I worked for charities for a number of years before entering my present employment. I worked for a number of what you could call ‘blue chip’ charities (i.e. those that are well known) including some of the biggest children’s charities. My field was fundraising (corporate and trusts – office based not on the street before you ask). I always enjoyed the fact that they were generally staffed by people who cared about the cause – yes the money isn’t as good but they can be good employers and its nice to work for a cause and with other people who care too.
Fundraising and campiagning are interesting fields (I expect that corporate fundraising isn’t much fun now) and if you’re a strong communicator with a desire to learn you could look to do that.
As has been said above volunteering is a great way in – thats how I started – doing a few days a week at a local youth charity (three full time staff) as a general fundraiser. Talk to your local volunteer beauru to get yourself in touch with something like that maybe – it could be a good way to build up skills and knowledge as you get into the applications process.
If you don’t like the sound of the back office type stuff I’ve mentioned above consider actually doing what the organisation does – i.e. youth work or programme management etc.
Good sources of jobs are the Guardian and the esp the sectors magazine which is called ‘Third sector’. Also there are a number of agencies and websites which specialise in charity jobs (charityjob.com).
If you want more on agencies websites etc reply to this thread and I can email you a list
Hope this helps,
Jez
