HN Explorer

Ask HN: Recommend employers with positive social impact

169 points by sepiasaucer ↗ HN
I am interested in finding a job at a company that is having a positive impact in the world. I think this probably rules out FANG (MAMAA?) companies. Does your work make at least a small contribution to a better world? If so, where do you work?

200 comments

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giantg2
You could start by looking at companies that comprise ESG ETFs. Granted many of the companies included in there could be semineutral or debatable as to actual benefit.
bluescrn
> You could start by looking at companies that comprise ESG ETFs.

You could, if you believe that oil companies deserve a better score than Tesla.

turtledove
Oil companies definitely don't belong. But also Tesla probably doesn't either.
giantg2
I don't believe either are in ESG indexes at this point. Tesla was but was later removed.
giantg2
Tesla has a lot of issues. It's not a stretch to see their material risks (lithium, cobalt, nickel, plastic aka oil) as being pretty bad. The source of the electric powering the car matters too. As does the fact that they still use oil based or CO2 emitting roadways and the effects of the brake pads and tires.

They certainly have problems. Tesla and oil companies have material and process (environmental) risks. Tesla also has the risks associated with poor societal and governance stances.

So back to my original comment - you'll have to look into the companies themselves because their "benefits" are debatable, including Tesla's.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/18/why-tesla-was-kicked-out-of-...

Edit: wow getting a lot of hate without any reply. I guess just because I'm critical of Tesla?

dbrueck
> I guess just because I'm critical of Tesla?

No, it's because the ESG stuff seems more about virtue signaling than doing actual good, and the fact that that one main list includes oil companies but excludes Tesla is really compelling evidence of this.

Other downvotes are probably for stuff like "the fact that they still use oil based or CO2 emitting roadways". I mean... c'mon.

giantg2
"the fact that that one main list includes oil companies but excludes Tesla is really compelling evidence of this."

This doesn't seem like compelling evidence without diving into why. Tesla is quite shady in trying to avoid things. For example, not complying with battery laws in Germany, working conditions issues, etc.

The ESG score also include "S" and "G". It's not all about "E".

But I agree that the scores don't mean much. Which, for the third time, I recommend looking into the companies because their "benefits" are generally debatable.

"I mean... c'mon."

Well I guess I'll like to evaluate from a systems thinking standpoint. N-order impacts are relevant.

dbrueck
> This doesn't seem like compelling evidence without diving into why

Fair enough, but not only is a company pushing us towards renewable energy better than a company resisting that better in the abstract, the real issue is the specific companies that the ESG index kept while booting Tesla.

https://slate.com/technology/2016/12/exxon-mobil-is-the-wors... https://www.npr.org/2019/10/22/772241282/exxon-is-on-trial-a... https://www.vox.com/22429551/climate-change-crisis-exxonmobi...

The list goes on and on and on, and this isn't even taking into account all of their lawsuits from employees about inappropriate workplace things. Again, it's not that Tesla is some pristine company, but that it's extremely hypocritical for booting Tesla from a list but keeping at least one other company that is far worse in pretty much every way, and that's what really calls into question the legitimacy of the ESG ratings.

> [criticism about criticism about Tesla relying on oil-based roads] > Well I guess I'll like to evaluate from a systems thinking standpoint. N-order impacts are relevant.

Of course they are relevant, but dinging a company because they don't solve every tangential issue seems defeatist, and every ESG index company has at least as many ways in which they could theoretically do much more if we start connecting the dots to everything in the system they're a part of. So it's just back to the original point: the ESG scoring seems, at best, pretty inconsistent.

giantg2
Those articles are about old actions of the company. Those issues have led to changes that cause the company to be on the list now. They are spending billions on reducing emissions, researching alternative fuels, and partnering with renewable companies.

Meanwhile, Tesla and Musk have a very recent historical pattern of not caring about environmental regulations, with no indication of any change in belief or practice.

