By Flickr user Nic McPhee (Creative Commons)

News reports have been pointing to signs that we are finally coming out of this recession, and the numbers on Idealist seem to agree.

In the beginning of 2008, before the economic crisis hit, an average of about 5,000 jobs were posted to Idealist every month. The number of job listings on our site started to drop off in the fall of 2008, and hit a low point in February 2009, when only 2,811 jobs were posted.

But the numbers have been increasing again lately, and in June 2010, our site had 4,659 job listings — almost back to our pre-recession rate. We’re not qualified to draw any broad conclusions about the economy or the nonprofit sector, but this news is definitely encouraging.

Click here to search for nonprofit and government job listings, and check out our other free resources for job seekers. Good luck!

[This blog entry appeared on an older version of Idealist; any broken links are a result of having re-launched our site in Fall 2010.]

Are you the type of person who joins a volunteer literacy program in March, starts learning Sanskrit in April, and begins building your own bamboo bicycle in May — only to feel ashamed when you’ve lost interest in all three projects by June? Or perhaps you have so many ideas for your future career that you’re afraid to go ahead with any of them?

Barbara Sher would call you a Scanner. In Refuse to Choose! Use All of Your Interests, Passions, and Hobbies to Create the Life and Career of Your Dreams (or you might find the alternate subtitle, A Revolutionary Program for Doing Everything That You Love), she argues that this type of person is not a failure for not being able to find and hold onto their goals. Instead, she portrays Scanners as curious, versatile, creative geniuses who should be proud of the fact that they might never settle down in the conventional sense.

Of course, it’s easy to like a book that lays such heavy praise on its readers. But Sher, a life coach and career workshop leader, has worked with enough Scanners throughout her lifetime to allow her to develop practical advice for adding structure to your life, getting past barriers to success, and choosing a catch-all career. The exercises she suggests aren’t going to solve everything or work for everyone, but they can give you a starting point for buckling down — while giving you permission to continue jumping from field to field.

Sher devotes a chapter each to seven categories of Scanners, including “serial specialists” and “Jacks of all trades.” You don’t have to choose just one identity: the author acknowledges that most people fit into multiple types. As with most classification systems, it does feel a little forced, but it’s just a way to organize all of the ideas that Sher is bursting with. Each specialized chapter offers possible models for living your life, whether you’ll be pursuing your multiple passions as part of your job or in your free time.

So if you (or your family) are bothered by your lack of direction, pick up this book and stop worrying so much. If you can’t commit long enough to read the whole book or go through all of the exercises, it’s worth just paging through to find bits of inspiration. (If you buy it here on Amazon, part of the proceeds will go towards Idealist.)

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More book reviews:

• The Idealware Field Guide to Software for Nonprofits
• This Book Is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All
• The American Way to Change: How National Service and Volunteers are Transforming America
• How to Be an Everyday Philanthropist
• The Pollyanna Principles: Reinventing Nonprofit Organizations to to Create the Future of Our World

[This blog entry appeared on an older version of Idealist; any broken links are a result of having re-launched our site in Fall 2010.]

Know someone who’s about to receive a diploma, isn’t quite sure how they’re going to use their new degree to change the world, and is in the thick of a job search (or about to be)? Consider giving the graduate a shiny hard copy of the Idealist Guide to Nonprofit Careers!

Staff photo – we love seeing the book in stores!

If you go to college or grad school with the intention of becoming a doctor, an accountant, or a lawyer, it’s fairly clear-cut what you have to do: there are certain associations to join, certain conferences to attend, and certain courses that simply can’t be skipped. But if you want to earn a paycheck while addressing climate change, fighting for human rights, or working on other critical issues, and you think you might want to explore the nonprofit sector…well, the path can be a little more cloudy depending on what information you’ve been able to access so far.

