Category Archives: Career

Good Profile – Jaspal Shakya (OpportuneJobs.com)

Good Profiles feature members of our Good Generation who are either out there in the field doing interesting work or still in the trenches of schools and institutions waiting to make their mark on the world. Have your own story to tell? Know someone who would be great to be profiled? Please sign-up or leave a note here!

***

What do you do for a living nowadays?

I am the Co-Founder and CEO of OpportuneJobs.com, a for-profit initiative of SkillsKarma Services Private Limited. OpportuneJobs.com is a one stop portal for jobs, fellowships, internships, volunteering, consulting services, RFP/EOI/Tender, events and news. It is a creative enterprise managed by a group of young, passionate, innovative and skill driven entrepreneurs, whose constant endeavor has been addressing the needs of development professionals and corporate/NGOs/social enterprises across India. As a CEO my responsibilities include developing and implementing strategies, making major decisions, and managing the overall operations and resources of OpportuneJobs.com.

Continue reading

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

Good Profile – Chelsea Katz (Kellogg Net Impact / Fresh Takes Kitchen)

Good Profiles feature members of our Good Generation who are either out there in the field doing interesting work or still in the trenches of schools and institutions waiting to make their mark on the world. Have your own story to tell? Know someone who would be great to be profiled? Please sign-up or leave a note here!

***

What are you up to these days?

I am wrapping up my final quarter at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and will complete my MBA in less than two months!  While at Kellogg, I’ve focused on Social Enterprise (SEEK) and Entrepreneurship academic concentrations and have taken several great experiential or project-based courses including Sustainability Lab, Innovate for Impact, and Impact Investing (taught by David Chen of Equilibrium Capital Partners). I’ve also been heavily involved in the Net Impact Community.  This year I served as the VP of Careers for the Net Impact Club and chaired the Innovating Social Change Conference.  In my first year I led the Social Impact Career Trek to the Bay Area and the Global Health Initiative HIV/AIDS diagnostics market research trip to Kenya. 

What did you do prior to school?

I spent three years in Accenture’s Talent & Organization Performance practice where I provided consulting services to a variety of cross-industry clients with a focus on change management, organization design, and talent strategy. While at Accenture, I also provided extensive pro-bono consulting services to a number of nonprofit organizations including Accenture Development Partnerships, i.c.stars, and Junior Achievement.  I was also very involved in Corporate Citizenship efforts and developed a collaborative internal network of social impact enthusiasts dubbed the “Accenture Network for Social Impact” and managed Accenture’s sponsorship of the national Net Impact conference.  After a year as a pro-bono consultant, I transitioned to a full-time strategic project manager role with i.c.stars – an innovative Chicago nonprofit organization that uses project-based learning and full immersion teaching to provide opportunities for change-driven, inner-city community leaders to develop skills in business and technology. At i.c.stars I managed a portfolio of social enterprise consulting projects, fundraising events, and strategic initiatives, and led a cycle of interns through the first project in the training program.

Continue reading

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Good Profile – Stacy McCoy (Give To Get Jobs)

Good Profiles feature members of our Good Generation who are either out there in the field doing interesting work or still in the trenches of schools and institutions waiting to make their mark on the world. Have your own story to tell? Know someone who would be great to be profiled? Please sign-up or leave a note here!

***

What do you do for a living nowadays?

Currently, I am the co-founder of Give To Get Jobs. Give To Get Jobs is a for-profit social enterprise job board for jobs that use a sustainable business model to address a social and/or environmental mission, mainly social enterprise and CSR. As a social enterprise ourselves, we donate a portion of the proceeds to fund job creation programs.

As one of the co-founders, I manage a lot of the day-to-day operations and get involved with developing long-term strategy. You can find me updating social media channels, managing the blog, building partnerships, reaching out to social enterprises, publishing job posts, you name it!

Is “doing good” a key reason why you chose this job?

Yes. The reason why I launched a social enterprise is because of the opportunity to do good. I view “doing good” as having a positive impact on the world. It is actively pursuing something benefiting instead of harming society.

Continue reading

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

Good Archives #1 – Law vs. Justice, Respecting the Poor, Sustainable Entrepreneurship, Do Good Career Choices

If it’s true that the blogosphere is really skin-deep and that we tend to stay only on the first page of any blog, then perhaps there is some value in the ancient respected work of excavation and restoration.

To that end, I thought it might be useful to periodically dig up some previous posts and put them on a little list. Since most of the themes and questions on GG tend to be not time-dependent anyway, no dusting required! Also, some recently joined folks may find interest in them but would never in a million years bother to click through the history of this blog.

Topics in Archive #1:

  • Justice – Law vs. Justice in the Occupy Wall Street Movement
  • Poverty – Pity vs. Compassion when thinking about “The Poor”
  • Sustainability – The Right to Entrepreneurship vs. Sustainability
  • Careers – An Approach for Choosing a Do-Good Job
  • Reflections – Defining our Personal Boundaries for “Doing Good”

*****************************

On Justice

Law does not mean Justice (d’oh!) – Occupy Wall Street’s Core Challenge

  • What is the viability of the Occupy Wall Street Movement? In today’s society, is it possible to ask for justice (right or wrong) in a system where legality (rules and laws) is the official decision-making factor of a country’s rulers?

