Students opt for less traditional, more rewarding jobs

By Wilson Mui

Daily Bruin Contributor

Since his third year, Grey Frandsen, a fourth-year political
science student, has worked all over the world for the
non-governmental organization Relief International.

RI is an emergency and development-oriented international NGO,
and Frandsen’s work has taken him to Albania, Italy, Greece,
Macedonia, Kosovo and Switzerland. As RI’s former acting
director of Albanian operations, he led a series of negotiations
with the United Nations.

“When you do enter the public sector you are going to
accept some truisms: you’re not going to be paid as much, and
the things you’re going to be required to do will be totally
diverse,” Frandsen said.

“I’m required to do everything from press releases
to lobbying in Washington to working with land mine teams overseas
to teaching local staff member how to use computers,” he
continued.

Although many UCLA graduates choose careers in the private
sector, others, like Frandsen, seek jobs where their reward is a
combination of their pay and the impact on society.

No matter which direction they choose, many students find that a
degree from UCLA puts them in high demand in the job market.

“I love UCLA students. I think they have the ability to
adapt to many things because of the environment they are in,”
said Connie Lew, the recruiting coordinator for the Los Angeles
office of Deloitte & Touche, a global business advisory and
auditing firm.

But working for companies like Deloitte & Touche is not the
top priority for some students. The Career Center’s JOBTRAK
search engine lists more than a hundred full-time, in-state
positions in the non-profit sector.

“Many more students than what people think are looking to
go the non-profit route,” said Albert Aubin, associate
director of UCLA’s Career Center. “They do stuff that
any organization does: marketing, advertising, accounting,
communications, you name it.”

But besides the availability and variety of possible career
paths, the main reason that students choose to go the non-profit
route is to know that they’re working in something that makes
a real difference.

“I find that most students want to return something to the
community, to assist others and be socially responsible,”
Aubin said.

The long hours and below-average pay, which can range from
$5,000-$10,000 less than the same job in the private sector, are
the chief detractions for most people, Aubin said.

While some decide to pursue a lifelong career in the non-profit
sector, most people work in the industry for only a few years. The
same often holds true for similar areas of employment like teaching
in the public school system.

Phuong Hong, a math teacher at Culver City Middle School, has
seen the constant turnover firsthand. In her first three years
alone, more than 50 percent of the faculty left. Some retired, but
most moved on to different careers or different positions in
community service, she said.

Like Hong, Don Shin, a graduating political science student, has
decided to return to school after graduating with an undergraduate
degree.

His ambition to become a 6th grade math teacher forced him to
make the choice between teaching and earning a higher salary at
another job.

“I started to think about goals after graduation and I
wanted to serve a community, and teaching is one way of doing
that,” Shin said. “I don’t know if I want to
teach for life, but I know I want to try.”

Maggie Yeh, a director for the Asian American Tutorial Project,
the largest and second oldest community group on campus, agreed.
“You look for people who are dedicated and want to make a
difference,” she said. AATP is an organization that tutors
and mentors the children of Castelare Elementary School in
Chinatown.

“You can’t expect immediate results. You need to
have patience to know that you’re making a difference even
though you don’t see it,” she added.

According to “Nonprofits for Profit,” a publication
by Wet Feet Press, working at a non-profit organization is similar
to working a start-up company. Employees are surrounded with others
who have the same goals, in a field they are passionate about and
often in an environment that is less bureaucratic than a more
traditional job setting.

The non-profit sector is growing at an accelerated rate. From
1977 to 1994, the annual rate of growth in the non-profit sector
was 3.3 percent compared to 1.9 percent in the business sector.
Non-profit jobs account for more than 10 percent of all employment
in the U.S.

And while not everyone may work for a non-profit, many people
have found a way to get involved in their community.

About 49 percent of all adults volunteer annually, racking up
20,303,000,000 volunteer hours and $201.5 billion worth of
volunteer time, according to “Nonprofits for
Profit.”

“I think its something everyone should do,” Yeh
said. “It’s tiring but I don’t regret it.
It’s very worthwhile.”

Though Frandsen started out as a unpaid intern at RI, he is now
part of the organization’s staff and earns a salary. This
summer, he will be continuing his work with RI in East Africa and
Ethiopia.

“Whether it is teaching in Watts or negotiating with the
U.N. in the Balkans, the end product is the human condition, and if
that doesn’t give you the warm fuzzies, then you’re
going to be unhappy in this field,” he said.