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Finally… a PROVEN, results-based program to identify the right jobs given your background… discover organizations excited to speak with YOU… and turn your expertise into a reliable system to get a job – every time you need to get one
Use these tested, step-by-step techniques to turn your EXISTING skills into development and humanitarian sector job opportunities
Have you submitted application after application only to learn landing that top position at the United Nations, World Bank, African Development Bank or a global NGO is as difficult as earning your degrees and developing your professional skills?
Do you check Relief Web, Devex, UN Jobs and other job portals every hour on the hour, to see if your dream job is still there? Submit application after application, but nothing in return? The only feedback you get is the computer generated one?
So many fail to get their job applications through to the interview short-list, even if they look at the duties and responsibilities and minimum qualifications in the Terms of Reference and see they can do the job if given the opportunity.
Why?
Because they prepare for the job-search in the wrong way. They may be familiar with the most popular job websites. Know some of the techniques to get a job in development, like using keywords from the ToR in their CV. But they still wonder: How much time should be spent on the Cover Letter, does anybody even read it? And worry about having experience in different sectors (or no experience at all), leaving out major parts of their background that can connect to the hiring need.
What’s missing is building an impact job-getting system way before you worry about keywords and CV length. One you know uses techniques proven to persuade hiring managers that you’re already part of the team from the first line they read – that it’s just a formality to hire you.
Don’t waste months of time, lose thousands in income, or miss your opportunity to make an impact
Hi there, I’m Chris Kuonqui.
In 2019, I entered my 17th year working for multiple international development organizations, including 4 UN agencies, 2 multilateral development banks, and 1 large NGO. I’ve been lucky to work with experts and people in 26 countries in every region of the world.
But luck wasn’t all there was to it.
Back when I started looking for a job in development, I spent months searching, networking, and applying, only to drain my savings to almost nothing before finding that next position to grow my career. It was a tough time, with little hope. I almost came to regret studying a degree in development that wasn’t giving me the chance to break in.
It was then that I started on a journey to learn how top performers in the sector constructed their careers, built their expertise, and were able to work around the world. Through countless conversations with colleagues, friends and mentors in development, I learned the top job-getting strategies and began crafting a system that would cut my time to a new assignment in half.
Over the years, I’ve spent hundreds of hours understanding the development and humanitarian sector job market. And through my own applications, I’ve experimented with different types of CV templates, scripts to reach out to hiring managers, and gone on to interview for dozens of jobs.
As a result, I’ve served as everything from permanent staff to intern to 60 day consultant (there are LOTS of shades in between).
I rose to be a hiring manager at the UN where I read thousands of applications, participated on interview panels for dozens of jobs, and seen a ton of different hiring situations unfold from an insider’s seat at the hiring table.
What I didn’t do was waltz into a top development job based on who I know. That seems to be the solution everyone tells you about – it explains why you haven’t heard back from any of those job applications, right? You MUST not know the right people. But the data show, less than 1 in 5 people break into the UN because they know someone.
This means learning how to identify the best opportunities for you, understanding the psychology of hiring, and mastering the craft of marketing yourself to an organization is essential to keep your career alive in the development sector.
Because of the system I’ve built over the years, when I apply to new assignments today the chances are on my side. And I know that every time I compete with hundreds of others to get a job offer, I stand among the top performers to break in.
But there’s no way around it – getting a top job in international development is messy, long and can leave you even questioning your own skills.
I want to shortcut this process for you with the exact strategies I’ve used to grow my career and that have taken me around the world to work on challenges from designing industrial policy to training the South Sudan government on gender mainstreaming, planning and budgeting.
I want to help you avoid the common pitfalls so many fall into and accelerate your time to get your dream impact job, the one you’ve been preparing for through years of study, research and work.
That’s why after months of development, I’m releasing a new program that will show you my step-for-step system to make your application stand-out, land you the interview and finally give you the chance to prove what you’re capable of doing.
Introducing “Break Into Development: Kick Down Doors, Stop Wasting Time and Start Making a Difference”
The first course with the exact insider secrets, tactics, and psychological strategies to crack the code of finding a development job to make your impact on the world
Break Into Development is a tested, step-by-step, 4-week program to not only get feedback on your development sector job applications, but to get invited to the interview. Rapidly identify opportunities that match your skills and interests – and know which are a waste of your time. Define your unique story – and the challenges and problems you’ve solved – in a powerful new way to persuade hiring managers to place you on the short-list of top candidates.
