Here is a whole bunch of resources for finding jobs that help the planet
I've just about had it with the 'consider an unpaid internship' scam.
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Hi, sorry for the random message! says a student in my LinkedIn connection requests. I see it instantly. I pretend I don’t. Cool, busy people take ages to see messages.
I’d love to work in sustainability and I was wondering if you have any tips??
Oh god. Oh no. She doesn’t know that I question every day whether I make a difference with my work at all.
I get it, though. When I was 20, I went to careers department workshops and heard how competitive ‘impact jobs’ were. Imagined that Sustainability is a job I can choose.
I read how qualified I should be for a job fixing the planet. How desperate I should be.
And I was. I wrote and rewrote my CV. I debated applying for ‘regular jobs’ just to avoid the void of post-uni unemployment. I collected rejection emails like they were going out of fashion.
I just want a job that makes a difference, is that so hard? I thought. Why aren’t governments falling over themselves to offer us work like we’re firefighters in a house on fire?
Somewhere between scrolling the fifteenth website with 0 jobs in my area (and between 50-100 applicants!), and justifying why my first trainee salary of €770 was ‘not that bad’, I realised I had fallen for it again.
Fallen for the myth that pursuing a job with impact is a specific career choice. As if the same job market that depends on an economic system of discontent, disconnect and exploitation would make it easy to find opportunities to dismantle that same system.
We graduated into a world that told us we must make our passions and goals fit into the current way of working, when it is the way of working and profiting that must mould to fit us and our chaotic new world.
A sustainable and just future does not applaud you for overworking each night. The working world of the future does not make you choose between Sustainable Jobs and Unsustainable Jobs.
We have to reject the capitalist comfort zone, where our aspirations of building a fair and green world depend on whether you can afford the pay cut.
The capitalist mindset is a scarcity mindset. No jobs, no money, no hope. But the sustainability mindset is one of abundance.
The world is brimming with opportunities to ‘have an impact’ and better than that - we can create more of them.
There is no Sustainable Sector. Sustainable ways of doing business and creating a livelihood must bloom out of every existing sector. Every activist needs a plumber sometimes. Every plumber can be a climate activist. All jobs should be sustainable jobs.
We need change from the ground up and the outside in and the inside out. Start where you are.
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Focus On… Jobs that make a difference
Note: Do you know a guide/website/resource that’s not on here? Email casshebron@gmail.com to have it added.
First, some things I wish I had been told when I was 20:
Full-time unpaid work experience is not necessary for an impact job. Getting paid is not something you have to earn with experience.
If we accept exploitative and underpaid working conditions for the sake of a Really Great Opportunity, we send the message that future jobhunters must accept the same. Demand better.
Your job doesn’t have to come from a job website. You can also shape it yourself (no space in this newsletter to go in depth but I’ll probably rant about this on LinkedIn or Instagram).
You don’t have to have a dream job. Most of us don’t dream of work.
There are enough opportunities for everyone. Share the opportunities you find.
The world doesn’t care about your timeline. Your first paid job might not perfectly align with your graduation. Good things take time.
‘Hustling’ is not impressive or necessary. We need you. Don’t burn out. Slow down.
Impact Job Websites
International / Remote
WeAll Opportunities board (includes trainings)
GreenJobs Network (US-focused, scroll to the end for international positions)
Ed’s Clean Energy & Sustainability Jobs List (mainly US and remote)
B Work (US and international)
11.be [Belgium-specific]
OneWorld [NL]
EU Bubble
UK
CitizenKind (vegan job search)
GoodBridge Jobs roundup
People posting job roundups on LinkedIn:
Jasmine Anouna (and her newsletter The Bloom)
Juliette Sanchez-Lambert (human rights, LGBTI, social impact)
Elisabeth Roura (mainly comms but also some research, engagement, etc. The roundups are also sent out in the Channels Network newsletter).
Beatrice Chioccioli (social impact)
Nick Martin (remote jobs)
Ludovica Anedda (gender jobs)
Louise M. Rodrigues Alves (social impact)
Mandy van Deven (social impact)
Evangelos Papadakis (communications for impact)
Mara Tissera Luna (impact jobs in South America)
Satyam Vyas (impact jobs)
Martin Karadzhov (LGBTQIA+ jobs)
Güzide Sofi (impact internships)
Adrienne Pasics (tech for good)
Jenny K. Wright (humanitarian work, international development)
LinkedIn Groups
List of Lists
Articles / Guides:
Absolutely gold in-depth introduction to deciding how to make your career do good according to effective altruism. From 80,000 hours.
Work on Climate has possibly the greatest roundup of starter packs for job-seekers in the climate.
Make an impact in your current work:
Database of sector-specific climate coalitions (and a whole bunch of other stuff. This document is gold).
Also, I asked my LinkedIn connections how they ended up in their job. Here’s the discussion thread.
What’s Going On?
Protecting wildlife to stop viruses jumping to humans would save far more than it costs, new study shows.
Related: See the original study.Commercial banks channelled $1.5 trillion into fossil fuels between 2019 and 2021 despite net-zero pledges.
Relevant: Sign the global treaty to phase out fossil fuels.Ecuador’s government rules in favour of stronger land rights for indigenous people.
Relevant: Here’s how you can show your support for Amazonian indigenous rights.Countries are regressing on their climate commitments in the face of economic struggles.
Relevant: Why climate inaction is far more expensive than action.Eradicating ‘extreme poverty’ would raise carbon emissions by less than 1%.
Relevant: 5 things you should know about carbon inequality.More than 100 organisations demand a strong EU law to hold business accountable for the impact on human rights and the environment.
Useful: Why we need this law.
So Now What Do I Do?
LEARN MORE
Come listen to my workshop on the 23rd February at 16h CET about how to talk about the climate crisis without losing friends!
Sign up to Youth & Environment Europe’s free beginners’ workshop to EU environmental policy on the 23rd February at 5pm (busy day, clearly).
Tune into this online event on how to address gender imbalances in sustainability leadership. 1st March at 13h CET.
TRY SOMETHING NEW
Youth organisation ClimaTalk is looking for volunteer editors and writers for their environmental lawsuit project! Apply by the 21st February.
Media outlet Grist have launched their 2022 climate fiction contest ‘Imagine 2200.’ Submit your entry by the 5th May.
Volunteer for The Green Fix! (yeah, as in, us). Get more information by emailing casshebron@gmail.com.
CHANGE THE SYSTEM
Sign the open letter by the new sustainable fashion campaign Fashion Declares.
UK climate group Green New Deal Rising are hiring a Head of Operations! Apply before the 11th March.
By the way…
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