These free books offer useful advice, strategies, and resources for those sorts of people. Written by the staff of Idealist.org and other experts, the books are available in two flavors (one edition for first-time job seekers, the other for sector switchers) and available as free PDFs. But now, if you want a gift for someone to unwrap, you can buy the printed versions from Hundreds of Heads books in independent bookshops or from Amazon, Borders, or Barnes & Noble.

Learn more about how to own (or gift!) a copy of The Idealist Guide to Nonprofit Careers for First-Time Job Seekers or The Idealist Guide to Nonprofit Careers for Sector Switchers.

Congratulations to the Class of 2010!

[This blog entry appeared on an older version of Idealist; any broken links are a result of having re-launched our site in Fall 2010.]

From our hiring team in New York:

Looking for an opportunity to shape a nascent development program? Apply to be our Director of Donor Relations. You’ll play an important role in our efforts to diversify our funding streams and ensure that our current operations and future growth are sustainable in the long-term. You’ll also join a friendly and dynamic team in a lovely office (if we do say so ourselves).

To learn more, please read the full description here.

And if you know anyone else who might be a great fit, please share this opportunity with them. Thanks!

[This blog entry appeared on an older version of Idealist; any broken links are a result of having re-launched our site in Fall 2010.]

If you visit our site often, you probably know that we run a series of graduate degree fairs every year. The idea is to bring together prospective students with representatives from all sorts of graduate programs whose graduates go on to serve the public good.

To complement the fairs (or to supplement them, for those who can’t make it in person), we have created a series of “degree overviews” — snapshots of several types of graduate programs you may be considering.

Today we’re spotlighting our journalism degree overview. As a field of study, journalism is designed to train graduates to be ethical, objective, and critical writers, with the skills and knowledge needed to pursue careers working for newspapers, broadcast stations and magazines, publishing outlets in the online community, and any setting that involves the relaying and reporting of information.

Journalism is a rapidly changing profession with many possibilities in new and traditional media. With a shift to more up-to-the-minute online format and the participation of everyday people in reporting, journalism is slowly becoming more egalitarian. Journalism-as-public-service has been the root of reporting since its early days. From Benjamin Franklin’s anonymous anti-colonial articles in revolutionary newspapers, to Edward R. Murrow’s on-site World War II reporting, to recent Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism on the war in Iraq—journalists expose truth and bring issues to light that might have otherwise stayed out of the public view.

To learn about the diversity of options within, and versatility of, journalism training programs, click here.

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Related post: Considering a Public Interest Law Degree?

[This blog entry appeared on an older version of Idealist; any broken links are a result of having re-launched our site in Fall 2010.]

Our final Nonprofit Career Fair of the season will take place in Cleveland, Ohio this Tuesday, April 20, at Case Western Reserve University. If you’re in the Cleveland area, stop by to learn about career opportunities including jobs, volunteer gigs, internships, and more. Please RSVP if you plan to attend; the fairs are free and open to the public but it helps us if we have a sense of the number of attendees ahead of time.

If you can’t make it to the fair in person—or even if you can—be sure to take a look at The Idealist Guides to Nonprofit Careers. The Guides come in two flavors, one for folks just embarking upon their careers, and one for sector switchers, and they’re now available in bookstores around the United States. Chapters include “The foundation of a successful job search and career,” “Resumes and cover letters,” “A career search doesn’t end when you get a job,” and “The challenges of the job market.” If you read the book, we’d love to hear what you think!

[This blog entry appeared on an older version of Idealist; any broken links are a result of having re-launched our site in Fall 2010.]

If you visit our site often, you probably know that we run a series of graduate degree fairs every year. The idea is to bring together prospective students with representatives from all sorts of graduate programs whose graduates go on to serve the public good.

To complement the fairs (or to supplement them, for those who can’t make it in person), we have created a series of “degree overviews” — snapshots of several types of graduate programs you may be considering.