On Poverty

Respecting the Poor – What You Should and Should Not Expect from “Doing Good” Unto Others

  • How should we think about “The Poor”? What is the importance of periodically re-humanizing those we call “poor” people and what is the critical difference between “pity” and “compassion”? What’s at stake if we keep referring to those we seek to help as “the poor” without thinking about what that actually means to them (and what it would mean to us if we were in their shoes)?

On Sustainability

The Dilemma of Sustainability – Should Entrepreneurship be our Natural Right?

  • If we are serious about sustainability, should we start managing or impose stricter standards on the way every day in the world new companies get started that just add to the burden of resource depletion and emissions? Should the right to economic self-actualization overrule the need for environmental stewardship? How should we manage this unbridled activity especially in developing markets where people tend to be less educated or interested in sustainability?

On Careers

4 Steps to Choosing a “Good Career” (Part 1) – Scaling of Impact

  • How should we think about choosing careers in the so-called “do-good” jobs of social entrepreneurship, NGOs, philanthropy, impact investing, etc.? How can we make the decision as individually relevant as possible to our own desires and varying needs for ambitious results? Should we care more about how much impact we are having or how we feel about what we do?

On Reflections

Weekly Ponder #1 – Defining our Do-Good Boundaries: Will my Effort ever be Enough?

  • How can we define how much we should get engaged in the business of doing good or changing the world? Should we volunteer, work part time, work full time for our cause? How much of our effort is “enough” to achieve those goals? How much is “enough” for our personal satisfaction? What does this depend on?
Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Weekly Poll #5 – Mulla, Mulla, Mulla: What’s the $ Reality of Social Enterprises?

Weekly Poll #5:

Mulla, Mulla, Mulla: What’s the $ Reality of Social Enterprises?

In a previous Weekly Ponder that dealt with how much “impact” we expect doing good to have on our wallet, the poll results suggested the majority of people do actually care about “doing good and doing well” when it comes to working for social enterprises or NGOs in terms of expecting to make a good living, too. Not only did they care, but they also seemed to agree that the level of pay seems relatively low and unattractive at present.

I’ve since then had a chance for a few good conversations with fellow Good Generation members here and there over a cup of coffee or dinner on the subject of compensation. We agreed that while NGO studies have been around for a while, there exists too little transparency and research in the relatively recent field of for-profit social enterprises on what salary levels currently are and whether this has been adequate to attract and retain talent lured by the call to “do good and do well”. More enigmatic even to me is what the expected progression should be for someone within 2, 5 or even 10 years of working for a social enterprise. The assumption of some people remains that a social enterprise should pay better than the traditional NGO because it’s more like a “business”. Interesting! But is it true?

Continue reading

Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Weekly Ponder #6 – Money Talks: Should Doing Good have more Impact on Your Wallets?

Weekly Ponder #6

Money Talks: Should Doing Good have more Impact on Your Wallets?

Raise your hands if you have heard the following phrase: “Doing Good While Doing Well.” Now raise your hands if you did not know that this refers to companies and investors. Yes, the money goes to them. Not to you. That is, not to most of you, who are likely neither a company nor have the money to play impact investor. If you care about such things as “doing well” (ah heck, let’s call it what it is: money), my ponder of the week may resonate.

Personally, and frankly, I cannot imagine why we would care about how much “good profits” those responsible/sustainable corporations make or why we would care that the (already wealthy) impact investors get a little extra cash in the bank, without first talking about making “good living” ourselves. Perhaps that explains my aversion to a phrase which smells like good PR but lacks personal significance that I can relate to by any measure.

A further thought. To review a perennial bone that I love to unearth occasionally (see previous post where I mentioned the issue of compensation), I continually try to tell myself that the following is not true: that the vast majority of “do-good” jobs that DIRECTLY affect the (social/environmental) bottom line, e.g., working for social enterprises and NGOs, do not seem to pay so well. We’re not even comparing to traditional for-profit jobs here. We just have to compare that to those do-good jobs that exist more to ENABLE other change-makers, e.g., foundations, institutions like World Bank, ADB, and consultancies. If you didn’t know, allow me to suggest this carefully: the latter make (a lot) more money than the former! Today’s question is not why there is a difference and whether that is appropriate or fair, or exactly what levels of positions we are talking about here (although both may be addressed by a future post). Today’s question may be simply about why do-good pay is (relatively) low and unattractive period – and whether this is okay.

Continue reading

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

Good Profile – Mrim Boutla (More Than Money Careers)

Good Profiles feature members of our Good Generation who are either out there in the field doing interesting work or still in the trenches of schools and institutions waiting to make their mark on the world. Have your own story to tell? Know someone who would be great to be profiled? Please sign-up or leave a note here!

