custom Map) to prioritize your outreach startegy. This unique visual framework to help you narrow down your interests so you can connect with like-minded professionals faster. We have divided our map into 6 functions by 7 sectors to help you learn how different skills sets and job functions are called across traditional and mission-driven sub-sectors across the private, non-profit, and government/multi-lateral sectors. Since 2011, we created custom career opportunities map for a number of top universities, fellowship programs, and professional associations. Each cell of each map is populated with alumni from each program or university to showcase to their current students/members that their current learning endeavor can lead to a variety of traditional and mission-driven career path. As seeing is believing, each map populated with alumni or fellow professional association members often lead to transformational outcomes for students and alumni to build their awareness and confidence in terms of building careers in impact-driven fields, including impact investing, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), global health, education, or sustainability.
- Your ability to leverage social media to connect with your tribe of like-minded professionals is critical to keep your motivation up in your career transition process. Expanding your network to like-minded professionals will allow you to realize that you belong to a larger tribe of like-minded change makers who have successfully built careers that blend financial rewards with social impact and environmental stewardship. Furthermore, being connected with your tribe of like-minded professionals via social media and referrals will be essential to your ability to identify jobs and internships, as well as consulting gigs you can compete for as you transition from your past career to your future impact endeavors:
Exploring these networks will enable you to further tailor your LinkedIn profile and resume, as well as start presenting your past achievements in the terminology and approach that is deemed credible and valuable by employers in your impact area of interest, including newer industries such as impact investing, renewable energy, environmental sustainability, corporate social responsibility, and managing public-private partnerships.
GET HIRED
As you get connected with like-minded professionals, you will start identifying opportunities that align with your triple fit. Our Get Hired best practices will help you convert applications into interviews, and interviews into offers. Here are a few pointers to help you along the way:
As you uncover, apply, and interview for internship, consulting or job opportunities that align with your skills, values, and desired impact, you will continue to further tailor your LinkedIn profile and resume, as well as sharpen your interviewing skills and build a career that successfully blends financial rewards with social impact and environmental stewardship.
Need more assistance? Don’t hesitate to explore our coaching services for impact-driven professionals.