Through this program, you will build a job-getting machine that will 10x your chances for every development role you apply to.
Your Break Into Development program includes:
The Insider’s Roadmap to Finding Your First or Next Development Job
- Breakthrough the mental barriers that hold you back, find your passion, and see the real value you bring to a new team (women are especially prone to not seeing how they can make their full impact, but this can be quickly corrected)
- A simple technique to identify your accomplishments, your strengths, gap areas—and your “why”
- Uncover the step-by-step roadmap to the job you daydream about doing, where you can finally contribute to making your community more just, equal and inclusive for all
- By-pass success killers that block you from even applying for your dream position or organization, make you question your own skills, and leave you unsure if you have the “right” expertise
- Inside the Vault: Use a set of techniques to remain confident when your applications get no response
Discover Your Dream Organization & Team
- Decode the development landscape and know the types of organizations, opportunities and contract levels available
- Forecast new opportunities by knowing where the money comes from and how to connect to donor interests, ideas and strategies
- Use the jargon decoder technique to become fluent in the key words, acronyms, buzzwords and latest ideas influencing the development job market
- Tap into under-utilized tools to gauge if you identify with the core values, culture, and team dynamics of a target organization
- Inside the Vault: How to calculate your salary
- Inside the Vault: Case Study: Becoming a World Bank Africa Fellow
- Inside the Vault: Priority and high aid countries
Zero-In on Vacancy Announcements
- Where to find “inside information” about an organization and use this information to meet the understated real needs of a ToR
- Adopt a “Window Shopping Strategy” in top job websites, and how to find unadvertised opportunities
- How to decide priority jobs, sectors and organizations most available to you
- Find opportunities in locations you care about
- Inside the Vault: Transitioning from graduate school
- Inside the Vault: Transitioning from other sectors (private sector, teaching, and others)
The Inside Secrets on Hiring Practices
- Learn key recruitment patterns that cut across the development sector and determine how hiring happens
- Begin thinking like hiring managers and know how to tap into their everyday needs to put your best foot forward (legitimately and ethically)
- How to stop wondering if you’re even qualified and start leveraging your background and story to tick off competency-based needs (and find out what those really are)
- Inside the Vault: Do they have someone in mind already?
The Components of a Stand-Out Application
- Use our innovative NICHE technique to position yourself as a top candidate
- How to build authentic relationships that help you look for a job, grow in your career and keep you moving up the impact ladder
- The secrets to hiring manager attention-grabbing CVs and Cover Letters that get you invited to the interview (and know what common pitfalls NOT to waste time on)
- How to craft your story to engage with development professionals and stand-out above the competition
- Inside the Vault: CV teardown
- Inside the Vault: Job Application System
But this isn’t for everyone
I’m selective about who I invite into my programs. I’d rather work with a small group of students who are committed to growing their careers and ready to position themselves to make their development impact, than a large group of people who are looking for someone else to find them a job or just interested in blaming “the system” for a lack of opportunities.
And, this course isn’t for absolute beginners.
Break Into Development is NOT for you if…
- You are unfamiliar with the jobs application process to a development organization.
- Do not meet the minimum qualifications in education, language or skills for your dream job.
- Are looking for a magic solution to your job hunt without putting in the challenging work of following the Break Into Development system.
Here’s what our students have to say:
One of my highest performing clients, Ousmane from Burkina, wrote me just a few days ago to say he started a dream job at the World Bank, with a well-deserved promotion to the senior level. Congrats, Ousmane!
Join Break Into Development – risk-free
Because I stand by this product as the only available, proven system for breaking into development, I welcome you to try this program risk free. Try it for 30 days. If you have gone through the sessions with me, done your homework, and find that they don’t help you, let me know within 15 days of your purchase, and I will grant you a refund.
There is no risk…
…except NOT joining Break Into Development
You could not join and watch another year go by, as your frustration and disappointment grow with each new failed application. Or worse yet, 2020 comes around and you’re still stranded at the current stage of your career, as your skills and passion to make a difference fade away.
Imagine instead, what your days could be like if you can stop wasting time finding jobs – and start being able to lead a life of real, meaningful impact. For you, your family and your community. If you could find an organization and team that values your skills and contributions—where you can grow your influence and make a difference.
You can be like Derrick from Ghana – who used to send out application after application only to never land the interview. But within days of working with Impact Growth Lab, he secured his first ever interview for a highly competitive UN internship:
