Sure, several times. I've mostly done ops for the nonprofit sector so it's a little easier (I'm in avtech right now for rea$on$, but most of my career has been nonprofit).
Now, I live in DC so this is a lot easier for me than for people who live in other cities. But K Street and Old Town are chock full of Societies for the Advancement of Whatever, who always need technical work done, and there's rarely a problem finding a "Whatever" that you believe in (or just think is cool).
A few thoughts on this:
1. The "cool" factor should not be underestimated. One of my favorite jobs was sysadmining at Mount Vernon; it's not that I particularly believe in George Washington, but that is a mission that is undeniably "cool".
2. You will not make remotely as much money as you will in the for-profit sector (see above), but you'll have a much better quality of life. I spent years as a sysadmin without a pager, because they really don't care if the server goes down overnight. You will also (in my experience) have a much freer hand with what you do than you do in a tech company. If their brief is lobbying for human rights, they neither know nor care what stack you use to implement their intranet.
3. Org work has a very specific annual rhythm that you need to understand to work with. Every year there's a conference, a publication of some sort, and a membership drive; each of those is an "all-hands-on-deck" situation that lasts about a fiscal quarter (and you probably will be stuffing envelopes and manning a booth and checking people in). That leaves you one quarter per year for infrastructure work. Use it wisely.
Not really; the big barrier is between tech companies and non-tech companies. Once you leave the tech world it can be harder to get back in.
Again, as a sysadmin my experience is probably different from a developer's: every industry needs sysadmins, and in a lot of smaller places you'll literally be the only IT employee other than possibly a CIO.
I'm not the person you're asking, but I'll throw in my two cents. If they don't have a mission, they're probably going to have trouble doing something that anyone cares about enough to pay them for.
It usually doesn't get that far - I've turned down interviews at companies I wouldn't work for because of their mission (an Apple recruiter for example who contacted me through a referral from a former colleague). If I'm that opposed to a company's mission or business practices that I'd turn down a job offer I'm probably not even going to waste my time interviewing.
Is a company's mission a big part of what you look at when you're looking at a potential employer? Have you ever sought out a job because of the company's mission?
I'm not the person you're responding to, but I have, and will continue to assess a company's "mission" before working there. I also look for companies in my community that I'd be exceptionally happy to work for from a mission standpoint.
It's way easier to be passionate about your work when you're doing it for something you really believe in.
It's a fairly important factor, there's quite a few companies I'd be unlikely to work for due to qualms about how they operate. There's others I'd be more inclined to work for because of their mission. Ultimately the work has to be engaging though, I'm unlikely to take a job working on something that doesn't interest me just because I believe in the company's mission.
I have passed on many opportunities. Without a lucid mission and vision, what is the company doing? If my heart isn't in full alignment with the organization, why am I committing a large chunk of my waking life to furthering their goals? Our dance on this earth is too short to commit your health, talent, and wisdom to something you don't believe in.
Can you share the circumstance that you're mulling over? Good paycheque, ambiguous plan?
I've been reading this Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble and it just kinda got me thinking about the topic in general.
There's no special circumstance that's prompting me to ask this question. It was something I thought about and was surprised that there were no HN discussions about it.
We see a lot of posts here about culture fit, compensation, and perks but I wonder how many people go to a company because they believe in the mission of a company.
I almost signed at a software company working with interesting maintenance optimization for big machines, like trains or helicopters. Up until the final meeting with the CEO, I was promised that I could stay out of the military applications. But the CEO luckily told me that actually I could not be avoid those applications. So I politely said that I would being declining the offer and that I was disappointed that lower staffs and bosses mislead me.
Yes, if you don't believe in the mission or at least think it is a good idea you aren't going to do well there as some place where you do. It's a lot easier to do that much more even in a 9-5 role when you don't have to spend effort trying to make sense of what is going on. It's the same as on the other side of the hiring equation saying someone is a 'bad fit' for the work you had planned for them.
I don't work for fossil fuel companies, or companies that do heavy business with them. Along the same lines I would love to find a job with a company in the green energy/sustainability business. Problem is that there don't seem to be a ton of options for the kind of coding I do...
Yes, most notably to work on a microfinance platform. I believed in the social mission and the model's viability.
