Recruiter Blog: Deloitte puts people and experiences together

One program that provides a wonderful opportunity to develop your skills and also give something back is Deloitte’s International Development Fellowship (IDF). Piloted in 2008, and introduced firm-wide in 2009, the IDF enables our people to take an unpaid leave of absence from the firm and volunteer their time on one of many critical development projects underway around the world.

A few years ago I was lucky enough to go to Botswana and be paired with an organization called BOCAIP (Botswana Aids Intervention Programme), whose mandate is to provide care and support for those affected by HIV/AIDS.  

BOCAIP is doing some amazing work in its community, but like many not-for-profits it’s beset with funding issues and resources are scarce.  This is where I came in.  My role was to spend four weeks working with BOCAIP to help  improve its HR capacity.  As a recruiter, my experience is heavily specialized and so this broad mandate definitely took me out of my comfort zone. For a couple of months before setting off for Botswana, I studied hard and gathered as much relevant material as I could to prepare.  I  learned new skills such as designing and delivering training programs and facilitating learning sessions.

Every day was a rewarding, yet challenging learning experience.  With it came unique opportunities like spending a weekend at a game reserve and another in Cape Town. These memories will last a lifetime.

Even in an environment like ours at Deloitte, where learning and development opportunities are presented on a daily basis, this program certainly stands out for me and offered not just a highlight of my career, but of my life.