I regularly receive questions as requests for advice from recent grads and people considering a career shift about what it's like doing "data for good" work. So, in trying to follow David Robinson's great advice and create something that's a bit easier to reference for future searchers, I've compiled an constantly-evolving list of my favorite resources and typical answers and will continue to add others as I remember old ones and discover new ones.
What's it like doing data work at a nonprofit?
Fun! Interesting! Sometimes frustrating!
I did a few interviews about this with Andrea Koppel of the Time4Coffee Podcast where we got into the stories of how I came to the field after making my own career shift, the nuts and bolts of my typical day, and some suggestions for people looking to forge a similar path.
There's also a second, much shorter, episode where I talk more specifically about how newcomers can break into the field.
Where should I be looking for jobs?
The universe of opportunities to do data work in organizations with a social good component isn't massive, but it's growing. The diversity of roles that organizations are searching to fill also seems to grow by the day. One of the best ways I've found to keep tabs on the kinds of gigs that are out there are via tech/data/social good-specific job boards. A few solid ones are:
While less common than other types of data roles, many nonprofits do have full-time data opportunities on staff. There are way too many to list here, but some examples include:
Disclaimer: I've either been directly affiliated with, or have friends who have been directly affiliated with, all the organizations listed above