How young professionals — with kids — can build a career in international development

Jake and Jennie Calhoun met in the summer of 2009, when they were both interning for a small NGO in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Just one year later, the development neophytes moved to Bungoma, Kenya to work for One Acre Fund, a small but growing agriculture development NGO, where they spent three and half years before relocating to New York City. Now, seven years after that summer in Cambodia, Jake, 32, and Jennie, 34, have joined the ranks of One Acre Fund’s senior leadership. They’ve also become parents to daughter Cassie, 2, and son Noah, 6 months. Their professional advancement and the growth of their family has coincided with a period of explosive growth for One Acre Fund, which has grown from 23,000 farmers served in 2010 to over 400,000 farmers served in 2016. With so much change at work and at home, many people would be content to just stay the course. But not this couple, who recently made the decision to move their young family to Rwanda. Here, Jake and Jennie share how they got to where they are today (CFO and director of global recruitment respectively), and why mid-career professionals with kids at home can still build long and happy careers in international development. Jake, you started with One Acre Fund in 2010, and Jennie in 2011. Can you tell us how you came to work for the same organization? Jake: I started my career as a systems engineer at the Nonprofit Finance Fund. That role taught me the importance of back office and finance roles at nonprofits. I knew I wanted to transition out of engineering though, so I went to Columbia Business School to make it happen, and landed a job as a finance manager at One Acre Fund in 2010. I was based in Bungoma, my first experience in rural Africa, for three and half years. Looking back, it was very critical to my career that I was within walking distance to One Acre Fund clients. Jennie: My career in international development started in a fairly unlikely place: Chicago. I started at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. It was my first job after college, and it was fantastic, but I wanted to get experience in the private sector early in my career to develop strong project management skills. Deliberate networking landed me a referral at Accenture, a management consulting firm, where I worked for four years consulting for different Fortune 500 companies. I enjoyed management consulting, but I realized I wanted to have more of a social impact. So I went back to graduate school in 2008 and got my master’s in international affairs. Jake and I actually met in Cambodia, while I was interning at various NGOs as part of my master’s program. Jake, you’re One Acre Fund’s CFO, and Jennie, you’re the director of global recruitment. What is your absolute favorite thing about your job? Jennie: I think my favorite thing is that my current role combines all of the things I enjoyed about consulting with the social impact I always wanted to make. What first caught my attention about One Acre Fund was the mission, and the fact that I would get to work in the field, close to the client. Once I started, everything just “clicked” for me. I was really excited by the organization’s business approach, and the emphasis on using analytics to make decisions and generate social impact. That excitement is still a big part of what I love about coming to work every day. Jake: It’s probably the chance to imagine providing life-changing products to over 1 million smallholder farmers. While the finance team focuses on details and keeps day-to-day operations running, we also get the chance to step back and think about the big-picture stuff, like how we can build a team to serve 1 million clients by 2020. Over the last five years, we’ve transformed from a scrappy startup to an established organization, and it’s really awesome to dream about what the next five years will look like. You’re married, and you both serve in leadership roles at the same organization. What’s the secret to keeping work and home life separate? Jake: The main thing is to create boundaries and actively avoid the trap of talking work while at home, or out with friends … but luckily friends don’t ask too much about our jobs, so … Jennie: Well, to be honest, we don’t have a strict “no talking about work outside of the office” policy! That wouldn’t work for us, but there is an upside — we can talk about work without having to explain context, and can use each other as sounding boards and support systems. Jake: Obviously we talk work at times, but I think it’s more like how partners talk about work (celebrating accomplishments, complaining about random things, etc.) and less how colleagues would talk work. I think having other things in our lives (kids, friends, family, etc.) is also important to maintaining a good balance. We have a lot of shared experiences that are not related to work, and these experiences are more interesting to talk about and joke about. You also have two kids under 3 years old. How do you balance making time for your family with pursuing your careers? ­Jennie: It’s not easy, and there is a lot less sleep now! I think one of the key things for us is making sure there is equal support for one another as individuals, parents, colleagues and partners. We try to make sure that each of us has equal opportunity in pursuing work and personal opportunities — even though it might not happen simultaneously. For example, Jake’s job works better when he’s based the field, closer to all of the people that he manages. But we spent a few years back in the states for family reasons, where it was harder