In this episode of Stories of Change, M S Mahala shares his experience of enabling youth to get into the social sector and finding the right organisation to start their career. He speaks about the current landscape of the sector in India, the opportunities available in the sector, the skills and qualifications that employers typically look for and much more.
Mahala has over seven years of experience in the social sector and has worked with several organisations including i-Dream Career, Quest Alliance, and Azim Premji University. He graduated from Banaras Hindu University and holds a Master of Arts in Development Studies from Azim Premji University.
Transcript of the Episode:
Simit: Thank you so much, Mahala, for joining this podcast. It’s really a pleasure to have you here.
Mahala: Thank you, Simit. Thank you for having me.
Simit: Great. So, I’ve become quite familiar with your work thanks to LinkedIn. It’s really great to see that you share different opportunities in the development sector for students and for people who are in the sector. So maybe you want to talk about the work that you have been doing in the social sector.
Mahala: Thank you, Simit, for the introduction. So, like you said, through LinkedIn, we have been sharing almost 122 weeks of job postings every week, and this is how it started. This is something that we started in February 2021, when there were so many job losses in the social sector and in other sectors as well. So, even in the core profit ecosystem as well. The good thing that happened was that I had a good network with the university and the sector leaders we used to have conversations with. And through this conversation, one thing that came out was that the organisations are struggling to get the right talent. At the same time, there were people who were sharing on LinkedIn that they were going to work. So, there were people who were not finding the right opportunity, and there were organisations not finding a good fit.
“People were not finding the right opportunity, and organisations were not finding a good fit.”
And that’s when we thought maybe it’s something that we, as individuals, can contribute. So, we started sharing a hashtag so that people could comment and HRs could reach out. That’s where we also started sharing job opportunities with the organisations, which have very limited visibility, because there is a new ecosystem you see before and after. Before COVID, as you can see, a new ecosystem was not that tech-savvy, and now you’ll see everyone has a digital presence.
So, that’s it. Let’s start ‘Know the Social Sector’ and then share job postings. And then we started having conversations with youth to learn that there are organisations that are hiring, but they use different terminology. So we started having conversations with the CEOs of nonprofits. just to bring them into conversation. And then having a brief ten-minute conversation on what they do, how they impact, how they hire, what skill set they need, and then, based on their experience in the ecosystem, what is something that they advise to youth? And this conversation is so helpful that we used to try it on YouTube every alternate week.
Simit: Yeah. Thank you. So talking about the overall landscape, as you rightly mentioned, the CSR space and social sector space itself have kind of evolved from pre-COVID to post-COVID, and also before that, there has also been a change in the CSR act that kind of came in and a lot of resources started to be available for the social sector, which was not the case before the CSR act. So could you sort of give us an overview of the current landscape of the social sector?
Mahala: If we speak about the trends, there are four things that I see. The four thematic areas that we see are: one, there’s so much opportunity, then there is so much focus on education and skilling ecosystems, and there’s been so much focus recently on climate and green jobs as well.
And then public policy and public health are another domain. While I see these four as trending, other areas are also equally important, and there are equal opportunities among those thematic areas as well as climate. But while there’s a larger ecosystem that is talking about education, skilling, climate, and public health, that’s general trade, and there are hirings in social studies and then hiring is happening across all these thematic areas.
“There are so many opportunities in four thematic areas.”
Simit: So when I switched over to the development sector and I used to be a journalist with the Times of India in Mumbai, I worked there for five years to realise that’s not something that I wanted to do, you know? So when I was going to take a break, this was way back in 2011. I took a break to do my master’s in development studies at the University of Sussex in the UK.
So when I was quitting my job and trying to go back to books to be able to get into this social sector, I absolutely had no clarity. So I knew that I wanted to work in this sector, but I had so many questions. What are the kinds of paths that are available, and what are the kinds of opportunities that are there in this sector?
If I kind of look at it now, I want to understand. I’m sure this is a question that a lot of youngsters would have at this point in time in terms of the kinds of opportunities that are available in the social sector. So maybe if you could talk a bit about that.
Mahala: If we look at opportunities in the social sector, one definitely is that there is a defined career pathway. People do bachelors and then go for fellowships. And then, if they don’t intend to go for fellowship, then there are masters. Now, in India, there are universities and IITs offering development studies, social work, human resources, and so many other institutes like this. Now a one-year programme also started in ISPM and ISPP, and then so many good institutions started.
