3 answers
3
Questions
Updated
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Hi my name is Ryan and i am a current student in high school. I'm conducting an interview with any professional in business field (preferably someone who works with fundraising) for a foundations of health science class about careers.
What profession did you choose?
Why?
How many years of college did you
need to go through?
What jobs did you work before you
landed your present professional
job?
How can I decide if I should earn a
Ph.D. in this field?
Were you in a college program?
Did you have to pivot and go back to
school at a later date?
3 answers
Updated
Jessica’s Answer
What profession did you choose? I majored in Fashion Merchandising
Why? I loved clothing, shopping and thought this would be a great fit!
How many years of college did you need to go through? 4 years
What jobs did you work before you landed your present professional job? I currently work in corporate giving, but prior to this I was fundraising for a hospital for 15 years.
How can I decide if I should earn a Ph.D. in this field? There are great professional certifications for fundraisers, such as CFRE, a PH.D. is not required. You could look at non-profit leaders and see what types of degrees they may have earned to help you decided if it is necessary.
Were you in a college program? Yes, earned a Bachelors of Science in Fashion Merchandising, which is mostly business classes.
Did you have to pivot and go back to school at a later date? No, but I did consider going back to school to become a layer specializing in wills and estates, so I could be knowledge in Planned Giving components.
Why? I loved clothing, shopping and thought this would be a great fit!
How many years of college did you need to go through? 4 years
What jobs did you work before you landed your present professional job? I currently work in corporate giving, but prior to this I was fundraising for a hospital for 15 years.
How can I decide if I should earn a Ph.D. in this field? There are great professional certifications for fundraisers, such as CFRE, a PH.D. is not required. You could look at non-profit leaders and see what types of degrees they may have earned to help you decided if it is necessary.
Were you in a college program? Yes, earned a Bachelors of Science in Fashion Merchandising, which is mostly business classes.
Did you have to pivot and go back to school at a later date? No, but I did consider going back to school to become a layer specializing in wills and estates, so I could be knowledge in Planned Giving components.
Rebecca Gitomer
CareerVillage.org TeamFundraising, Partnerships, and Art
19
Answers
Updated
Rebecca’s Answer, CareerVillage.org Team
Hi Ryan! Thanks so much for your question. It's great to hear that you're interested in learning more about fundraising. Here are my answers to your questions specifically:
What profession did you choose? Why? My first career choice was actually accounting. I found that it wasn't for me and that I really craved a more meaningful connection to the work I do on a day to day basis. (Not to say that there aren't impactful pathways for accounting, there definitely are! For example, you could be an accountant for a nonprofit.) For me though, I wanted to use the skills I built in my business and accounting background and bring them to an organization. I also love connecting with people, which is a key part of being a fundraiser - you need to build and grow relationships, earn trust, so that they will give you money. There is also space for creative thinking in fundraising - it's good to think outside of the box and develop new and exciting strategies for meeting your fundraising goals.
How many years of college did you need to go through? I did a 4-year degree, but I'd imagine you'd be able to get a lot of skills you'd need through alternative routes. Having a business mindset/background/training will be really helpful for this career path and liking math and numbers will also serve you well! Networking with others wherever you can - whether at a coffee shop, at school, or wherever - will be a helpful muscle to also build as it will help you develop your social skills. Joining school groups, clubs, or extracurricular activities will also be helpful with this.
What jobs did you work before you landed your present professional job? I was an auditor accountant for a large accounting firm for 1 year after school. After that, I wanted to try something entirely new and needed to figure out my path. So I did a complete 180 and started working for an art gallery and cheese store! It was great to try something new, but ultimately I needed more structure to my day to day and wanted to be making an impact on the world on a daily basis.
How can I decide if I should earn a Ph.D. in this field? You do not need a PhD in this field. I'd recommend you only pursue a Ph.D. if you 100% are sure that you are going to be using it. This is information you'll gain overtime as you complete other education after high school. No need to think about this for a few years in my opinion!
Were you in a college program? Yes, I earned a BSBA - a Bachelors in Science and Business Administration.
Did you have to pivot and go back to school at a later date? Nope! The skills that I learned in business school for my undergraduate degree were very transferable to being a fundraiser.
What profession did you choose? Why? My first career choice was actually accounting. I found that it wasn't for me and that I really craved a more meaningful connection to the work I do on a day to day basis. (Not to say that there aren't impactful pathways for accounting, there definitely are! For example, you could be an accountant for a nonprofit.) For me though, I wanted to use the skills I built in my business and accounting background and bring them to an organization. I also love connecting with people, which is a key part of being a fundraiser - you need to build and grow relationships, earn trust, so that they will give you money. There is also space for creative thinking in fundraising - it's good to think outside of the box and develop new and exciting strategies for meeting your fundraising goals.
