This platform is intended to gather and disseminate various perspectives and guidance on social impact careers: how to transition into them (or away from them), what types of careers there are, what “social impact” is (depends on who you ask), what it’s like to work in a “social impact career”, whether it is worth working in social impact (it’s easy to idealize it until you transition in and realize how little you’re going to be paid), etc. I welcome suggestions for topics.
Website Contents
More details to come. This is the content that I will feature on this website:
- References to helpful social impact resources
- Blog posts with general guidance related social impact careers, authored by me or other social impact yodas
- Blog posts profiling other social impact yodas, including what type of social impact role they work in currently, how they got there, words of advice, etc. Featured individuals will be at various stages in their careers (early, mid, later), represent different sectors (public, private, nonprofit), and work in a range of social impact organizations and roles.
Website Name
I named this website “Social Impact Yodas” in part because I was inspired by the current Baby Yoda craze right now, and also because there’s a lot of collective wisdom out there from which I have personally benefited in my own social impact career. Note that I am using the plural of Yoda for the website name — this site isn’t intended just for me to spout my thoughts on social impact, but more importantly to showcase the thoughts of others who have taken journeys to figure out for themselves how they can (or cannot) work in social impact. [If you’d like to contribute to a blog post, please let me know.]
My Journey
Years ago, when I was working in a tech job in Silicon Valley and began exploring how I could use my skillset vocationally to empower people economically and alleviate poverty, I went to see a career counselor. She had me take an entire battery of personality tests, including the MBTI. In the end, she concluded that I had two options for careers “doing good” (and back then, we didn’t know the term “social impact” existed): social worker or teacher. That’s the brilliant insight I got after paying $700. [Tip on finding a career coach: if you’re looking to make a career transition, find a coach who is deeply familiar with the industry / types of roles you are interested in! Otherwise you’ll get really dissatisfying generic guidance.] And friends I talked to said, Hmmm, maybe you could work for the United Way, Red Cross, or Salvation Army? Clearly, back when I was starting out, folks in my network had a very limited view of what types of “do-gooder” careers existed.
So, through an interesting twist, I ended up relocating to Washington, DC, where I spent a couple of years working and doing informational interviews on the side with 70+ people (social impact yodas!), to get a broader perspective on the types of careers I could pursue. Barring social enterprise, DC is a social impact mecca in many ways, with the presence of the federal government, Capitol Hill, think tanks, international development organizations, and other NGOs / nonprofits. (There is some social enterprise in DC, but it’s more limited — most of the private sector there is geared towards serving the public sector.)
70+ informational interviews
So for two years, I talked to a wide range of people about different types of graduate school programs: public interest law, public policy, nonprofit management (MBA), social work, economics, library sciences, counseling/therapy, etc. I talked to people about the different organizations they worked for or roles they worked in: nonprofit strategy consulting, direct service, traditional philanthropy, venture philanthropy, international development, policy research and analysis at think tanks (across the political spectrum), nonprofit tech platforms, impact investing, corporate social responsibility, various federal agencies, community development, community organizing, etc., etc. I visited graduate schools and sat in on classes. I learned about different issue areas within social policy.
The conclusion of that initial round of career research was to go to graduate school in public policy, for three reasons: (1) I would get trained in quantitative methods so I could use my analytical skills to evaluate social programs for effectiveness; (2) I would learn about the historical and policy context for social change; (3) through my tech jobs, I had already acquired some skills I would’ve gotten in an MBA program (head), so an MPP would be a good complement (heart).
After receiving my MPP, I went to work at a couple of think tanks doing policy research and program evaluation for federal, state, and local agencies. I then pivoted to philanthropy consulting, where I had the amazing opportunity to launch and manage a corporate foundation. I then worked at a tech social enterprise, and I currently work for an organization which employs tech and philanthropy to advance social good. (Note that none of the views expressed on this website reflect the views of my current or former employers.) On the side, I started “the Idea Catalyst”, a volunteer-led initiative to support budding social entrepreneurs in the DC area in fleshing out their ideas, through a “dolphin tank” experience of rapid-response guidance from experts.
I wanted to share with you a little bit about my own career journey. The paragraphs above summarize almost two decades of exploration. I believe everyone’s journey is unique, and what might work for one person may not work for another. There are important principles to distill, but no formulae for success.
Take heart!