From the UC Berkeley law school, via Ingrid Taylar

Today we’re spotlighting our public interest law degree overview. Public interest law refers to legal practice and education that benefits issues such as civil rights and civil liberties, people living in poverty, environmental protection, immigrants’ rights, women’s rights, and consumer rights. Public interest lawyers can work in a wide variety of roles, including as advocates and lobbyists on issues they care about; policy makers and legislators; and legal counselors representing clients directly.

To learn more about public interest law, what to look for in a law school, and challenges associated with this type of degree, click here.

[This blog entry appeared on an older version of Idealist; any broken links are a result of having re-launched our site in Fall 2010.]

Our intrepid producer, Douglas (by Julia Smith)

From Meg Busse.

Take one:

If there was an Oscar for short documentary featuring awesome nonprofit professionals, these videos would definitely get the award.

Take two:

There are many amazing moments of these new nonprofit career videos, but perhaps my favorite comes halfway through the third video during a stunning car chase scene followed by a quick cameo by Steve Buscemi. Brilliant. Two thumbs up!

Take three:

If you’re interested in a nonprofit career, chances are that you’ve realized how many different types of careers there are in the sector and how varied they are from position to position, organization to organization, and even in different geographic regions.

In our new Nonprofit Career Video series, we talk with people in nonprofit jobs such as public interest lawyer, social worker, executive director, and policy analyst to hear about their career path, education, daily routines, and recommendations for others interested in this type of work.

For more information about the Nonprofit Career Video series and to watch the short videos, click here.

That’s a wrap.

[This blog entry appeared on an older version of Idealist; any broken links are a result of having re-launched our site in Fall 2010.]

By Meg Busse.

From Jeremy Barwick (Flickr/Creative Commons)

Since you’re on Idealist, you know that in terms of numbers, this is where to find the most nonprofit jobs. However, if you’ve been working in the sector for at least a little bit, you also know that there is no such thing as one-stop shopping in terms of nonprofit hiring. You have to look on national sites, chapter sites of the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network, local job boards and listservs, Craigslist…and even then, there are plenty of jobs that are never posted but filled through word of mouth or (more likely) by hiring volunteers and interns.

However, I do think that job boards can be useful tools in the nonprofit job search.

There have been two interesting aggregations of nonprofit job boards. I really like the one the Blue Avocado developed in December. It’s a great PDF with detailed information about each site/organization, knowledgeable comments on useability, and notes about key features such as fees, number of listings, and search and alert options.

I also just saw list on Guide to OnlineSchools.com that features an alphabetical list of 97 job boards, with their top ten separated out. The comments for this list aren’t as detailed as the Blue Avocado resource, but it could be useful if you’re looking for job sites that are more specific to your interests, skills, or geographic location.

For more information on where to find volunteer opportunities, networking events, information about the sector, and more, also check out the Career Resources page on our Nonprofit Career Month site.

[This blog entry appeared on an older version of Idealist; any broken links are a result of having re-launched our site in Fall 2010.]

Nominations for the 2010 Civic Ventures Purpose Prize are due March 5.

The Purpose Prize recognizes outstanding innovators who are working creatively to spearhead significant social change in the second half of life. If you know someone over the age of 60 who has initiated important innovations in an encore career, and who is currently working in a leadership capacity on an initiative to address a major social problem in the United States or abroad, consider nominating them for the prize. Five nominees will be selected to win $100,000 and five more will receive $50,000 as a “down payment on what these 60-plus innovators will do next.”

Previous winners include a doctor and special education teacher who treat victims of terrorism around the world; a psychiatrist who recruits mental health professionals to provide free, confidential counseling to veterans, active-duty military personnel and their families; a computer executive who built a nationwide substance abuse recovery program based on Native American beliefs and traditions; an engineer who created “green” bricks out of fly ash, the residue of coal-fired power plants; and a telecommunications executive who brought broadband to Rutherford County and created an online ordering system that enables local farmers to sell their produce directly to Charlotte restaurants.

Funding for the prize is provided by The Atlantic Philanthropies and The John Templeton Foundation. Nominees must be residents of the United States or a U.S. territory.