Ask HN: Public Benefit Jobs?

3 points by jordanreger 2 years ago | 1 comment

Hey all,

I am in my last year of software engineering at university. I am struggling with the idea of working for a large company, especially ones that produce things that are harmful to us all (social media being a leading issue). I don't care about making any money for myself as I live a simple life, and I want to build something useful or at the very least neutral in its effect on us.

That brings me to public benefit corporations, nonprofits, etc. However, in a lot of situations the only PBCs I see are crypto... "companies" or spinoffs from massive companies. What I'm talking about when I say "public benefit" is a group of people working to build an open source, highly reproducible weather station that could be easily and cheaply distributed to people in need.

Any ideas?

Towaway69 2 years ago |

As someone who has worked some 20 years in IT and much that in marketing related companies, I can only encourage your take on life.

It is difficult to find companies that align with your sentiments, there is simply no money to be made in providing honest public benefit. Even if companies promise such things (googles don't do evil motto bring a prime example), it tends to turn out to be the opposite.

Your best bets are - perhaps - research organisations (unis, government funded organisations or similar), small local companies (people that you know) or NGOs (beware most also have hidden agendas depending on where they get their money from).

Enjoy your studies and keep being inquisitive.