So one is at least putting up money to try to improve things, while the other DGAF about the environment if it gets in their way of their business.

https://tyt.com/stories/4vZLCHuQrYE4uKagy0oyMA/6qN1EZx2r1p7a...

dbrueck
Here's some newer articles about recent and even ongoing sketchy behavior by Exxon:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jan/18/exxon-te...

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/28/california-subpoenas-exxon-f...

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/may/11/exxon-ad...

https://grist.org/beacon/did-exxon-know-about-plastics-too/

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-labor-board-impou...

https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/mass-top-court-skep...

When a company has literally decades of bad behavior (including multiple instances of being caught and then promising to do better and then being caught lying about it), it's a little hard to immediately accept at face value their most recent good deeds (especially since even some of them are already looking shady).

giantg2
"When a company has literally decades of bad behavior (including multiple instances of being caught and then promising to do better and then being caught lying about it), it's a little hard to immediately accept at face value their most recent good deeds (especially since even some of them are already looking shady)."

True. Sounds like both of them.

giaour
You could try looking at civic technology organizations. I felt that the work I did at USDS had a huge positive impact, and you can find private firms like Nava or Truss that work on the same / similar projects if you don't want to work directly for the government. There are similar agencies and organizations in Canada, the UK, EU countries, and some Latin American countries, too.

There are also some orgs at tech giants that work on socially impactful products (e.g., sustainable hardware teams at AWS or Azure, like the folks who work on https://natick.research.microsoft.com/), so I wouldn't rule those out entirely.

tyleo
I work for Rec Room. While we make a game, millions of kids are using it and "accidentally" learning engineering skills while they think they are making games :)

We have a principal role open on the team right now but may be able to accommodate others. We essentially make a programming language and the gameplay elements on top. The principal role is on the language side but we could potentially make more roles on the gameplay side. Email me (tyler@recroom.com) if you are interested. I've attached a description of the role below.

---- ROLE DESCRIPTION ----

Principal Software Engineer - Programming Language Architecture

Rec Room is a fun and welcoming community where people from all walks of life come together to play, chat, hang out, learn, build, and explore millions of experiences. Circuits is our-in game programming language that brings these experiences to life: it is a game for building games. Children and adults alike use Circuits as a fun and educational programming tool or a pleasant and productive way to unwind after work hours. By using Circuits, many creators learn programming for the first time and gain lifelong skills used for hobbies, college decisions, or even work opportunities.

As a principal software engineer focusing on programming language architecture, you will own key-components of Circuits and work with a team of world-class engineers to build gameplay, compilers, and interpreters. To move the needle on what's possible: you must work with designers to balance modern language capabilities with a focus on usability for all creators, novice or advanced. Join Rec Room and help improve the lives of millions in our community by picking up programming for the first time or building and sharing with friends.

We are looking for:

Proficient in multiple programming languages: Our client code is written in C#, but an understanding of type-safe, functional, and scripting languages is necessary to drive technical discussions. C, C++, Rust, JavaScript, TypeScript, and Lisp are great examples.

Experienced with full-stack programming language development*: Circuits is a key differentiator for Rec Room. It includes a VM, type system, compiler, runtime environment, debugger, and IDE that work across PC, phones, VR and all major consoles. An understanding of language development is necessary to ensure that Circuits retains usability and high-performance while working across existing and future platforms.

Experienced with video game development: 5+ years experience building games on any platform with complex behavior and live updates. Circuits is built, compiled and executed within the game. So an understanding of the performance requirements, design considerations, and execution model of games ensures that Circuits is a cohesive part of the overall game-play experience.

Comfortable working in a fast-paced, autonomous, and ambiguous environment: At Rec Room we bias towards action.

Rather than meticulous planning with an avalanche of meetings we build things when in doubt. As a top engineer you will execute with a high degree of trust and autonomy to cut through our most challenging technical puzzles.

Lifelong learners: Our top engineers across the company keep up with cutting edge articles, papers, and books. As a member of this group you will be expected to learn, improve and help others improve.

*You don't have to match all of the skills above to apply!*

Bonus points:

Experienced with writing unit tests: Circuits is the most heavily tested component of the Rec Room codebase. All major language features are covered with tests such that developers have immediate feedback when they introduce an error.