As for the inverse, I've avoided many large tech companies because I felt they broadly lacked a mission.
I don't regret following my proverbial heart from time to time, but I do actually regret not trying out one of the tech giants while I was still in the US - some domains and problem spaces are hard to work on elsewhere, Greater Mission (tm) or no.
I have quit a job mostly because of the unofficial but clearly visible mission change.
So far I haven't taken a job because of a specific mission (I'm happy as long there actually is one beyond a sales pitch), but denied or ignored offers from companies where I would have moral problems with what their doing.
I once joined a successful, for-profit, private company, because I liked its mission, despite being offered lower compensation and benefits than I could have accepted elsewhere. This was very naive of me, and didn't turn out how I had hoped at all.
It turned out that the mission was more of a very well executed recruiting and sales strategy than what I felt every day at the organization. Looking back, the recruiting effort talked about their culture and values so much that I should have known they were very insecure about something. The lower compensation wasn't required by the company's financials from what I could tell, nor was it made up for by especially meaningful work. Unsurprisingly, the organizational flaws of not valuing employees and cutting corners also showed up in other ways, most painfully in the form of amazingly bad code and hostile managers. The job was unbearable for me, as well as for many others.
I think the takeaway is that honest, successful companies should be willing to fairly compensate their employees. If a company can do that but doesn't, you should reconsider working there.
I worked as a software developer at a nonprofit for four years, mostly because of the organization's mission. It didn't pay nearly as well as the for-profit sector, but the job had quality-of-life advantages that mostly offset that.
The nonprofit sector has its share of frustrations. Nonprofits are subject to auditing requirements that restrict them from doing things that we take for granted in the for-profit sector, and fundraising campaigns were always really stressful. But, by and large, it was four years of productive, meaningful, good-quality work.
You know the scene near the end of "Real Genius", when the team realizes they've been duped and Chris screams "Kent, how could you build that mirror?!"?
I ask myself that question before taking a job, so that nobody else will be able to.
I've done (and will continue to do) volunteer work on the side. That's often a part-time job (20 hrs/wk) taken entirely due to the mission of the organization.
Freeflight, an exotic bird sanctuary in San Diego. I like birds, they can be very friendly animals.
The Los Angeles Maritime Institute. I'm a member of the International Guild of Knot Tyers, I like knots and ropework, so helping out with the maintenance of the tall ships was a great experience.
That brings up an added benefit of volunteer work: it doesn't need to have any relation to your day job.
1. I want to be working on helping scientists, and this influenced current job search. Beyond personal satisfaction, this also has practical benefits: all things being equal, if you're motivated by the company's mission you'll be more focused (more at https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/08/03/stay-focused/).
2. There are jobs I simply won't take, because I think they're immoral or unethical. Other jobs I'd probably only take if I was desperate for money, since they seem pointless. (more at https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/08/07/do-something-useful/).
So basically, my take is: finding someplace that you think is worthwhile and is a good work environment. Any, of course, pays you what you need. Living below your means can give you more flexibility in what jobs you need to take.
Absolutely. My current position was carefully chosen (academic open source software development) for this reason. I did interview with some other companies, including ARM and Google. I could have definitely taken their offer and worked for ARM on Aarch64 toolchain stuff, which was also all open source software work. I would not have taken up a position with Google; its goals are not aligned with my own, no matter how much they might have paid.
In a healthy job market, it's fairly easy to go beyond just salary and duties and decide based on more esoteric reasons whether to join a company or not.
I once turned down a job that paid more than another one because they wanted me to wear a tie.
52 comments
[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 133 ms ] threadNow, I live in DC so this is a lot easier for me than for people who live in other cities. But K Street and Old Town are chock full of Societies for the Advancement of Whatever, who always need technical work done, and there's rarely a problem finding a "Whatever" that you believe in (or just think is cool).
A few thoughts on this:
1. The "cool" factor should not be underestimated. One of my favorite jobs was sysadmining at Mount Vernon; it's not that I particularly believe in George Washington, but that is a mission that is undeniably "cool".
2. You will not make remotely as much money as you will in the for-profit sector (see above), but you'll have a much better quality of life. I spent years as a sysadmin without a pager, because they really don't care if the server goes down overnight. You will also (in my experience) have a much freer hand with what you do than you do in a tech company. If their brief is lobbying for human rights, they neither know nor care what stack you use to implement their intranet.