for him and meant tons of early morning calls each week. Now that we’re headed back to the field, it will be a bit harder for me since most of my team is in the U.S. But we support each other and realize at times, we each must make a bit of a sacrifice for each other or our family. Jake: It’s been a process, but I can say we’ve identified a few specific things that really work for us in terms of maintaining a healthy balance. The first this is to put family first. While we make macrodecisions (like moving to Kigali) that are career focused, the day-to-day time and devotion to family is the top priority. It makes sense to orient big decisions around careers, but then if all the little decisions are family focused, you actually end up with a nice family-centric balance. The second big thing is making, and sticking to, schedules. Kids force you to be home at specific times, so we’ve developed a nice system for sharing the child-care responsibilities, and we always stick to our agreed-upon schedules. Finally, I have to admit that the privilege of having secure and flexible jobs is really the biggest factor. Jennie: We definitely have a great support system at work, of people who understand the challenges of having young kids, and this helps me be honest when I’m feeling overwhelmed and need additional time to complete things. Raising kids is tough enough, yet you recently decided to relocate your family from New York City to Rwanda. What led you to make this big change? Jake: Raising kids in New York is challenging! But seriously, I do think that having lived in rural Kenya for more than three years, and having traveled with the kids to East Africa multiple times — we do feel like we know what we’re getting into. Jennie: When we were talking about this decision, our previous experience living in Kenya was very much in our minds. In many ways, this wasn’t a choice to move, but to move back. We have a rich community of colleagues and friends in East Africa, and we are excited to get back. In terms of actually deciding on Kigali, we knew we wanted to be somewhere where the kids would have access to quality healthcare and educational opportunities. Given recent changes to organizational structure, the most logical place for Jake to work is probably Kigali, and I can do my job from there too fairly easily. With Kigali, everything just seemed to line up. Jake: Jennie and I also just love traveling — we’ve been fortunate enough to be able to explore different parts of the globe while working abroad. We started dating in Cambodia, got married in Kenya, and honeymooned in Malaysia. We think it’s important to expose our kids to the world, and to show them what we are passionate about. What would you say to the skeptics out there who may think it’s a crazy idea to move two little kids to Rwanda? Jake: It’s going to be amazing! We have already found a wonderful Montessori school for our daughter, where she’ll learn French and make friends with Rwandan, European and American children. Our son will spend his days in the sun, playing with neighbors’ kids in our yard … a yard! Imagine that in New York City! Jennie: While I’m excited, I think I’m a bit more circumspect than Jake. Every big change seems daunting at first, but we are moving because it’s the best opportunity for our family. The kids will get a wonderful cultural experience, and will live in the kind of tight-knit community that is sometimes difficult to create in a place like New York. They will get to go to schools with kids from all over the world, and see their parents doing jobs they really love. We hope they’ll draw inspiration from that, and from getting out into the field and meeting farmers. We want them to develop a wider and more compassionate worldview. The biggest downside we see is being far away from our extended family, and the logistics of moving a family of four— but everything else is really promising for us! Where do you see yourselves in 10 years, both in terms of career and family? Jake: Hiding from my teenage daughter. Jennie: Wow. I hadn’t really imagined our kids at 10 and 12 years old, or as teenagers — you just made me feel really old! I imagine our family thriving — a little unit that will do well wherever we are. For our careers, I see us continuing to do well, taking on more strategic and management projects within the organization and supporting each other as we do so. I see us focused less on position growth, and concentrating more on how we can help grow and improve our teams and the organization as whole. What advice do you have for established professionals who may be interested in moving to the field, but who aren’t sure they’re ready to take the leap? Jake: My advice would be to think about why you aren’t making the leap, and to then really consider what you’re getting into. If you play it out, committing to a modest amount of time, like two years, in the “field” is not really a big deal. So many things change in two years, the fact that you are physically located somewhere else is probably of minimal influence on your personal life and satisfaction. The upside to moving abroad is a better career and a new and interesting experience. The downside may seem insurmountable, but the things you imagine going poorly or being difficult abroad are just as likely to happen where you are today. Devex Professional Membership means access to the latest buzz, innovations, and lifestyle tips for development, health, sustainability and humanitarian professionals like you. Our mission is to do more good for more people. If you think the right information can make a difference, we invite you to join us by making a small investment in Professional Membership.