BootsnAll Travel Community

I posted this in a other fourm so i will just paste it here:-

When was I was in Poland last year, I met a young Polish group. They were all in their late teen years or early 20s. BUT they all (Total 5 of them by the way) worked for their local Red Cross (in Warsaw). They told me they get to travel all over the World. I mean every month they go to different countries and meet different people. When I heard that..I asked if they are volunteering their time and have to pay for their tickets etc? They said NO. They get paid for everything..tickets/hotels..Red Cross pays for everything. I was SO shocked. I mean those are just teens. What do they know about World?

I was so jealous. Some of them were not even in college (they had just finished High school) and some were taking college classes while working for Red Cross at same time. Is this just Red Cross in Europe? I thought if you work for Non profit organizations in USA (at least without having any experience)...I thought you have to pay on your on. I mean those people I met in Poland...they were may be 18, 19 years oldz and going to Switzerland, Spain to talk about Bangladesh. What do 18 year old Teenagers from Poland know about Bangladesh?? And they travel for free?? The week I met them, they told me they had just gotten back from Holland. They also showed me pictures. And they were going to Canada and Spain the following month.

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Has anybody here worked for Red Cross or any other non profit organizations?? Is it that easy to get employed by non profit organizations?? I dont mean "volunteering". I know anybody can volunteer and pay on your on. BUT how can what get employed by them? I always thought to get hired by Red Cross or UN, you need a lot education and knowledge about different cultures. But if 18 years old can get paid for confresses in different countries, then i guess I might as well try it too.

Is that possible? Can you just go to Red Cross and say i wanna work for them?

I don't work for a non-profit but I have volunteered with some and paid my own costs, etc, and spent some time looking for jobs...

My experience fits with much of what cayce said in the corporate wasteland thread - to do international non-profit work and non-profit work in your own country, it's competitive and you often need to be highly qualified and have similar experience. Even in arranging your own volunteering, knowing the right people makes things much much easier (and volunteering may help you meet the right people for your later job search).

Keep in mind that "non-profit" includes all sorts of organizations - libraries, schools, etc. - so you can narrow down a search by the specific type of work (aid work, research, etc.).

I recall a job on the ICRC - international red cross site - called "delagate" which was somewhat entry-level.

Idealist.org has listings of non-profit jobs and craigslist for each city has a non-profit category. Reuters Alert Net has a good compilation of non-profit/aid organizations working internationally, but I think entry level positions in international aid work will be few and far between. I think there's one called reliefweb to get an idea of what qualifications are required for work with some aid organizations.

(also - have a look around this forum using the search button for a thread about internships - various people have given some good advice I though.)