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Ask HN: Recommend employers with positive social impact

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Re: Ask HN: Recommend employers with positive social impact

#81
post #65

Quartzy (YC S11) makes software for researchers that helps them save time and money, and we're hiring: https://quartzy.com

I feel like Quartzy doesn't get nearly enough recognition for the amazing work that they do.

thank you. I've been here for around 8 years. it is a huge motivator to hear positive feedback from scientists/lab managers about how we help them find more time to focus on their research. that alone is a major factor in what keeps me going.

Re: Ask HN: Recommend employers with positive social impact

#83

Hard to answer without knowing more about your values and perspective, friend. A lot of smart, experienced, well-informed, decent, and sincere people would say you can't do much better than Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, or Exxon Mobil (although maybe not so many of those people hang out here on HN). Less controversially/polarizingly, even more people would point you towards companies like Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Spac…

Overall love your list! Definitely adding some of these companies on my mental list to pursue should the current work dry up, and would suggest perhaps adding the Electronic Frontier Foundation for similar accessibility / digital advocacy work.

However would personally remove Adobe as the single black eye to the entire list -- I cannot think of a more morally bankrupt company short of FAANG, and possibly surpassing FAANG -- due to its habits of dark patterns, subscription shenaniganry, and jacking up prices way beyond what most hobbyists/students can afford let alone professionals who are not part of an enterprise platform.

Re: Ask HN: Recommend employers with positive social impact

#84
Hustle (hustle.com) helps Democratic campaigns, progressive advocacy groups, nonprofits, schools, and other organizations mobilize their constituents via text and video messaging.

We are hiring remote US-based software engineers: https://hustle.applytojob.com/apply

Re: Ask HN: Recommend employers with positive social impact

#85
My employer, Saildrone is growing fast, currently hiring for 30+ open roles (a handful of which are remote-friendly).

https://www.saildrone.com/careers

Our many and varied missions include measuring CO2 in the ocean for global climate science, and patrolling marine protected areas to prevent illegal fishing.

https://www.saildrone.com/missions

Re: Ask HN: Recommend employers with positive social impact

#86

This is actually not as hard as it seems, you just have to be willing to take a truly eye watering paycut. Think 4x. Think enough money over a lifetime to start your own charitable foundation. Head over to Idealist.org and pick a cause. Choose carefully, you better really f-n love it. Source: been there, done that, got the t-shirt somewhere around here. (And yeah, I changed the world too while I was at it.)

Eye watering to you, close to a normal wage for most of the population at most nonprofits, especially in tech roles.

But those people cannot make FAANG money. Apparently OP has that option, so their opportunity cost is enormous compared to your average graduate.

Re: Ask HN: Recommend employers with positive social impact

#87
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You could start by looking at companies that comprise ESG ETFs. You could, if you believe that oil companies deserve a better score than Tesla.

Tesla has a lot of issues. It's not a stretch to see their material risks (lithium, cobalt, nickel, plastic aka oil) as being pretty bad. The source of the electric powering the car matters too. As does the fact that they still use oil based or CO2 emitting roadways and the effects of the brake pads and tires. They certainly have problems. Tesla and oil companies have material and process (environmental) risks. Tesla…

> I guess just because I'm critical of Tesla?

No, it's because the ESG stuff seems more about virtue signaling than doing actual good, and the fact that that one main list includes oil companies but excludes Tesla is really compelling evidence of this.

Other downvotes are probably for stuff like "the fact that they still use oil based or CO2 emitting roadways". I mean... c'mon.

Re: Ask HN: Recommend employers with positive social impact

#89
Hi op! I work at Angaza, a social impact company. We've built a Saas platform which enables life-changing products, such as solar home energy systems, to be sold on payment plans in off-grid regions around the world. Angaza helped pioneer this industry by creating an embedded software solution, now open source, which connects a solar home system battery pack to a payment plan.

Our product has helped millions of people gain access to clean and affordable energy for their household or microbusiness. We've also expanded our platform to support other impactful consumer products, such as smartphones.

We have U.S. and East African teams. We're still a small, less than 100 people, but we support customers in Africa, Asia, South, and North America. Recently, I've been helping our customers in Sierra Leone handle a currency redenomination by the country's central bank.

One last thing; my team is looking for a full-stack senior software engineer. Here's the job description: https://jobs.lever.co/angaza/8e4f159d-4085-4766-a813-0657eb5.... Good luck with your job search! There are a lot of great social impact companies out there.

Re: Ask HN: Recommend employers with positive social impact

#90
post #25

Here's a list of startups that have a positive social impact while still paying competitive salaries and showing promising growth: Fintech: Forage ( https://www.joinforage.com ), building Stripe for EBT, i.e. food stamps Nearside ( https://www.nearside.com ), banking for small businesses KeeperTax ( https://www.keepertax.com ), tax savings for independent contractors Bio/Pharma/Healthcare: Q Bio ( https://q.bio ), cr…

Quoted post unavailable.

I'm not! I added the caveat to defense that not everyone thinks it has a positive influence, but the rest are hard to debate with. If you have reasons why they're negative, I'm open to hearing!
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