Experienced with multiplayer networking: Rec Room is an online-only game with a peer-to-peer networking model. Significant architectural thought is allocated to keeping networking simple across the organization. Circuits itself must keep its data structures consistent across all clients in an experience while it is being actively edited to ensure creators run the s...

BadCookie
The techjobsforgood.com jobs board is useful for this, but a lot of the postings are from nonprofits and the pay is often below market (or so it seems to me).
antognini
I work at Whisper AI, which is a startup building a better kind of hearing aid.

The basic pitch is that by far and away the biggest problem people with hearing aids have is hearing in noisy, crowded environments like restaurants and parties. Classical DSP algorithms have a very hard time in these situations because the spectral properties of the noise look very similar to the signal since both are speech.

What we do differently is we provide a small companion unit, about the size of a flip phone, that houses a much more powerful processor than you can fit behind the ear. Since we have more than three orders of magnitude more compute than a traditional hearing aid, we can run modern deep neural networks to denoise audio in real time.

We are hiring for a variety of roles, but I in particular have been looking to hire a machine learning engineer for my team.

wiskinator
Hah! Came here to post about our work. I’m so proud to work here.
dougmwne
This is actually not as hard as it seems, you just have to be willing to take a truly eye watering paycut. Think 4x. Think enough money over a lifetime to start your own charitable foundation.

Head over to Idealist.org and pick a cause. Choose carefully, you better really f-n love it. Source: been there, done that, got the t-shirt somewhere around here. (And yeah, I changed the world too while I was at it.)

benrmatthews
Eye watering to you, close to a normal wage for most of the population at most nonprofits, especially in tech roles.
dougmwne
But those people cannot make FAANG money. Apparently OP has that option, so their opportunity cost is enormous compared to your average graduate.
iancmceachern
Anyone in the medical device, medical tech, or bio tech spaces.
realslimjd
Right now I work for Aledade [1] where we're focused on improving outcomes while lowering cost of care for Medicare patients. The amount of good we do in the world is directly aligned with how we make money, so there's never conflict between doing the right thing and doing the thing that will make us the most money. We have a Python backend and Vue frontend, a lot of unit tests, and a lot of really great people.

Previously I worked at findhelp [2]. I loved the mission, helping people locate community resources, but leadership was really focused on chasing money rather than focusing on user experience. Occasionally customers asked us to do things that would actively hamper the ability of people in marginalized groups to find programs aimed at helping them, and we usually obliged. I know a few people that have moved over to their chief competitor Unite Us [3] and they seem happier there.

[1] https://jobs.lever.co/aledade?lever-via=4Oe9-BZLKF

[2] https://jobs.lever.co/findhelp

[3] https://uniteus.com/our-careers/

wolfadex
There are a handful of people in the Elm Slack that work for companies that fit this description. I've seen everything from education to green energy and more. Might be a good place to ask. I know each of those companies needs back end devs, and likely had some non-Elm code as well.
yboris
For focusing on the world's most important problems in effective ways, please look into 80,000 Hours (an organization named after the approximate number of hours of work in a typical life-long career).

https://80000hours.org/ & https://80000hours.org/job-board/

They are aligned with Effective Altruism which is focusing on effective ways to do the most good - https://www.effectivealtruism.org/

atlasunshrugged
I strongly second this; their guides and advice have helped me focus my career and delve into potentially high impact pathways. They do skew a bit longtermist (think AI safety), but they have guides and jobs for all sorts of high impact roles.
RcouF1uZ4gsC
My advice is to join a company that is not making a negative impact on the world that pays well.

Many times companies that are trying to make a positive impact on the world can be miserable places to work. Many times there is this unsaid assumption that workers needs are secondary to the larger goal of helping the world (instead of increasing your salary, we could use that money to save even more babies). Also, people who think they are doing good for the world, will excuse bad behavior in themselves, since the good that they have done, so far outweighs the bad).