How many years of college did you need to go through? I did a 4-year degree, but I'd imagine you'd be able to get a lot of skills you'd need through alternative routes. Having a business mindset/background/training will be really helpful for this career path and liking math and numbers will also serve you well! Networking with others wherever you can - whether at a coffee shop, at school, or wherever - will be a helpful muscle to also build as it will help you develop your social skills. Joining school groups, clubs, or extracurricular activities will also be helpful with this.
What jobs did you work before you landed your present professional job? I was an auditor accountant for a large accounting firm for 1 year after school. After that, I wanted to try something entirely new and needed to figure out my path. So I did a complete 180 and started working for an art gallery and cheese store! It was great to try something new, but ultimately I needed more structure to my day to day and wanted to be making an impact on the world on a daily basis.
How can I decide if I should earn a Ph.D. in this field? You do not need a PhD in this field. I'd recommend you only pursue a Ph.D. if you 100% are sure that you are going to be using it. This is information you'll gain overtime as you complete other education after high school. No need to think about this for a few years in my opinion!
Were you in a college program? Yes, I earned a BSBA - a Bachelors in Science and Business Administration.
Did you have to pivot and go back to school at a later date? Nope! The skills that I learned in business school for my undergraduate degree were very transferable to being a fundraiser.
Rebecca, thank you!
Ryan
Katherine Avery
Run a music studio and teach private music lessons; teach college-level religion classes
350
Answers
Updated
Katherine’s Answer
What profession did I choose? I had played musical instruments since I was four years old, and by the time I was 16 I had people wanting to pay me to teach and perform, when I had done some of that already at younger ages but not been paid for it; so I kind of was working my way into my profession my whole life; and I could have chosen to do something else, totally new, but I was okay with keeping on doing what people knew my name for and earning money doing something I liked. I've been a teacher, a coach, and a collaborative pianist, as well as taking time away from my music on a schedule I chose, sometimes over the years, to do something with local politics or to work in a small business with family. Any fundraising connections I've had would be related to performing benefit concerts, where I was asked to or volunteered to just provide my talents and a good event, and others were the masterminds behind the funds, or searching out ways that I personally can financially support a musician friend of mine like a composer, by commissioning work for them, or donating money to campaigns they are running, or whatever.
I might not have needed any college for what I've always done, but I did decide to attend a state college and get an AS degree in generals, and then I attended Charter Oak State College long-distance/online and design my own major to reflect the fields and skills that I used in my work every day, and work more on my own time once my major was approved by the college, to earn credits in a variety of ways (CLEP/DSST/Excelsior exams, portfolios assembled and sent in to the college, transfer credits where I took a class at a college near me and transferred the credit to Charter Oak) and I got a BA that way. It didn't tie so much directly into my professional work, but it gave me something to do, and if I ever decided to go into a different field or that I want to do a grad school program, I'd have this degree to start with, so that other people might take me more seriously just because they know what I have experience in. As far as what I know about fundraising or making connections and helping people or groups financially, that mostly comes from just reading through news headlines on my phone homepage or a social media feed over time, and listening to what my friends say about their own careers or life experience, and spending time cultivating my own interests in the music I like to listen to, so I can learn who creates that music and then follow them a bit and if they get involved with something I'd like to support, I can join in; or in the case of benefit concerts I've been part of, I've gotten to participate because I'm a member of a church or I know someone who works with the schools or different things like that, where people who know me on a community level, face-to-face and very local, would let me join in with something close to home and small scale.
There are people who earn PhDs in fields broadly related to what I've done, but it's mostly to be seen as authorities, more, or be able to be in a position where they would like to be leaders; I don't think the money is so good for PhDs, and with college being what it is, I don't know that paying for a program might always be worth it with what you might earn after getting the degree. I would probably recommend living and working on a community level and always becoming more familiar with the wider world of musical conversation that happens online and worldwide these days, and after you've done more and served people around you in small ways for a few decades, if you decide as an older person that purely for your own enjoyment and enrichment, or possibly because it could help you help a more narrow group of people you've decided you want to be with, you might pick something to do a PhD about. I had a friend who played piano and organ for years and finally after her 11 children had grown up and her husband had died, she went to Europe and learned about classical organ for a degree, and she was trusted to learn about and take care of a particular exclusive musical instrument that belonged to her professor, so she felt like the whole thing had been for fun.
