Support for the people who do the hard jobs, quietly wondering how much longer they can keep doing them…
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Most people I work with for relief and development career coaching aren’t at the start of something. They’re in the middle of it, and it’s stopped working. The sector has been cut to the bone, roles have vanished, and the work you gave your life to may not exist anymore in the shape it used to be. Whether you’re burned out, made redundant, or simply can’t picture doing another five years of this, you’re not failing. You’re at a pivot point, and pivot points are easier with support. That’s what this conversation is for.
Does Any of This Sound Familiar?
- Somewhere between the last emergency and the next grant deadline, something in you went quiet. (Or very, very loud.)
- You’re proud of the work. You’re also running on empty.
- You don’t know if you need a new job, a new sector, or a real break.
- You’ve thought about leaving but felt guilty for even considering it.
- You got promoted into leadership with zero training on how to lead.
- You’re tired of contracts, grant cycles, and short term everything.
- You can plan a response for 10,000 people. Planning your own career? No idea where to start
If even one of those hits close to home, stick with me for a minute.
Nonprofit, NGO, and Aid Sector Professionals
You might be a program manager, a country director, a protection officer, a monitoring and evaluation lead, a grants manager, a fundraiser, a field coordinator, a safeguarding adviser. You mat have spent years with a humanitarian agency, a faith-based organization, a UN body, a small charity that punched far above its weight – or a combination of all of these.
Coaching nonprofit and other relief and development professionals as they design careers that work for them, I’ve learned that what you have in common with my other clients isn’t a job title.
It’s that you care enormously, give a great deal, and are now trying to work out what to do with what’s left.
You may be still in the role, quietly running on empty. Or you may have already left, whether by choice or redundancy, and are trying to figure out what comes next. Wherever you’re starting from, you don’t have to navigate an aid sector career transition without someone who already understands that particular kind of tired.
What Career Transition Coaching With Me Looks Like:
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We start where you are. Not with a personality assessment or a five-year plan, but with honest conversation about what’s actually happening and what you actually want. And those may be two very different conversations. Many of my clients arrive already exhausted from trying to answer that question alone. |
We separate the exhaustion from the decision. Exhaustion is a terrible place from which to make a career choice. Burnout makes things even harder. Much of the early work is getting you enough space and wellness to choose well, rather than choosing something simply to because fear or fatigue are clogging up your overwhelmed brain. |
We build the next thing deliberately. That might be a transition out of the sector. A different role within it. Or staying right where you are, but with far more helpful boundaries. This is what humanitarian career coaching looks like when it’s built around how this work actually feels, not borrowed from a generic playbook. |
A note on scope: this is coaching, not therapy, and it is not a substitute for mental health treatment. If there are areas where you need clinical support, I’ll mention it plainly and I’m happy to help you find it.
Why a Career Coach Who’s Worked in Relief and Development?
You won’t have to explain what a donor report is, or why you can’t simply “leave work at work.” Or what it does to you to be evacuated from a place you’d come to love. I spent 10 years in strategy work in the then-largest iNGO. I’ve spent another 10 consulting with iNGOs, NGOs, UN agencies, and numerous local, national and international non-profits. I’ve been in the meetings. I’ve been told that my team would be made redundant. And I’ve watched the same happen to dear friends who had given everything to their work. I know what this work asks of people, and what it doesn’t always give back.
I also hold certifications in crisis response and mental health first aid, not because coaching is therapy, but because the people who do this work sometimes arrive carrying heavy burdens. And you should be in safe hands when you do.
How to Start
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Book a free 30-minute conversation. No preparation needed, and no pressure either way. You don’t need a polished story about why you’re reaching out. Come as you are. Seriously. |
We talk about what’s going on … and whether I’m the right person to help with it. If I’m not, I’ll tell you that. And I’ll try to point you to someone who is a good fit, rather than try to sell you a program that isn’t going to suit your needs. |
If we’re a good fit, we develop an approach that works in your real life. … that fits your actual life, energy, and schedule, not a one-size-fits all template. You may want weekly sessions. Or something looser may work best while things are still unsettled. |
You’ve spent a long time being the person who holds things together for everyone else. Here’s a place to put that down for a moment and figure out, without judgment, what actually comes next.