Sharing Knowledge: Suspending Judgment for Better Hiring

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Sharing Knowledge
 

A newsletter dedicated to increasing the capacity of nonprofits · October 2008

 
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Executive Director, Higher Achievement Baltimore, Baltimore City, Maryland

Executive Director, Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence, Boston, Massachusetts

Director of Marketing and Communications, Colby College, Waterville, Maine

Executive Director, LAYC YouthBuild Public Charter School, Washington, DC

Chief Financial Officer, Innovations for Poverty Action, New Haven, Connecticut

Director, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, New York, New York

Executive Director, The House of the Seven Gables, Salem, Massachusetts

Program Director, Irish Immigration Center, Boston, Massachusetts

Vice President of Policy, Center for Clean Air Policy, Washington, DC

Manager of Adaptation, Center for Clean Air Policy, Washington, DC

Climate Policy Analyst, Center for Clean Air Policy, Washington, DC

Development Associate, Center for Clean Air Policy, Washington, DC

Director of Development and External Relations, The Tobin Project, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Director of Policy, Nellie Mae Education Foundation, Quincy (Boston), Massachusetts

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Director of Communications, Nellie Mae Education Foundation, Quincy (Boston), Massachusetts

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Director of Development and Communications, The Young People's Project, Boston, Massachusetts

Director of Finance and Administration, Massachusetts 2020, Boston, Massachusetts

Director of Center Based Programs, Horizons for Homeless Children, Boston, Massachusetts

Executive Director, Child Care Resource Center, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts

Chief Accounting Officer, Financial Services Organization, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Senior Staff Accountant, Financial Services Organization, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Accounting Clerk/Bookkeeper, Financial Services Organization, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Executive Office Assistant, Financial Services Organization, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Boston Executive Director, Strong Women, Strong Girls, Boston, Massachusetts

South Florida Executive Director, Strong Women, Strong Girls, Miami-Dade County, Florida

Chief Executive Officer, Experience Corps, Washington, DC

Vice President, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, San Francisco, California

Chief Executive Officer, Hands On Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut

Executive Director, Child Care Resource Center, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts

Coming Soon!

Vice President, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, Chicago, Illinois

Director of Operations, Year Up, New York, New York

Director of Integrated Technology Initiative, Ashoka, Washington, DC

Executive Director, Family to Family Project, Boston, Massachusetts

Director of Research, Nellie Mae Education Foundation, Quincy (outside Boston), Massachusetts

The Nonprofit Professionals Advisory Group is constantly launching new searches. To hear about them first, sign up for our newsletter here.

Services for Nonprofits

We offer unbundled search services to those nonprofits that cannot afford or do not need a full, retained search. Most of our clients choose a la carte from our offerings as their needs demand.

We provide packaged or hourly consulting in: job description preparation, outreach, resume screening, interviewing, reference checking, search committee management, and negotiation.

We are also available to train board and staff in any or all of these areas.

Our Commitment to Diversity

We make every effort to present diverse pools of qualified candidates for each search. In 2007, we closed 40% of our searches with minorities and 32% with female minorities.

 

Hello!

Thank you for subscribing to our employer newsletter.

In this edition, you'll find helpful tips, a feature article covering a topic central to hiring for nonprofits, as well as information regarding our consulting services. This newsletter is meant to help you in your hiring processes.

To that end, your feedback is appreciated so that we may continue to improve what we offer.

Don't Rush to Judgment When Interviewing!

Most folks are able to read this article thanks to early and continued lessons and years and years of practice. Reading has become second nature, an easy task which is seen as a pleasurable activity. The same cannot be said for interviewing. Having not had that early lesson or any years of practice, many dread it and fall back only on their instincts as the key interviewing assessment tool. As a result, we are often fooled into trusting first impressions in interviews that would be proven incorrect if we made our judgments on the full body of evidence.

According to some studies, as many as four out of five hiring decisions are made within the first 10 minutes of an interview. Those decisions can be based on little more than the applicant's clothing or hairstyle, a subconscious stereotype or a preconceived notion about a particular candidate or type of candidate.

Indeed, the whole hiring process can be driven by a hiring manager's first impressions of a candidate in the initial interview. A candidate who makes a favorable impression upon first glance is expected to give better answers and is usually perceived as doing so. Similarly, answers from a candidate who disappoints upon entry can be received much less favorably than s/he would have been if s/he had made a better first impression.

guide to managing people

This month's Sharing Knowledge feature article comes from an article we were asked to write years ago for the Society for Human Resources HR Magazine. The article was recently accepted in HR Magazine's "Guide to Managing People" which featured some of their most well-received and useful tips from the previous five years.

To master the art of suspending judgment while interviewing, click here...

 

Why Should You Hire an Encore Careerist?

Statistically, African American males drop out of high school at nearly double the rate of their white counterparts. That's unacceptable to Marine colonel-turned-nonprofit head John Boggs of Washington, D.C.

encore careers

To buck the trend, he's helping run a program that encourages young black males to stay in school and redirect the course of their lives.

Learn what John Boggs and other Encore Careerists can do for you nonprofit by reading more here...

 

Save the Date!

The Providers' Council hosts its Annual Convention & Expo on December 3, 2008 at the Boston Marriott Copley Place. Together with leaders from across the nonprofit sector, participants will gather for 30 workshops on a variety of professional development topics such as Clinical Skills, Communication, Diversity, Financial Management, Governance, Human Resource Management, Leadership Development, Personal Growth, and Presentation Skills.

Laura Gassner Otting, CEO of Nonprofit Professionals Advisory Group, and Ted Waterman, Director of Human Resources and Compliance at the Volunteers of America, Massachusetts, will present a 90 minute session on hiring key leaders for the next phase of your nonprofit's lifecycle.

Learn more about the Expo and Convention here...

 

We are Growing!

The Nonprofit Professionals Advisory Group, now in its seventh year of operation, is responding to the ever-increasing demand for talent at all levels of the mission-driven sector. In order to continue to provide the exceptional level of service our clients have come to expect, we are pleased to announce our three newest team members.

Alison Falk joins us as a Vice President from previous roles at Isaacson, Miller, Heidrick & Struggles, and Christian & Timbers where she honed her craft conducting executive searches for prestigious higher education, advocacy, arts and cultural organizations, as well as some private sector companies. This extensive search and consulting experience allows her to offer our clients deep sector knowledge as well as a commitment to providing a highly tailored and disciplined approach to search for leadership. Erin O'Connor Jones transitions from her recent role as Executive Director of the Family to Family Project to oversee our full complement of job seeker services as the Director of Candidate Consultation. Erin will also assist in search and consulting projects as a Managing Associate. Sarah Conduragis joins our firm as an Associate, supporting a full suite of nonprofit search services. Sarah brings a wealth of knowledge in marketing and corporate philanthropy from her diverse experiences as both an insider and consultant to organizations in the private and nonprofit sectors.

The Nonprofit Professionals Advisory Group is dedicated to strengthening the capacity of nonprofits and their staff, and is available for search consulting projects on an hourly or per project basis for nonprofits, or to discuss the individual resumes, cover letters, and job search strategies of job seekers.

Sincerely,

Laura Gassner Otting, President
Nonprofit Professionals Advisory Group LLC