***

What do you do for a living nowadays?

I am a recovering brain scientist turned career coach and social entrepreneur. Right now, I am partnering with Dr. Mark Albion, former Harvard Business School Professor and Co-Founder of Net Impact to grow More Than Money Careers. More Than Money Careers is a for-profit social enterprise that helps students and professionals Get Clear, Get Connected and Get Hired for well-paying career opportunities that match their values.

More Than Money Careers offers an online library of modules and online training programs that university staff can use as they work with students and working professionals to get hired for career opportunities in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Social Enterprise, and Sustainable Business.

We are in our first year of operations, and thus far we have 13 campus partners: Brown University, Carlson School of Management (University of Minnesota), Darden School of Business (University of Virginia), George Washington University School of Business, Kenan-Flagler School of Business (University of North Carolina), Lokey Graduate School of Business (Mills College), Ross School of Business (University of Michigan), Seattle University, Smith School of Business (University of Maryland), Terry College of Business (University of Georgia), Texas State University, Yale School of Management, and Zicklin School of Business (Baruch College).

Continue reading

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Good & Gasp #1 – Encore-Stagers, Toil-o-preneurs, Impact Investing Bubbles

Good & Gasp #1

Encore-Stagers, Toil-o-preneurs, Impact Investing Bubbles

Themes that caught my attention, interest or made my eyes roll while roaming the web world of doing good:

  • Encore Fellowships – how to use the potential of OLDER people, instead of YOUNGER people
  • Toil-o-preneurs – innovations in solving worldwide sanitation problems
  • Civic responsibility – how to get Americans to find public jobs “cool” again (if ever)
  • Impact Investing troubles and bubbles – are we on an impact investing bubble since nobody seems able to find all those financially juicy deals that we’ve been promised?
  • Good (Business) Generation Gaps – discussion on the shift in generations towards doing more social good (btw, this was a “gasp” for me)

Continue reading

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Weekly Poll #2 – Deferring Doing Good: Are you doing it? Why?

Weekly Poll #2:

Deferring Doing Good: Are you doing it? Why?

One of the themes I alluded to in Weekly Ponder #3 had to do with the idea that quite a few of us in the Good Generation currently tend to be members more in “thought than deed.” In short, quite a few of us are working at jobs full time that, whether we enjoy them deeply or not, we may have a hard time defining as technically “doing good”. We may be “doing cool” or “doing nifty”. We may also just “do less bad.” But if we are going to be honest with ourselves, during a private moment, it would be a true statement that we have chosen for one reason or another to “defer doing good” on a full time basis.

I don’t know if that is a good or a bad thing. Many times, it might simply be the reasonable thing. And I don’t know if that is good or bad, either.

I just know that at some point, some of us stood at Robert Frost’s famous spot where “two roads in a yellow wood diverged” … and we chose the path more traveled. Despite all the motivational graduation speeches we have  heard in our lifetime expounding on the virtues of taking the less traveled road – whatever that means for each of us – we consciously chose not to.

Why is that? What still keeps you back? Are the reasons back then still valid today? Do you have regrets? Do you think “it” – whatever that is – will still be there when you are ready in a few years? How many of us are doing this?

That is what this week’s poll is about: learning why some of us deferred their inner urge to do good more full-time instead of part-time or “dream time” (in our minds only)… and if we are going to be okay with that in the long term.

As always, please do feel free to share any suggestions for future polls you may find interesting to learn more about your fellow Good Generation comrades and their views on various topics. I’d be happy to pick up on some of these ideas in the future.

Continue reading

Tagged , , ,

A 6-Step Impact Investing Career Checklist (Final Part 5) – Return Expectations and Know Thyself

Key Ideas in this Post

  • Impact investing is the latest hot topic in the do-good community around the world. At its core, the idea of actually “investing” in social-purpose organizations and achieve both “social and environmental” and “financial” returns for money, as an alternative and complement to philanthropy, gets people excited. Whether you think it’s just repackaging of old ideas or a legitimate paradigm shift, this “field” has undeniably gotten significant attention in the last five years.
  • In Part 1 and Part 2 of this 5-part series, I proposed a 6-step mental checklist that may help you navigate your career in this field, and I started with elaborating on the first two items dealing with identifying opportunities and becoming more aware of your actual role on the job.
  • In Part 3, I discussed the importance of  understanding what type of people and personalities manage impact investment funds to determine compatibility with your own style, but also to get a sense how your negotiation may be influenced by their background.
  • In Part 4, I suggested that sensing whether or not your impact investor knows what types of organizations she wants to invest in was very informative because it will tell you a lot about your potential life and the long term viability of the fund you are considering.
  • In this final Part 5, I will ask you to probe for the impact investor’s return expectations as an indication of how much they are in touch with reality and then ultimately how to assess yourself and your preferences before going into that interview.

Continue reading

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,