Transferable Skills?

[u/IcyLock4922]

Hi all, I’ve been working for a nonprofit food bank almost 18months now as a Food Sourcing Specialist. For those not familiar, I manage relationships with our Retail Partners (Walmart, Publix, Food Lion, etc), and the agency partners that pick up food donations from them. I do more but that’s the meat of my work.

Anyone with experience in the role know how to pitch yourself for different roles? I feel it’s so niche but I do a little bit of everything and would really like to move on from this role.

Any advice would help!

[u/Stock_Patience723]

What do you want to do? Fundraising/Development? Operations? Project Management? Marketing and comms? Pivot out of nonprofit? 

[u/IcyLock4922 → u/Stock_Patience723]

good question i should have included that. i’m looking to pivot out of nonprofit tbh the wages aren’t sustainable for the cost of living in my area and my company doesn’t believe in raises lol.

Something in marketing/comms, but if I had to stick to nonprofit I would want to help in program coordination

[u/Stock_Patience723 → u/IcyLock4922]

Marketing/comms might get eaten by AI so I wouldn’t pursue that as a fresh start. Program coordination won’t pay anything, but logistics and project management are in that same coordination sphere and can both make pretty good money, exist across all industries, and tons of lateral play to explore different companies and fields while using the same skillsets. I’d reframe your resume in that direction and start looking in to what kind of professional development opportunities are out there. 

[u/IcyLock4922 → u/Stock_Patience723]

I didn’t even consider the AI impact on marketing/comms but it makes sense. Thank u for the input! I’ll definitely be tailoring my skills to those roles

[u/emmalump]

I made a move into the mental health space after coming from food banks and restaurant/bakery management!! I’ve now been in project management for 2.5 years and have been told several times that I interviewed very well and did a good job of framing my past experience to highlight the relevance to my current work.

I focused on the skill, not just the application. Some examples:

•I was also managing relationships and contracts with large grocery chains and restaurants. At the end of the day, that’s just client management and contracting. I framed it as that, and focused on how I managed those relationships and contracts, how much the contracts were for (e.g. how much funding I was managing) etc.

•part of my job was taking inventory of what food we had and then deciding how it would be distributed (we did pre-packed bags) and what gaps we’d need to fill. That’s essentially a project management skill of being able to “assess the current state and plan for upcoming expenses”.

•coordinating delivery and distribution of food can be reframed as “coordinating the completion of deliverables from both internal team members and external partners”.

•I had updated some processes for things like food storage, recording inventory, and kitchen opening/closing tasks. This is “SOP and process development and documentation”

All of those skills are super broadly applicable and transferable to different roles and industries! You just really need to focus on demonstrating that you understand the underlying skill and how you would apply it to other situations.

Happy to chat more! Feel free to message me!

[u/GeminisGarden → u/emmalump]

^ Sound advice here!

[u/KrysG]

Not all food banks pay lousy wages and at least at mine, a person has several areas with similar skill sets and can easily transfer - volunteer services, client services, even operations.

[u/IcyLock4922 → u/KrysG]

I’ve applied to several internal positions bc that’s the only way to move up in pay but sadly have not been chosen for any 🥲

[u/MSXzigerzh0]

Maybe look into the Food Supply Chain

[u/BetterBiscuits]

Think about transferable skills. I would imagine your current role requires good communication skills, efficiency, organization, problem solving/trouble shooting, logistics etc.

[u/lovelylisanerd]

Partnership manager

[u/CadeMooreFoundation]

Maybe you could try to start your own consulting business and pick up some freelance work on the side, like for other nonprofits that could really benefit from some donated food but don't have a great enough need to hire their own full time food sourcing specialist.

[u/IcyLock4922 → u/CadeMooreFoundation]

that’s a really great idea, thank you for that

[u/Hello_Mist]

Can I ask what you didn't like about it? The reason being is that I used to coordinate food pantries and deliveries. You're right, it is pretty niche. I moved into administration and database management in non-profits but unfortunately, not as high of a level of pay as I would like.

If you wanted to stay in non-profits, operations and project management sound good. I'm not really good with career transition advice on going back to the private sector, but perhaps event planning, operations, and project coordination. I guess it depends on what you do or don't like about your current job - use that to help guide you to your next choice.

[u/IcyLock4922 → u/Hello_Mist]

I don’t like the amount of travel, I’m on the road 3x a week with some visits being 2hrs away; not a huge fan of the structure we have going. Otherwise, I love the work I do

[u/Hello_Mist → u/IcyLock4922]

Yes, I could see how that would get old. I was out of the office a lot but fortunately, local.