The nonprofit sector has basically been holding me against my will for the past 14 years.

Now, technically I’m kidding. But you know every joke has a kernel of truth….I’ve tried getting out of the nonprofit sector twice already.

The first time was during my senior year of college. By that point, I’d held 5 internships with 5 nonprofit organizations for over 5 summers. I also had a nonprofit work-study job during my four years, with a client advocacy organization doing great work around asking the right questions.

It was a great job and I grew a ton in that time. But my resume – and upcoming student debt – told me one thing: I should try making some serious money. So I decided to go to corporate.

But two things happened. First, I didn’t get many interviews. Apparently years of nonprofit work didn’t impress those fancy consulting firms (or maybe I was doing it wrong. I’ve learned a lot about job hunting since then.)

But more importantly, the majority of jobs i was looking at didn’t interest me at all. They just didn’t feel as impactful. Nonprofit had me spoiled.

That was the first time I tried leaving. The second time is more significant.

After school, I began a fundraising operations role with a national education org. I supported a lovely crew of funny, charismatic fundraisers. I got to pull my introvert hat all the way down by getting lost in the world of spreadsheets, data and Salesforce.

But after 2 years there, my curiosity had been sparked. I was intrigued by the limelight that fundraisers seemed to attract. And while I loved ops, I needed to know if relationship management was something I’d enjoy just as much.

So when it came time to leave my org, I decided to aim for B2B sales roles in NYC. (I know. Quite the leap.)

I went through rounds of applications and interviews with different tech companies. BTW, job hunting is hard.

I finally did get an offer for a startup, whose product sounded like a great fit. But it came with a giant pay cut….and I knew the work, even though what I wanted, would be grueling. At the end of the day, I declined. And kept my fingers crossed.

At the last possible minute, I caught wind of a role that sounded too good to be true. It was for a relationship manager role, supporting nonprofit organizations with their business needs. And of course…it wasn’t at a for-profit. The sector wasn’t going to let me go so easily.

Fast forward 3 weeks and I had the job I didn’t even know I was looking for.

The story doesn’t end there. It’s still very much going. But I’ll leave it here, because the amount of growth that’s happened in these recent years is something I’d need a whole blog to cover.

What’s your story? Share it in the comments!