1. Social media specialist
LinkedIn: Leveraging social media to create content that amplifies the organisation’s mission and reaches diverse audiences.
Reality: I track impressions and engagement for people who are clearly not impressed or engaged with social media analytics. Sending “Can we post this today? It’s trending” to people who’ll see it a decade after the trend has passed.
2. Strategic partnerships manager
LinkedIn: Driving strategic cross-sectoral collaborations and spearheading partnerships that align mission objectives with sustainable resource mobilisation and systemic change.
Reality: The only thing strategic about my work is my strategic shout-outs and 99 ways to say “just checking in” to a donor. Balancing donor priorities and programme realities. Reading grant agreements that have more jargon than a legal notice and sound like riddles.
3. Training and learning coordinator
LinkedIn: Designing participatory learning experiences that strengthen institutional capabilities, foster peer learning, and drive scalable knowledge exchange across diverse stakeholder ecosystems.
Reality: Travelling six hours to deliver a training where the projector will never work. Teaching human adults how to make a circle. Spending more time than I’d like to admit adjusting the spaces and margins of a learning manual, when I know hardly anyone will read it.
4. HR and culture head
LinkedIn: Driving people-first strategies that enhance organisational culture, embed DEI principles, and align individual purpose with collective impact.
Reality: Explaining the lengthy reimbursement process while I myself don’t know why it has been set up this way. Hosting a ‘fun Friday’ when everyone’s quitting. Daydreaming about a start-up that could 3D-paint rangoli. Creating a culture deck no one reads while negotiating for a single extra casual leave.
5. Finance and compliance officer
LinkedIn: Ensuring financial integrity through robust systems, compliance adherence, and strategic fiscal stewardship aligned with donor accountability frameworks.
Reality: Getting tagged in e-mails where someone says “looping in the finance team,” knowing fully well that I am the team. Tracking receipts from a district trip where someone bought chai for INR 10 and didn’t take the bill. Explaining to programme teams why “just INR 200 extra” needs board approval. Living in fear of audit season.
You can read Part I here.
