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Ask HN: Where can I find a software job that helps society?

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Re: Ask HN: Where can I find a software job that helps society?

#51

Post by nakkiel »

gmisra wrote: post #35

Pretty sure each answer reveals a bit about each of our value functions (and what we read on-line). Here goes: ProPublica http://www.propublica.org/about/jobs Maplight http://maplight.org/content/jobs-at-maplight Sunlight Foundation http://sunlightfoundation.com/jobs/ Rootstrikers http://www.rootstrikers.org/ resource.org https://public.resource.org/ Code for America http://codeforamerica.org/ Engineers Without Borde…

Add to that list:

Telecoms Sans Frontieres http://tsfi.org

Re: Ask HN: Where can I find a software job that helps society?

#52

Post by kgmpers »

scottalpert wrote: post #37
gmisra wrote: post #35

Pretty sure each answer reveals a bit about each of our value functions (and what we read on-line). Here goes: ProPublica http://www.propublica.org/about/jobs Maplight http://maplight.org/content/jobs-at-maplight Sunlight Foundation http://sunlightfoundation.com/jobs/ Rootstrikers http://www.rootstrikers.org/ resource.org https://public.resource.org/ Code for America http://codeforamerica.org/ Engineers Without Borde…

Thanks! That's a good list. Some are non-profits looking for volunteers, some are non-profits or for-profits looking for employees. But I'm wondering if there is some sort of job listing or board that brings together all the salaried jobs (sorry, gotta eat), that help humanity directly in some way.

I don't know how many tech related job listings they have, but you could look at http://www.idealist.org/.

This is their mission statement:

"Idealist connects people, organizations, and resources to help build a world where all people can live free and dignified lives.

Idealist is independent of any government, political ideology, or religious creed. Our work is guided by the common desire of our members and supporters to find practical solutions to social and environmental problems, in a spirit of generosity and mutual respect."

Re: Ask HN: Where can I find a software job that helps society?

#53

Post by adpfr »

joelgrus wrote: post #5

My life would be better if someone built some kind of revenue-per-advertisement optimization system. I'm just saying.

Wait, what exactly would you need? I've been working for about a year now on an application which determines optimal (i.e. profit/revenue maximizing) advertising keyword bid values. It's nearly finished now! Is that something you could make use of?

Re: Ask HN: Where can I find a software job that helps society?

#55

Post by steveinator »

http://www.idealist.org/ is the classic outlet for nonprofity jobs. I've found all nonprofit tech jobs to be incredibly unchallenging though, so if you are motivated by hard problems and engineering challenges then you've got some serious job hunting ahead of you.

Re: Ask HN: Where can I find a software job that helps society?

#57

Post by jchung »

I imagine that when you're considering a career move, it can be helpful to hear the perspective of the people looking to hire you, so I'll venture an answering as the Executive Director of a nonprofit. We use Tech as tool #1 to serve our mission and are always looking for devs, ux designers, etc. There's no natural place I would "obviously" go to find devs who are interested in social causes. The talent market lives mostly in word of mouth, although we do post periodically in craigslist or on the job sites like linkedin and monster. In general, we do go to hackathons, socially-oriented accelerators and incubators (such as CivicX, code for america, or even the hub), and we post job listings at the universities. It's not a very robust set of cause-specific work. At the same time, we're in a race for talent just like everyone else, so when we're looking for people who can truly accelerate our impact, we try to poach talent. The pitch goes something like this: "You're obviously doing awesome stuff at company X. Why don't you put your considerable talent to better use and help us change the world for real?"

If I can make a suggestion, if you can get a sense for what cause(s) you care about most (education? health delivery? poverty alleviation? something else?) and start to explore the organizations serving those causes, you'll certainly find your way to a job posting here or there for an organization that truly excites you. And excitement is what makes a good match when you're doing work that makes the world a better place. Good luck.

(edited for grammar)

Re: Ask HN: Where can I find a software job that helps society?

#58

Post by jchung »

MBlume wrote: post #42

Consider just getting the highest-paying job you can and then giving as much as you can afford to the most effective charities you can find. http://80000hours.org/ http://80000hours.org/earning-to-give http://www.givingwhatwecan.org/ http://www.givewell.org/ http://home.centreforeffectivealtruism.org/

This makes sense if you believe that the organizations you support are already optimized to turn money into impact. It is often the case with young organizations that bringing exceptional talent to the team is more important than getting an incremental dollar.

Re: Ask HN: Where can I find a software job that helps society?

#60

Post by rmchugh »

I think open source can be an important tool for socially beneficial projects. Since open source tools are free, they can be accessed by anyone. Since they are open, they can be modified easily to suit local needs. By removing the cost of intellectual property, products leveraging open source software can be cheaper and thus more accessible. In the long term, open source makes it more difficult for companies to develop monopoly positions due to their control over this software and thus helps to prevent the problems that follow.

I think working on open source software within a suitable good cause niche would be a good fit. I can't really think of any examples where you could easily find a paying role, but I'm personally inspired by projects like Open Source Ecology, Open Street Map and Wikipedia. I work in the library world, where I try to use and contribute to open source software whenever possible. It's not revolutionary, but it's okay.

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