Simit: In today’s time, I mean, there are a lot of people who may be working in a specific sector who may not necessarily be in the social sector, but they want to switch over to this space and not necessarily someone who wants to spend time, maybe taking a break and getting back to academics and maybe spending a year or two. So in such cases, what are the kinds of opportunities that are available?
Mahala: If you look at the social sector ten years ago, it was mostly if I named the quote “jhola chaap.” I mean, you will be going village to village, door to door, or maybe in the field, and doing that. Now, social impact is a profession, so the skill set, like I’m just taking an example now, before getting into data, you need to have skills that are relevant to data, plus how do you communicate? How do you see both stories? How do people understand those? So the skill set is important. Plus, if you’re switching from the corporate to the social sector, one thing you can say is empathy, because here things won’t be that quick or maybe business-oriented, but things will be mostly around impact and people. And it’s easy to get into the social sector if you have the right skills, interest, and empathy for issues.
“Empathy is important when you’re switching from the corporate to the social sector.”
Simit: So, while actually talking, you raised an important aspect, which is that when people are planning to switch from other sectors, first of all, I’d like to ask a very fundamental question: does the sector pay enough to attract talent from other sectors?
Mahala: One, you still see the traditional way, where a non-profit is not focused on money; it is focused on people and working in villages where maybe their living costs are very low. And then those kinds of organisations are one-sided, where they are more or less locally driven, and then they are consulting them for profit. Then there are good organisations that have a standard bar of pay. So you can opt for this segment, which works better for you if you are here for impact and money consulting, or maybe spaces like public policy could be good. Climate is also a good space.
I see friends who are starting salaries in the sector on average, and these are from the interactions that we’re having in other social sectors. Rupees 30,000 to 40,000 for an associate position. And I think that’s similar. Maybe if you look at five to six years before, and I’m not sure about the current trends in corporations, but that’s something that the Bangalore silicon companies are paying to individuals. Then to become a professional with 3–8 years of experience. So your salary would be between 40k and 1 lakh, or maybe more, but these are again based on what thematic area you’re working in and what your engagement is.
Because ultimately, it depends on what and how you are impacting and what skill set you bring. organisation, there could be different salaries for the same designation. If you want to get into the social sector, look at the impact you intend to make. Because money can be made, and in corporations as well, we are not joining the social sectors for money plus luxury; there are burnouts in each sector. There’s no fixed timing for certain things. So those kinds of things, like timing, etc., won’t work because things are people-oriented. If I need to meet community members or parents of a student who are certain, in fact, they won’t be available during the day, those kinds of scenarios are based on, but yeah.
“If you want to get into the social sector, look at what impact you intend to make.”
Simit: You actually also talked about certain skills and qualifications. I mean, one common thing that I faced, and I have spoken to many founders and people who either have their own organisations or run their own businesses. It is always very difficult to find good people, and even if you do, typically, they don’t stick around. I don’t know if it is a problem for the younger generation. Maybe I feel old now, but I mean, if you could talk about typically, what are the kinds of skills and qualifications that typically employers look at when they are hiring?
Mahala: So one skill lawyers and organisations generally look for is dense problem-solving skills and digital literacy skills. Communications: communication should be good in terms of writing, in terms of what you say to your stakeholders, and that should also have empathy there. And the other thing that organisations are currently exploring is whether a person aligns with their organisation’s value system. So they also see if the person would be a good fit for the team that they have. So that kind of alignment is something that organisations have started looking for.
“One mistake the youth make is that they apply for everything.”
The big mistake that I see is that youths who want to get into the social sector, or maybe already, are in transition. What they do is apply for everything when they should clearly have looked at the job description to understand if they would be able to do that, because that somewhere also saved the recruiters. Then, at this time, there’s so many switches happening, and sometimes organisations are not hiring or maybe unable to find the right ones. So articulation around what it’s something that you can offer to organisations So the sense of a cover letter is like, just not just sharing what they have done but also what they can offer, plus if they already can give somewhere or do not exist, find a friend who can give them insights about what is and how they can articulate, or find a mentor who will and can guide them around identifying the right organisation because you can’t be a good fit for every organisation.
