The F Word. Fellowships. | Washington Post Jobs

At least once a week I receive a question from someone who has heard about the possibility that perhaps a fellowship is the right next move for them to advance their career or get attention for their start-up.

People seek me out to ask their fellowship questions for a good reason. In my career I have served as a staff person, advisor or board member to at least a dozen fellowship programs. I’ve also helped several dozen individuals in their pursuit of fellowships as an advisor.

I’ve only been the recipient of fellowships a handful of times partially because I’ve had some impostor syndrome issues that got in the way of applying. Nonetheless, I continue to engage with them because I think that most of us want to feel chosen for opportunity and they create a structured opportunity for learning and connecting during a time when most of us are lacking that. 

If you are employed or seeking work and the f-word has come up for you, is it really about a fellowship, or about your finding the right experience? Here are a few questions to consider. I think they’ll help as you consider what you want from a fellowship experience. 

Who do you want to have as peers?

One of the reasons people seek out a fellowship experience is to grow their network, but not simply by adding people. Rather, they are seeking to add the ‘right’ kind of people. So, you need to determine who are your ‘right’ people. I’ve had conversations with individuals seeking to meet only people in their city or outside their country. Or to be surrounded by peers who are artists, lawyers or Dominican, for example. Sometimes they want to place themselves with people who share a similar title like Founder, Executive Director, or Chief-of-Staff.

One thing for you to consider is the tension between seeking a fellowship made up of peers in an industry or region and your ability to be completely honest in a professional space that might be rather small or where most people are only two to three connections removed from one another. I’ve attended such fellowships where attendees have said directly that they need to be careful in what they say because other attendees are competition or know others who they perceive as competition.

So, ask yourself about the geographic spread that matters to you, the set of talents or shared identity, the network they have or if you want to be around titular peers.

How do you want to be in a community with one another? For How Long?

Fellowships often have classes that have a time period or location associated with them. After that you are still a fellow or an alumni, but how you experience a class or what it means to serve is distinctly different for people.     

I have the privilege to work closely with the Roddenberry Fellowship and its current fellows and alumni. Creating a culture of support and engagement between current fellows and alumni is a top goal. One of the success metrics is creating long-term relationships between founders and a safe space for them to be in the ups and downs of the work. Each year brings a new class of fellows and once their initial year passes they become members of the community which continues to have a speaker series, access to resources and invitations to in-person events.

Participants are spread across the country so most often communicate during monthly virtual meetings, an active slack channel and a very small number of annual in person gatherings.

So, ask yourself about the culture of the fellowship you are seeking. Do you want a supportive space or do you prefer the idea of being someplace more competitive? Are you seeking an active in person set of events or is virtual ok for you?

What do you want to learn or do?

Some people seek a fellowship as an opportunity to learn something new and often, but not always, with a group of people who want to learn for the same reason. I know of a few fellowships that are focused on writing a book, but some have a focus on a specific type of non-fiction book, or they exist for authors of a specific identity or the speed of the creation of the book. Similarly, such opportunities exist in different ways for fundraising, start-ups, making a career pivot, finding balance, being a better leader or manager, etc.

You might also consider who is leading the training. I’ve been in plenty of rooms where someone known in their industry for work with famous brands with big budgets shared their approach to smaller businesses with little to no resources. Their content was great, but not applicable to who was in the room, and they hadn’t adapted it for the attendees. You have to consider both the content and the person doing the delivery.  

So, ask yourself: Is there a specific thing I need to learn to feel like this was a worthwhile experience? Do you need the information to be shaped in a way to make it worthwhile to you? If so, what way?

How much time are you able to commit? At what cadence? 

Fellowships are all about time. Time to do homework, meet, and even travel to a classroom, bar, city, or country.

One of the fellowships that helps you write a book has weekly meetings, an expectation of pages written per period of time and feedback on the work of others. That’s great if you are motivated to dedicate many hours weekly. Often fellowships bring a group together for four or five intense days of learning about a topic and relationship building. Then it ends. You are poured into an alumni community, and you will get out of it what you are able to put in. Many local fellowships follow a gentle monthly schedule of learning followed by networking that you participate in for the year. Covid has helped bring a surge in fellowships that were mostly conducted via video. 

So, ask yourself what time am I willing to set aside with the group and outside of it to participate in a program? Am I better served by a short intense sprint with others or a longer, slower build with a new group of people? If I want to build relationships do I need to be physically in the same location or can I do so via video?

Do you expect money? Are you willing to spend money?

Most of the people I know who are seeking money from a fellowship are founders of organizations. Some work their way through multiple fellowships to help support their organizations. It shouldn’t surprise you that there is often a correlation between the amount of money a fellowship offers and how competitive it is. A relatively small percentage of fellowships offer you money for your participation.

Most fellowships have zero or minimal cost associated with your participation. That doesn’t mean that they won’t hope that you donate to them in the future. In fact, most hope you will decide to help them promote the fellowship and fundraise as an alumni.  Another smaller group will have you pay to attend, often giving you tips about how to get funding from an employer or how to raise money to participate from family and friends. 

Additionally, a small percentage of fellowships will have an application cost.

Ask yourself, what is the role that money is playing in your pursuit of a fellowship? Do you need money to continue growing an organization? Do you have resources that are available to you that you might have set aside for a class or other professional development that you could tap if there is a cost to travel somewhere to be in person? What financial resources do you need or can you set aside?

How much do you care about the reputation of the program?

Some people seek to participate in prestigious fellowships because it makes them or their organization look more impressive or even, enviable. We seek out the stamp of worthiness that comes from being chosen by Carnegie, Ford or Rhodes. Perhaps your professional association has a recognition it offers in your city, state or nationally that would elevate you as an emerging leader.

Ask yourself, is prestige an important reason for you to pursue a fellowship? If so, how far does that reputation need to extend in an industry or geography?

This is the first step.

 Go ahead and write down your answer to each of the questions above and put your criteria in priority order. Consider your must haves. Then you’ll be ready to think harder about the f’word.

—Russ Finkelstein [linkedin.com] is the opposite of your High School Guidance Counselor.  A career coach, social entrepreneur, and advisor to founders, he is currently the Director of Coaching with the Roddenberry Fellowship and a Coach-in-Residence with StartingBloc Fellowship. He was a founder of the noted careers website Idealist.org and was chosen as a Generation Z & LGBTQ Influencer by LinkedIn.

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