So I would recommend, going to a job that pays well and doesn't harm the world. Learn skills, make money, and do your own positive impact for the world on your own terms.

OrangeMonkey
Work in the healthcare / life sciences world.

I choose to work mainly with oncology related life science companies and it is a great feeling know that I am helping patients live longer and help with the treatment of cancer.

yboris
Regardless of where you end up working, consider donating some non-trivial part of your income to cost-effective charities (ones that use research-proven methods to help as many individuals as possible "biggest bang for the buck").

Finding such organizations is easier now than ever, since GiveWell has been working on this problem for over a decade: https://www.givewell.org/

And 10% seems like a good amount to give to charity - join the thousands of others already doing it: https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/

The amount of good money can do is tremendous. For example, $3 donated to AMF (Against Malaria Foundation) results in a distribution of an anti-mosquito bednet protecting about 2 people from malaria for 3-4 years (evidence shows: prevents transmission, decreases malaria incidence in the area; kids don't miss school, parents avoid loss of income due to sickness; prevents death, and other good things).

muffinman26
Do you know if there are any organizations or websites that do what GiveWell does for more specific issues? Perhaps something like a money-to-impact-in-chosen-field rating?

As best as I could tell when I last checked, GiveWell's one metric is life years added/dollar. That's a great goal, to the point where it feels selfish to care about anything else, but when I look at my local community I do also want to know: What charities are most cost-effective at solving the local housing crisis, or preventing the disproportionate number of deaths for <minority group X> in the community, or helping refugees get back on their feet, etc.?

yboris
I wish I knew, but I'm unsure. I think with effectiveness in mind, the Effective Altruists are your best community to explore and interact with. There are various Facebook groups (and other areas on the web) within EA that focus on specific topics (environment, well-being, etc) so I suspect you could find something if you search around and ask around.

https://www.effectivealtruism.org/

ps - A humble thought. As tempting as it is to help within one's community, it's worthwhile to recognize that given the inequality in the world, and that it's just a luck-accident that you were born in this community rather than another, and that it very likely is the case that you can do a lot more good by focusing on individuals living in less-well-off-areas than what is nearby, it is good to reflect and see if you'd be willing to direct some of your philanthropic actions towards the more-effective endeavors.

muffinman26
That's a great recommendation. I'll have to give Effective Altruism a look.

Well, yes, helping one's community instead of helping individuals in less well-of areas seems selfish to the point of evil, but at the same time, it's easy to feel like https://xkcd.com/871/. If I volunteer or donate in my community, I can personally verify that something has changed, in a way that I can't on another continent.

Also, I don't personally value the years of my own life that highly. There are plenty of things that I'd happily sacrifice my own life for or rather die than endure, so it makes sense to dedicate some of my donations to helping others avoid those fates.

So yes, rationally, I think GiveWell is an amazing organization and I'm a terrible person for not donating all of my philanthropic work to malaria eradication, but realistically I'm likely to donate more in total if I also find other organizations helping with causes I'm personally invested in.

em-bee
i am not sure, i feel that helping individuals remotely is sort of like giving people fish instead of teaching them to fish. i'd focus on projects that actually have an impact on a community by helping the community to develop themselves. the best i can think of to help an individual is to offer them a job, but other help ought to be more community oriented. unless you have the ability to actually move to those places and help through building friendship. but that is much harder to achieve.
yboris
Dropping the incidence of malaria in a community is helping the community develop themselves. It's harder to improve your lot in life when your family is sick with malaria.

There is nothing you can teach for people to avoid malaria at night - mosquitos enter the house and bite you.

Importantly, consider the costs involved: $3 protects 2 people for 4 years. Can you think of a "teach them something" intervention that would provide as much good for the same amount of money?

em-bee
thank you, yes, that is a good point. i didn't consider vaccinations. there is really nothing that can replace those, no matter how self-sufficient i'd like people to be. even if a country can make their own vaccinations, that's such a specialized task that the average citizen can't really contribute to that anyways, especially not while they are still busy fighting the disease.
ageitgey
I'm a co-founder of Turquoise Health (https://turquoise.health/). We are working to improve US healthcare by exposing the prices that are negotiated at all levels of the insurance billing process and building tools where price negotiations happen in a competitive market instead of in secret.

