Meet Hilary - Senior Quality Adviser 

What my job involves

I work in the International Programmes Team, where I look at the quality of the programmes in World Vision’s national offices and help them to find funds either through grants or by linking them to private funds that are available.

The best and worst things about my job?

For me the best thing as been working with the staff at World Vision India. They are really hard-working and like discussing things in depth. I like working with them on designing projects because you can address the key causes of poverty. When I first started I went to India for 6 weeks for the Tsunami response – I was working with them on a day-to-day basis so I got to know all the staff there well. That has been really helpful. My least favourite part of the job is the administration: filling in documents, filing things, working out budgets and filling in the right spreadsheets!

Before World Vision

I studied Biomedical Science at university and after graduating I spent a year working with a church. I was meant to go to America but it changed at the last minute and I ended up going to Norfolk! I worked in a seaside community, visiting the elderly, painting with them, providing counselling and arranging community activities. After that I followed a friend’s advice and did a Masters degree in Water and Sanitation. This included a period overseas – I did research at an NGO in Ethiopia for three months. Afterwards, the NGO offered me a job for a year and from there I took emergency response jobs in Cambodia, Afghanistan and Sierra Leone. After four years of moving frequently and living in remote places I started to wonder “how much longer can I survive this kind of lifestyle?” I ended up getting malaria and got shipped back home, and at that point I decided it was time to find a job in the UK. In total I was overseas for four years before getting my first UK-based job. My first job was as a Country Programme Manager at World Vision UK, and since then I have moved into the role of Senior Quality Adviser.

From living overseas to living in Milton Keynes

Working overseas, the best thing was that I felt quite involved in people’s lives. Here in the UK, it feels like work and the rest of your life is separated but working in the field you live much more with people. You meet with the children and you know the challenges they and their community are facing – and you can see real change. On the other hand, personally it can be quite difficult to be so isolated and far away from your own family and culture. You can end up just being a work-focused person rather than having your own life. That can be quite hard for a long period. It’s quite typical for people working on International Programmes to spend a significant chunk of time abroad towards the beginning of their careers and then to be based in the UK later on.

When I got the job with World Vision, I didn’t know Milton Keynes at all – I found a room to rent in a shared house by looking on the Internet! This worked out fine as I got on well with the other people in the house, and then after a while I started to look for a house of my own. I’ve now got a house in Wolverton, which is a nice little town on the outskirts of Milton Keynes.

 I have two lodgers at my house – one is a colleague from World Vision. There are quite a few shared houses in Wolverton so it feels like there’s a close-knit community of people – we sometimes have barbecues at each other’s houses and some people share lifts to work. It’s a nice feeling to have Wolverton as my base now, rather than moving from place to place every few months.

Any advice for students who want to get into the development sector?

A Masters degree in international development can be a good way into the sector because most people find getting experience is difficult, whereas if you are at a university they can link you to opportunities overseas. It’s expensive to study for a Masters but if you want to work overseas for an NGO you need to be well qualified – it’s such a competitive sector. I took a career development loan because the interest rate was better than a standard loan. Apart from study, it’s also essential to get some experience. A lot of people I know have volunteered overseas, for example with VSO or a local NGO. It’s also possible to gain community development experience here in the UK.

But thinking about it even working in the UK I gained a lot of experience of what community development is. It is really important to understand your own community because it's easy to have that romantic idea ‘ I am going to Ethiopia to help these poor orphans’ but when you’ve been in your own community and see people with mental health issues or on benefits or who’ve been in abusive relationships you learn what a church's role is or what an organisation’s role is and how disjointed communities are. I learnt so much in Norfolk. Now when I look at Ethiopia or Sierra Leone I compare it to that. In the UK people don’t get involved so much and it’s a different poverty. Overseas the physical poverty is very stark but here there’s that social poverty and barriers to people being included, like the stigma of people with mental health and people who are depressed and lonely and those issues that exist and how we can take responsibility. If you don’t care about your own community how can you care about other people? I personally find it easier to work overseas because it made me realise that anyone can be poor. They can be a teacher or a lawyer and they just don’t have work opportunities. It seems more unjust somehow.

It’s worth looking at www.charityjob.co.uk and www.bond.org.uk for volunteering opportunities with NGOs because you get an idea of what happens in one and how an organisation functions, for example I didn’t realise before I came here that there’s a Marketing team. You can learn a lot from volunteering.

Current Opportunities

View our current opportunities and download a full job description here.

Need help or want to talk to us in person call: 01908 841000

Meet Chris - I.T.

What my job involves

Within our IT team my main responsibility is to develop new systems and support existing systems.  This involves a lot of interaction with users to ensure that the systems we deliver enable the business to work as effectively as possible.

The best and worst things about my job?

My favourite part of the job (it’s a bit geeky!) is writing code and problem solving. The hardest part is understanding the work that different teams do. For example when working with the International Programmes team, it’s a challenge to try to understand how the projects and programmes hang together when I’m not experienced in the international development sector. You learn a lot, which is good but it’s hard work!