Define your interests. You need to find out what your personality type is. Are you someone who runs quickly and gets things done? Then you need to look for that kind of work. Are you someone who enjoys the process? Or, then, what is the skill set? So identify it, or if you have friends or mentors around you, if you don’t have one, get someone and help them understand what the interest area is. And then personality type, and then what skill set do you have so that you can explore those kinds of experiences? And then maybe, if you don’t find someone, you should definitely get in touch with the sector leaders, write to them on LinkedIn, and if they don’t respond, don’t lose hope. Write to someone who’s active, and then maybe run behind them and get some, I’m sure. Definitely, Simit, you also might have people dropping messages on you. You won’t respond one or two times, but if someone drops a message five times, maybe this old email, call, message, etc. can definitely turn out to be a good opportunity.
There are so many youths who started posting jobs through different aspects. Now if I can see about a few folks whom you can check out, devinfo.in and I have done a recent post, around 10 people whom you can reach out to for social sector jobs, and I have tagged them also, and then organisations HR also, I have tagged on LinkedIn, and these are in the featured section of my blog, so you can follow these organisations. Well, there are also websites that started, like DevNet Jobs, and it’s something that most of us are following. While folks like Nirmalaya, Baba Yash, Ashima, Sanjana, and so others started having these community WhatsApp groups, there are new job portals that started like Devinfo.in, Idealist, which is all global not-for-profit hiring in India. So those kinds of opportunities
Simit: So if you had to kind of give advice, maybe if you could share, like, five tips for students who want to get into this social development sector, what would you say?
Mahala: My first step would be to work on your LinkedIn profile. I guess now that we are all tech-driven, your profile or your digital identity would be an important thing. The second would be, while you are in college, explore and learn things and build those skills each year because those soft skills or hard skills will help you learn certain things. Third, learn to be polite; learn to be empathetic. I learned empathy in five years, post-graduation. And that actually helps me understand the stakeholder. So how do we build the understanding that empathy is the third thing that I see? And what is the problem-solving attitude that should be there?
Why problem-solving? We are here not for profit but to solve a problem. And while solving that problem, you say, ‘Yeh nahi ho sakta’, because ‘Yeh problem aa raha hai, woh nahi ho raha’, then we are again. This should not be someone who’s starting another, not for profit, to help us with that problem because we are here to solve something, and then we should definitely have that problem-solving attitude. And the fifth, and one of my favourites, is the self-learning attitude. There are times when you will be working remotely; there are times when you will be working on issues that might be very new to you that organisations also want you to address, and then that’s where you need to learn. So self-learning is something that is very important. So build a self-learning attitude. So from my school, I can see that these are the things that actually help me learn and grow in this space.
Simit: I mean, just the last sort of question in terms of, like, have you come across people who have switched over or who have joined the sector and who are doing really well, and maybe if there are any stories that you would want to share?
Mahala: So I have a story, or yeah, he was working with an organisation in Jodhpur some time in 2019, and this was a polytechnic. So I was interacting and helping these young women explore or get into the workforce. And one of them started exploring. Let’s see if one day we can get into the social sector with the only other polytechnic diploma. So that was on us all through, like, how do we give opportunities to young women while talking about or advocating for women’s participation in the workforce? If I look at 2019 to today in June 2023, Bhavya has emerged as a good human resource for any organisation, and now in the same organisations, it has grown from Jodhpur to Jaipur to Bangalore, and then organisations are taking them to the head office. And then this is something that happened because she had a self-learning attitude. So sometimes, it’s not all your degree but the kind of exposure or space they can get.
So for non-profits also, those who are listening to this podcast are giving opportunity to the youth, and I am sure they will do wonders. And those given the opportunity, regardless of their background, should just state that their intention should be direct.
“Give opportunity to youth, and they’ll do wonders.”
Simit: Thank you. Thank you so much, Mahala. This is really good. And I think we have covered quite a bit of a crowd, and I’m sure people who are listening to this podcast, especially students, would find this very useful and something that they can kind of take home and work on some of the things that you have shared. Thank you for being on this podcast.
Mahala: Thank you, Simit and team, for having me here. This conversation should help youth reach out to our LinkedIn Also, if you have any questions, I would be happy to help you. So stay if you only subscribe. I beg you to check out this piece.
Simit: Thank you.
