Ask HN: Developer jobs that help people?

2 points by sonjat 3 years ago | 1 comment

A few years ago I had a personal tragedy that has made my motivation for my current career path (developer, mostly working with C and Python) plummet. I would like to pivot to a job with more personal meaning to me. Perhaps something that helps people with addiction, or more generally mental health. Or anything that could help deal with the fentanyl crisis. Perhaps even more generally, any job that works on helping the youth. Has anyone done anything in these fields using your programming background? I've started classes to be a counselor, but I don't think I'm a very good fit for such a people-centered job.

darrelld 3 years ago |

I moved away from for profit orgs to work for a social movement org a few years back.

Your best bet is to find orgs that you like, and reach out to them. Some may have a careers page, others won't. Mostly you can expect to get contracting gigs if you form a relationship with them. These places rarely have a tech team and usually outsource anything technical.

If you're accustomed to working in tech circles with well defined roles and working with people who know what it takes to build software, be warned that you won't find that at most other places outside of tech, especially if you're thinking about orgs that deal with addiction or mental health. Be prepared to explain concepts you took for granted (like sprints) to a lot of people.