You’re burned out, but employed, or unemployed – but really want to get it right this time. Now is the perfect time to take control of your job search. Don’t settle for yet another unfulfilling job. Learn how to proactively target the ideal position, with the ideal employer, at the ideal location, in the rewarding job sector of nonprofit associations.

Step 1. Pick Your Ideal Position
OK, dream big, think about what your perfect association job would be. Associations offer careers in many areas, such as: administration, education, public policy, human resources, finance, membership, marketing, meeting planning, publications, and technology. For illustrative purposes, lets say you have grant writing experience and that your perfect job would be in fundraising. The ideal position is where your passion, skills, and real world organizational needs intersect.

Step 2. Pick Your Ideal Location
Life’s too short for long, blood pressure-raising commutes. Define a maximum radius from where you live, to where you would be willing to commute to (the assumption is that full-time telecommuting is not available). An example would be that you would be willing to work at an association located within 15 miles from where you live.

Step 3. Pick Your Ideal Employer
By using the following research tools and resources, you can select organizations whose missions align with yours and who match the distance criteria you set in step 2.

  • A good place to find associations seeking help near your home is to use a job search aggregator such as Simply Hired or Indeed. ProAssciationCareers.org (PAC) partners with Simply Hired and provides quality association searches by state, city, zip, and distance in miles.

  • PAC also offers comprehensive, hand-picked resources for researching associations – great for identifying associations with interests similar to yours.

  • A quick way to locate nearby associations is to use Google Maps. Simply enter: “category:”Associations Societies & Foundations” loc: 20219″ in the search box (omit outer quotes). This example will return a map displaying all the associations, societies, and foundations near the Washington, DC zip code 20219. You can replace the zip code with your own and narrow the results by distance as needed.

Step 4. Start Digging
Now that you’ve identified some top association prospects, it’s time for some in-depth research. Start by visiting their websites. Take close note of their latest news items, in particular look for any new programs, projects, or initiatives. Read their leadership profiles, and information about their governance, Annual Meetings, public policy, advocacy, etc. If their newsletters are available to the general public, read the last years worth in detail. See if they have an internal job board/career center. Even if there are no open positions of direct relevance to you, read a few of the other job opening descriptions to get a flavor of what the workplace environment may be like. You may also want to see if the career intelligence site the Vault has any anonymous employee reviews about the organizations – to gain an insider’s perspective. All this information will be invaluable in your interview (positive thinking!), but for now you are looking for one or two ways you can bring tangible value to the organization.

Step 5. Sell Yourself/Solve a Problem
Locate the name and contact information of the person who think would make the hiring decision related to your ideal position. The website may have a staff directory, or you may need to call the organization for this information. Mail this person an introductory letter stating how you may be able to add value and fill an organizational need. As an example, in your research you learned that Association X has just launched a new multi-year education initiative for underserved popula

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