What skills would someone need for this type of job?

Combining really good questioning and listening skills, to ensure the user's requirements are understood, a logical way of thinking to evaluate the appropriate solution and think through issues.  From a technical perspective we have a number of technologies that we use within the development team including Lotus Notes/Domino, Microsoft .Net, XML/XSLT, Microsoft Office and Jadescript, and an understanding of database technologies is also useful, particularly relating to CRM.

Before World Vision

I've had an interesting career path to date spanning the commercial, public and charity sectors.  Trained as a teacher, I then started in IT as a COBOL trainee in an insurance company, moving on to a small company providing Lotus Domino/Web based solutions, and then spent two years helping to run council internet drop-in centres. At the end of my contract, I knew then that I wanted my work to make a difference and so started looking at charities.  My parents have sponsored children through World Vision since I was a child and so I looked on the World Vision website and found a job that perfectly matched my experience!

Advice for someone thinking of moving to the charity sector

Go for it!  I would suggest finding a charity that is aligned to your interests, as there is no greater opportunity of learning about the on-the-ground work a charity does than by working for them.  I have had the opportunity to learn so much about World Vision's work though training days, meeting with Country Programme Managers and presentations from colleagues who work in the field. We even have an award scheme where invidividuals can apply to visit a programme overseas to see first-hand what a difference World Vision is making in the lives of children living in the hardest places, it's truly inspiring. 

How is World Vision different to other places I’ve worked?

We’re a small team, so I get to be a ‘jack-of-all-trades’ and work really flexibly.  World Vision does have a different atmosphere to other places I’ve worked. You feel like you’re all part of something, whereas in other places it’s been a lot more self-centred, striving to do the best for yourself. Before I started I expected everyone to be super-holy and cheesy Christians but it wasn’t like that at all! Having never had any contact with a Christian organisation like World Vision that’s the one thing I remember – I was kind of expecting to find a whole load of perfect ministers and to feel really inadequate! But it’s been great – not cheesy, not scary, just really welcoming and friendly.

Current Opportunities

View our current opportunities and download a full job description here.

Need help or want to talk to us in person call: 01908 841000

Meet Philippa - Child Rights Manager 

About my job

My job is to manage the team which researches issues that impact upon the rights and well-being of children in the countries in which we work and lobbying the UK government and others to ensure that children are able to be protected and cared for and to thrive within their families and communities. At the moment I'm working in particular on issues like early marriage and how children can be protected from the negative impacts of armed conflict.

Influencing policy-makers involves…

researching the issue, identifying what needs to change and figuring out who we need to influence in order to bring about change. We then work closely with our Marketing & Campaigns team, Media team and Government Relations Team, to get these issues out to politicians and the general public so that they can partner with us to bring change for children, for good.

The best things about my job are…

being able to engage with issues that matter and to see that you really can make a difference, open doors, and speak to the people with the power to change things.

Challenges in my job

It’s not a “9 to5” job because you’re dealing with issues that don’t go away, so even at weekends and in the evenings you’re still thinking about them…and these are really difficult issues, such as sexual exploitation and trafficking, so the job can be quite tough.

What skills would someone need for this type of job?

You need analytical skills, so that you can read something and react to it quickly. You need to be able to put forward clear arguments, both verbally and in writing. This can be to a big audience but also on a one-to-one basis. As you are trying to encourage people to make changes, you have to be able to put forward a convincing case. You also need good networking skills as you need to work a lot with other NGOs and partners to have an impact on government policies.

Who do you partner with in your policy work?

It depends on the issue, as some agencies are specific to an issue or region. World Vision’s Policy and Research Team has specialists in Health, Child Rights, Disability, HIV & AIDS, Economic Justice, and Peace & Conflict. By working together with partners such as Save the Children, PLAN, Handicap International, Sightsavers international, Oxfam and Actionaid, we can have a much stronger, collective voice. Examples include the Global Campaign for Education, which involves over 30 organisations in UK, and the Global Health Campaign.

How do you influence policy-makers?

First we find out what the issue is and gather lots of research, and then we figure out who we need to influence in order to bring about change. Our Campaigns Team works closely with the Communications Team to get coverage in the newspapers and on radio and television, to generate public support for the campaign.

Before World Vision...

after school I spent three years at a Romanian NGO, working with street children and children affected by HIV and AIDS. Back in the UK I was youth worker for a year before going to university to study for a undergraduate degree in social policy and social psychology, and then a Masters in NGOs and development – part of which was on child rights. After I finished my Masters, I applied for a job at World Vision because of its focus on children and the issues it worked on.

Have you had development opportunities at World Vision?

Every month I have a study day to keep up to date on child rights issues. That way I can update my knowledge – there is always so much new research coming out that it is good to spend a day each month taking it all in and not getting sidetracked by emails for once! I have also developed from an officer level role into a role that involves managing a team.

Current Opportunities

View our current opportunities and download a full job description here.

Need help or want to talk to us in person call: 01908 841000