Where can your nontraditional background take you?

Jake Harriman left his career in the Marine Corps and enrolled at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business to build an organization that could help rid the world of extreme poverty — and to fight terrorism and insurgency from another angle. Harriman has now blazed a trail for other veterans to pursue development work, and Nuru International’s projects in Africa attract a steady flow of special operations unit veterans. The first thing that those with little to no development experience are told is to get field experience any way they can, which is extremely important, the founder and CEO of Nuru explained to Devex. But he also encourages people to consider how the skills they already have can transfer — and how they could end up being more powerful than a traditional background. “There are a lot of nontraditional skills undervalued when organizations are looking to hire,” Harriman said. “I think we need to push our thinking a bit.” Watch the video for examples of extremely useful nontraditional backgrounds, according to Harriman. Looking to make a career move? Visit our career center for expert advice on how to navigate your job search - all you need is a Devex Career Account to get started.