Making money is not a fulfilling enough experience for some people. A senior executive with their own business or a City worker may find that money is an incentive. But some people are motivated by investing their time and skills to get a social return.

I was made redundant from a large management consultancy in the last downturn. It was then that I decided to work in the nonprofit sector. My own experience of working in management consultancy was that I was well paid but I wasn’t challenged or fulfilled.

Even though I chose redundancy it was quite an emotional experience. One minute I was a shiny graduate on one of the UK’s top management schemes and the next I was on benefits for a few months. It was an opportunity to be seized and I explored what I could do with my skills and networks. I wanted a job with a social and creative purpose that felt worthwhile.

Now I run a social business, a regeneration charity, which employs 25 people. I have the kind of drive that anyone running a commercial business has, but the profit we deliver is for the community. I find my job fulfilling and am motivated and committed to what I am doing, working 50 to 60 hours a week out of choice. It is incredibly challenging to find ways of delivering social impact in a complex environment.

You have a huge number of stakeholders and people to interact with – beneficiaries, other charities, government officers, local government agents, policymakers, sponsors and funders. It is challenging for anyone coming from the commercial sector to completely change their sense of who or what a customer is.

The economic downturn has meant that response to our job vacancies is much higher with less typical candidates applying. Some of them have established careers in big business and want to invest their skills in something worthwhile and aligned to their values. We have to unpack a very impressive career history and see how it would work in the roles we have. For instance, how would a European marketing director with 30 years’ global experience be able to contribute and fit into our business?

I think a lot of people don’t see any tangible impact in the work that they do. When they work with us, the impact is quite explicit. In big business you might never meet your customers or suppliers, whereas even though we are small, we are rooted in the communities we serve, so results are more tangible.

We have also seen a surge in well-qualified people from the private sector approaching us to mentor and give their time voluntarily. It might be that they are trying out the sector before making a move, or just building up a different kind of experience.

I was the first person in my family to go to university and I really value education because of how much I have benefited. I took a drop in salary of more than £10,000 when I moved from the corporate world to the nonprofit sector at quite an early stage in my career. It was a brave decision, one that I will never regret. It is also a move that I would recommend to people who find themselves reconsidering their own careers during this recession.

— Angela McConville is founder and CEO of Vital Regeneration

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