How to Have a Career in Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) with No Prior Experience

4.      Let go of your preoccupation with job titles

Now say you have formal training in M&E (professional development course(s) and/or a degree programme) and you have acquired experience on your job, through volunteering or a mentorship.

 You feel confident that you can execute the functions of M&E specialist, (heck, some of you have been doing M&E tasks for years already though their official title is ‘Programme Manager’ or ‘Social Officer’). However, you see a job vacancy ad that states that the successful candidate should have held the post of “M&E Manager” in the past etc.

 Doubt may start to creep into your head where you tell yourself that you don’t have direct M&E experience because your official job titles did not say this. Nonetheless, you have been a lead researcher on many studies in the past, trained in participatory methodologies and you are a statistics guru. These are relevant skillsets that you should highlight in a job interview and stop fixating that your current or past the job titles were not ‘M&E Manager’.

Having said this, my last advice is just to;