Changing career
Bring your experience into the charity sector
You do not need to start your career again to move into the charity sector. Many charities need the commercial, operational, professional and technical experience developed in other industries.
Why the sector needs you
Charities recruit skills, not just sector experience
Charity employers regularly recruit people from business, the public sector, education and self-employment. What matters is that you can evidence the skills the role needs and show genuine interest in the work.
- Organisations are growing their finance, digital, data, HR and communications capability and often look outside the sector to do it.
- Commercial experience of managing budgets, contracts, customers and teams maps directly onto charity delivery and reporting.
- Lived experience, volunteering and community involvement all count as relevant experience when evidenced clearly.
- Many people move in gradually—through volunteering, trustee roles, part-time posts or short-term programme work.
Transferable skills
How your experience translates
Use this mapping as a starting point for identifying the charity roles where your background is genuinely competitive.
- Sales, account or client managementFundraising, corporate partnerships, trusts and foundations, business development.
- Marketing, PR or contentCommunications, campaigns, supporter engagement, digital and brand roles.
- Finance, audit or bookkeepingFinance officer and manager posts, grants finance, budget and funder reporting.
- Operations, logistics or project deliveryProgramme and project management, service delivery, operations and facilities.
- Teaching, training or coachingYouth work, education programmes, employability, training and participation roles.
- Healthcare, social care or customer supportSupport work, advice services, wellbeing, advocacy and frontline delivery.
- IT, data or analyticsDigital services, CRM and systems, impact measurement and data roles.
- HR, recruitment or administrationPeople and culture, volunteer management, governance support and business administration.
Key takeaway
You do not need to start again. Charities recruit the skills you already have, applied to a cause you care about.
Routes in
Different ways to make the move
A career change does not have to happen in one step. These routes all lead to paid charity roles.
Apply directly
Target roles where your professional skills are the core requirement and sector knowledge can be learned on the job.
Best where the person specification is skills-led.
Volunteer first
Volunteering builds sector understanding, references and networks while you continue in your current role.
Often the fastest way to evidence commitment.
Join a board
Trustee and committee roles use your professional expertise at governance level and deepen your sector insight.
Typically a few hours each month.
Practical steps
Your career change checklist
Work through these steps before you apply so your first applications are as strong as possible.
- Identify three or four role types where your existing skills meet most of the essential criteria.
- Rewrite your CV around outcomes and transferable skills rather than industry-specific job titles.
- Research the cause and the organisation so your motivation is specific, not general.
- Explain your career change directly in your supporting statement—employers welcome a clear reason.
- Translate commercial language into sector language: clients become beneficiaries, revenue becomes income and funding.
- Speak to people already working in the sector, including at the Charity Careers & Volunteer Job Fair.
Candidate support
More candidate advice
Working in the Charity Sector
Understand the organisations, professions and language of the sector before you apply.
Read the guideApplication Advice
Work through person specifications, evidence and motivation with practical guidance.
Read the guideCV Advice
Structure, tailor and evidence a CV that charity employers can read quickly.
Read the guideInterview Advice
Research, evidence, values and questions to help you interview with confidence.
Read the guide
Next step
Start applying with confidence
Use the application, CV and interview guides to present your experience in the way charity employers assess it.