When I was getting my AS degree, I had a declared major of English and was sort of working on classes to become a technical writer, and I didn't think I wanted to get a music degree at that point, but just for fun I joined the college choir and played piano for another community choir, but I wasn't part of any musical programs that music majors would have been part of for their education; and when I was finishing my BA degree and was partly getting music credits for that, I was just doing my work/job every day, which included mostly teaching and performing in the community, so it was related to my degree, but was also what I would have done for fun, and what was earning me money.
I haven't gotten any more formal schooling since my BA, but in the last 10 years I've considered going to grad school for a different field that was also part of the major I designed for my BA, based on skills I used for working in music, and I haven't yet decided that I need to get that degree either, but someday if I decided to, I have decided on the grad school program I would choose and I've learned about the school that offers it and what the costs in money and time are, and thought about how I might use that degree once I earned it. I would probably want to go to work specifically in that field if I got a degree, whether I decided to work for myself (as I've done with music) or decided to look for jobs working with or for some company or as a consultant with companies. I might decide to get that particular degree if it seemed like I needed to earn more and couldn't earn more with my musical career, but so far I've had no hardship as a musician, and it hasn't seemed like what I could earn with a grad degree would necessarily be more than what I can earn without the degree, so I haven't yet put in the time and money for more school.
I might not have needed any college for what I've always done, but I did decide to attend a state college and get an AS degree in generals, and then I attended Charter Oak State College long-distance/online and design my own major to reflect the fields and skills that I used in my work every day, and work more on my own time once my major was approved by the college, to earn credits in a variety of ways (CLEP/DSST/Excelsior exams, portfolios assembled and sent in to the college, transfer credits where I took a class at a college near me and transferred the credit to Charter Oak) and I got a BA that way. It didn't tie so much directly into my professional work, but it gave me something to do, and if I ever decided to go into a different field or that I want to do a grad school program, I'd have this degree to start with, so that other people might take me more seriously just because they know what I have experience in. As far as what I know about fundraising or making connections and helping people or groups financially, that mostly comes from just reading through news headlines on my phone homepage or a social media feed over time, and listening to what my friends say about their own careers or life experience, and spending time cultivating my own interests in the music I like to listen to, so I can learn who creates that music and then follow them a bit and if they get involved with something I'd like to support, I can join in; or in the case of benefit concerts I've been part of, I've gotten to participate because I'm a member of a church or I know someone who works with the schools or different things like that, where people who know me on a community level, face-to-face and very local, would let me join in with something close to home and small scale.
There are people who earn PhDs in fields broadly related to what I've done, but it's mostly to be seen as authorities, more, or be able to be in a position where they would like to be leaders; I don't think the money is so good for PhDs, and with college being what it is, I don't know that paying for a program might always be worth it with what you might earn after getting the degree. I would probably recommend living and working on a community level and always becoming more familiar with the wider world of musical conversation that happens online and worldwide these days, and after you've done more and served people around you in small ways for a few decades, if you decide as an older person that purely for your own enjoyment and enrichment, or possibly because it could help you help a more narrow group of people you've decided you want to be with, you might pick something to do a PhD about. I had a friend who played piano and organ for years and finally after her 11 children had grown up and her husband had died, she went to Europe and learned about classical organ for a degree, and she was trusted to learn about and take care of a particular exclusive musical instrument that belonged to her professor, so she felt like the whole thing had been for fun.
When I was getting my AS degree, I had a declared major of English and was sort of working on classes to become a technical writer, and I didn't think I wanted to get a music degree at that point, but just for fun I joined the college choir and played piano for another community choir, but I wasn't part of any musical programs that music majors would have been part of for their education; and when I was finishing my BA degree and was partly getting music credits for that, I was just doing my work/job every day, which included mostly teaching and performing in the community, so it was related to my degree, but was also what I would have done for fun, and what was earning me money.
I haven't gotten any more formal schooling since my BA, but in the last 10 years I've considered going to grad school for a different field that was also part of the major I designed for my BA, based on skills I used for working in music, and I haven't yet decided that I need to get that degree either, but someday if I decided to, I have decided on the grad school program I would choose and I've learned about the school that offers it and what the costs in money and time are, and thought about how I might use that degree once I earned it. I would probably want to go to work specifically in that field if I got a degree, whether I decided to work for myself (as I've done with music) or decided to look for jobs working with or for some company or as a consultant with companies. I might decide to get that particular degree if it seemed like I needed to earn more and couldn't earn more with my musical career, but so far I've had no hardship as a musician, and it hasn't seemed like what I could earn with a grad degree would necessarily be more than what I can earn without the degree, so I haven't yet put in the time and money for more school.
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