Recruiting Process for Non-Profits & Advocacy
To increase your chances of landing a job, it is important for you to use all of your available resources. The recruiting process has many steps including career exploration, industry & organization research, applications, networking and interviewing. The Villanova Career Center has resources including Handshake, Big Interview, Vault Career Guides and many others (including our staff) to help you along the way.
The Recruiting Process
- Common Entry Level Jobs include: Specialist, Coordinator, Assistant, Member
- Applications open on an as-needed basis for full-time positions and in the spring for the summer.
- Application deadlines: Employers review applications on a rolling basis.
- Check employer websites for interviewing information & application details
Fit and Experiential Interviews:
- Behavioral Interview Questions are a set of questions to assess whether you have the soft skills and motivation to succeed at that firm. These often include general questions about your background and why you want to work for the organization, combined with behavioral-based questions asking you to give examples of past experiences. Use the S.T.A.R. approach to structure your examples; Situation/Task that you were facing, Approach and actions you took to address the issue, Result of the actions you took. Learn more about “Developing Your Interview Stories” in Big Interview.
- Practice with Big Interview.
- When applying and interviewing for positions in the nonprofit and advocacy field, be sure to display a strong understanding of their mission and convey your passion for that organization’s cause.
- The Career Center offers one-hour mock interview appointments that can be scheduled via Handshake to further develop interview skills and receive feedback. Students can also reserve interview rooms within the Employer Engagement Suite. For more information on interviewing, please visit the Career Center’s Interviewing webpage.