3. Org work has a very specific annual rhythm that you need to understand to work with. Every year there's a conference, a publication of some sort, and a membership drive; each of those is an "all-hands-on-deck" situation that lasts about a fiscal quarter (and you probably will be stuffing envelopes and manning a booth and checking people in). That leaves you one quarter per year for infrastructure work. Use it wisely.
Did you start out with nonprofits or move to nonprofits later in your career?
Again, as a sysadmin my experience is probably different from a developer's: every industry needs sysadmins, and in a lot of smaller places you'll literally be the only IT employee other than possibly a CIO.
The company I am at right now has a clear vision and a clear mission. I find myself a lot more motivated.
Dodged a bullet there, considering that those options would probably be underwater.
It's way easier to be passionate about your work when you're doing it for something you really believe in.
Can you share the circumstance that you're mulling over? Good paycheque, ambiguous plan?
There's no special circumstance that's prompting me to ask this question. It was something I thought about and was surprised that there were no HN discussions about it.
We see a lot of posts here about culture fit, compensation, and perks but I wonder how many people go to a company because they believe in the mission of a company.
As for the inverse, I've avoided many large tech companies because I felt they broadly lacked a mission.
I don't regret following my proverbial heart from time to time, but I do actually regret not trying out one of the tech giants while I was still in the US - some domains and problem spaces are hard to work on elsewhere, Greater Mission (tm) or no.
So far I haven't taken a job because of a specific mission (I'm happy as long there actually is one beyond a sales pitch), but denied or ignored offers from companies where I would have moral problems with what their doing.
It turned out that the mission was more of a very well executed recruiting and sales strategy than what I felt every day at the organization. Looking back, the recruiting effort talked about their culture and values so much that I should have known they were very insecure about something. The lower compensation wasn't required by the company's financials from what I could tell, nor was it made up for by especially meaningful work. Unsurprisingly, the organizational flaws of not valuing employees and cutting corners also showed up in other ways, most painfully in the form of amazingly bad code and hostile managers. The job was unbearable for me, as well as for many others.
I think the takeaway is that honest, successful companies should be willing to fairly compensate their employees. If a company can do that but doesn't, you should reconsider working there.
The nonprofit sector has its share of frustrations. Nonprofits are subject to auditing requirements that restrict them from doing things that we take for granted in the for-profit sector, and fundraising campaigns were always really stressful. But, by and large, it was four years of productive, meaningful, good-quality work.
I ask myself that question before taking a job, so that nobody else will be able to.
The Los Angeles Maritime Institute. I'm a member of the International Guild of Knot Tyers, I like knots and ropework, so helping out with the maintenance of the tall ships was a great experience.
That brings up an added benefit of volunteer work: it doesn't need to have any relation to your day job.
New user (10 days) This is the only comment by the user.
Google Translation of comment: "Hi, I want to be honest. I can help you make progress."
Not exactly adding to the discussion.
edit - weird... a couple of minutes ago this account was 10 days old.... then it changed to 13 days, then 14....(I assume someone is messing...)
edit2 - and now 15 days, now 16....
Its mainly for practical reasons, they tend to pay less.
1. I want to be working on helping scientists, and this influenced current job search. Beyond personal satisfaction, this also has practical benefits: all things being equal, if you're motivated by the company's mission you'll be more focused (more at https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/08/03/stay-focused/).
2. There are jobs I simply won't take, because I think they're immoral or unethical. Other jobs I'd probably only take if I was desperate for money, since they seem pointless. (more at https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/08/07/do-something-useful/).
That being said:
* If you're bored, you will enjoy your job less.
* If you're working crazy long hours, you're actively undermining your ability to do your job. Doesn't matter how important it is, working longer won't actually help. (more at https://codewithoutrules.com/2016/08/18/productive-programme...)
So basically, my take is: finding someplace that you think is worthwhile and is a good work environment. Any, of course, pays you what you need. Living below your means can give you more flexibility in what jobs you need to take.
Also, I've found that the more a company talks about how great their "culture" is, the shitty it is in actual practice.
I once turned down a job that paid more than another one because they wanted me to wear a tie.