Insight and advice from Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV) recruiters, that attended the March Peace Corps Career Conference, for RPCVs to maximize their career search, navigate the job search marketplace, and manage their careers.
Meet Danielle "Neela" Toole (RPCV Western Samoa, 2004-06), Director, MetaPhase Consulting
1. How did you start your career?
Not by any traditional means as my career path took a number of very unusual directions from the beginning of my college graduation to present. It is hard to offer the beginning without connecting it to the present.
I began my career in 1998 as a Marine Ecologist studying lobsters in Maine at the Darling Marine Center after completing a Marine Biology degree. By the time I joined the Peace Corps in 2004, I was working as a marine ecologist in San Diego and seeking an opportunity to work internationally as a scientist. I served as a Marine Statistician in the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.
During my Peace Corps service, I was inspired by my experiences working in international development. When I returned in 2006, I moved to Washington, D.C. and applied my skills in statistics to work as a contractor in a federal agency office that supports refugees to the United States.
After a short time settling into D.C. and making connections, I joined an IT project that supported the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). At that time I also met my husband and a short time later he became a Foreign Service Officer for the State Department. His career path took us overseas where I worked in Embassies on behalf of the State Department.
Upon returning to the U.S. in 2017 for a domestic tour, former colleagues of mine who started their own firm, MetaPhase Consulting, contacted me to return to USAID for a new opportunity. That is where I find myself now.
2. Why did you choose your career path?
My present career path is not so much “a” choice as it is the result of a series of choices that happened to be good fits for the time and place I was then experiencing.
Prior to joining the Peace Corps, a marine scientist friend of mine who had served in Peace Corps many years earlier encouraged me to consider every door that opened as I ventured into this new experience. He recounted that as a young man returning from his Peace Corps service in Chile, he had not fully appreciated or explored the many doors that opened from his contacts, connections and engagements with people while overseas. He took for granted that they would always be open. Not until he began reflecting years later did he realize that he might have passed up some wonderful opportunities because he didn't peek through the doors or even consider the possibilities.
This was in 2003 and I have applied that wisdom to every opportunity that has come my way ever since. I have the philosophy that I should continue to say "yes" until I reach the point where "no" is the only logical answer.
Every job opportunity I have accepted has been based on these ideas thereby providing a great deal of satisfaction and engagement while increasing my skill set so that I remain versatile in our nomadic lifestyle.
3. How has your Peace Corps experience benefited you in your day-to-day work?
My Peace Corps experience benefits me every day, particularly now as the spouse of a State Department Foreign Service Officer where my professional choices are often limited by our lifestyle. I must be flexible. I must limit my expectations and remain open to new opportunities. This is very important in a professional environment. Avoiding a static pattern in my approach to problem solving opens me up to generating and receiving innovative ideas so that I might develop valuable strategies for my clients.
Consulting firms, are not just looking for a fancy set of skills. They are looking for people who emulate the approach Peace Corps volunteers use in their service: to listen and observe their clients (or host country nationals), connect the dots on behalf of their clients, identify resources to serve their clients - all with the goal to serve and support their clients needs, without preconceptions about what I think those needs are or must be.
4. What unique skills or attitudes do RPCVs uniquely bring that make them great hires?
The ability to listen and pause to reflect on the people around you is very important and something I was humbly pushed into during my service. As a Type A personality, I tended to do more talking than listening but have since learned the value in sitting for a cup of tea and buttered bread with mackerel (a favorite in my Samoan office).
The Peace Corps experience also emphasizes reliance on the surrounding support network to succeed. Fellow volunteers who served alongside me and Samoan friends and colleagues were an essential part of my growth. We contributed to each other's efforts as resources. RPCVs know the value of building each other up and forming strong teams. All an essential part of an important work ethic.
RPCVs who have deeply reflected on their time in the Peace Corps understand that the challenges experienced by those who have been willing to leave everything and everyone behind for a two-year journey into the unknown involve far greater stress and frustration than most people ever encounter. Often as a result, RPCVs become stronger from learning how to control and empower their fears and anxieties and transform those emotions into something productive and positive. There is a great deal of perseverance, confidence, and resiliency that comes from completing Peace Corps service which can become part of your core being in life and work.
5. Any tips for RPCVs interested in a job at your organization (or following your career path)?
One of the most important things for RPCVs to consider if they are interested in working for the Federal Government is that positions do not only reside on USAJobs.gov and within the agencies. There are thousands of consulting firms and nonprofits that directly support the work they may be interested in pursuing. RPCVs should review which firms support these agencies and contact them as well to see if there is an alternate path to continuing their desire to serve the public interest either domestically (Corporation for National and Community Service) or internationally (USAID, State Department, Peace Corps).
Additionally, do not feel intimidated by the extent of your work experience, regardless of whether it is large or limited. There is a place for all levels of experience and making a comparison to your fellow RPCVs with more or less experience reduces the important role you have to play in your future. Just as you did with your service, identify your strengths, draw from them, offer yourself with a full heart, and you will be rewarded. Or as my dad has always said in job seeking, you can put out 500 resumes but you only need one position.
Apply the insights from this article. Check out NPCA job board.
