Here’s a neat little
resource to get some useful insights into the working world of aid and
development. Aidsource is a social network set up by and for development
workers, specifically by the bloggers who bring us Blood and Milk, The Shotgun Shack, and the former
blogger at Tales from the Hood.
There are a bunch of groups – below are some of those I
have enjoyed perusing.
Perhaps the most
useful page for students is the Students and
Educators page. From here you can read views on development studies written
by students as well as by educators, and access review pages of various
graduate programmes (mostly in the US for now but the network is still young). The
Discussions is
very good – currently there’s a discussion about best
practices in internships. Some of you that have done internships might want
to share your views here.
The Jobs
group – you have to be a member to view this one, so that people will feel a bit
freer to name and shame bad employers. It’s really easy to join the
network though (and you can personalise your page). There’s also a section in
the Jobs group to post opportunities, including internships.
Media &
Global Development – I started my own discussion here about combining development
work and journalism and I got some useful tips and links.
There’s a Making Aid
Marketing Better group – groups like these are really interesting for students,
as we get to see what issues are current for workers in the field and how stuff
we’re learning about in the classroom is actually real. Here’s a funny/sad
post about Kony 2012.
There is a group
called Collective Wisdom
where people post questions about anything and everything in the development
world, or look for hook-ups in countries they’re going to work in. Here is an
interesting post called a Day
in the Life – what do development workers actually do all day? Here’s another one questioning if writing
critically online might affect your employability.
