While taking a ‘gap year’ is a concept more common amongst school leavers and ‘twenty-somethings’ experiencing an existential crisis, taking 12 months off to travel the globe isn’t just a Gen Y rite of passage.  As Peter and Denise Barnett discovered, the world is your oyster no matter how old you are.

The journey

After watching an Australian Story segment called ‘Africa Calling’, Peter learnt about the establishment of the ‘School of St Jude’ in Arusha, Tanzania by Australian, Gemma Sisia.

After the program finished, he checked out the School of St Jude website where he found a role available for a Purchasing Coordinator.

“We decided there and then to give it a shot,” Peter says, “and never had a second thought about whether it was the right decision or not.” 

“Before we made the decision to volunteer, we had already decided that climbing the corporate ladder was not for us,” says Peter. “Our daughters were all working, so we had nothing to stop us from taking a leap of faith.”

You spot an awesome job at an NGO and think you tick all the boxes, so you apply and are confident that you will get the job. But you miss out and don’t understand why. What’s missing from your application? Why is it being overlooked?

In my eight years of working in human resources and as the HR manager at The School of St Jude – a nonprofit school serving over 1,800 students in Tanzania – I have sifted through countless applications and know what it takes to make your job application shine. Here are some tips on improving your chances of getting that dream NGO job.