The goal is to drive down healthcare prices using the levers that are available. Right now, there are often 10x price differences between two providers for the same service (or even between two patients at the same hospital) because all pricing is negotiated in a vacuum separately by every insurance company. It leads to a very distorted system with little downward price pressure.

We don't have a magic wand that we can wave to "fix healthcare", but we feel like we are driven by having a positive impact in the most pragmatic way possible. The premise will sound strange to people outside the US where heath care prices aren't defined by what insurance plan your job provides, but it is a huge market in the US where a ton of GDP is mis-spent on healthcare and ripe for disruption.

(And yes, we are hiring!)

wnolens
This is really interesting, but given the price discrepancy I almost find it hard to believe? lol

A colonoscopy in NYC could cost me as low as $440 or up to $11k - cash price. Same providers with insurance are 1500 or 9000.

For some folks it's almost worth it to say you have no insurance and get the cash price at the same provider. I understood it was the other way around (negotiated rates). What a world we live in.

spaetzleesser
Price transparency is definitely an important aspect to make the US system a little less insane.

One thing is to expose the negotiated prices but I think another important aspect would be to collect actual bills and publish what got actually paid.

The-Bus
I once attended a presentation of a startup that was providing this service but focused on prescription drugs (with large companies as their client). Their first step in the process was to open and run a pharmacy so they could gain that perspective.
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linsomniac
Do you have any ideas on jobs for an RN that would like to change the healthcare world. Particularly an RN that was worn down pre-pandemic from the cost optimization that leads to nurses having 2x+ the ideal patient load, and families treating them like waitresses? Asking for a friend.
ageitgey
I really wish I had some good advice, but I don't unfortunately.
akuchling
My employer, Aledade.com, runs ACOs and provides analytics and an app to help primary-care practices keep better track of their patient population. It's not necessarily revolutionary -- we're doing conventional things like reducing blood-pressure, just trying to do so conscientously. Our careers page is at <https://www.aledade.com/current-opportunities>.
linsomniac
Oh, hey akuchling, Sean here, LTNS! If you're working there, it's got to be good! I'll take a look, thanks!
jacobr
I work for Volvo Cars. It’s not in any way a charity but I believe my work has a mostly positive impact.

Among traditional auto makers were one of the most serious and committed to full electrification by 2030 and 50% electric cars by 2025. We have the same schedule for selling cars online only, so software is not just a cost center or marketing channel, it’s the future of the company.

Volvo Cars creates a significant number of well paying jobs in manufacturing with good working conditions, benefiting local communities. For example, all employees across the globe, across manufacturing and offices, were recently given 24 weeks of paid parental leave (https://www.volvocars.com/intl/about/family-bond/).

We’re hiring in multiple locations https://jobs.volvocars.com

MafellUser
Thanks for the link. Loads of software related positions in CA, but also in Denmark and of course Sweden.

Do Volvo make cars out of Shanghai exclusively these days?

jacobr
No, manufacturing is across multiple locations globally. We’re building a battery manufacturing plant in Sweden with Northvolt, expected to bring 3000 jobs.
qwedf
I've been at OPAL-RT for about a year now, providing real-time simulation tools for power electronics. So clients include electric vehicle manufacturers, renewables companies, grid operators... pretty much everyone who is involved in electricity, which is a lot. The exec team is also directly committed to being good, so work-life balance + conditions + compensation are great and they contribute something like 2% of net profits to local charities and organisations.

And yes we're profitable, demand is going up because of the push for electrification everywhere and we are hiring very aggressively. Roles have geographic designation, but can pretty much be from anywhere

https://www.opal-rt.com/careers-search-job-posting/

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lowkey_
Here's a list of startups that have a positive social impact while still paying competitive salaries and showing promising growth:

Fintech:

Forage (https://www.joinforage.com), building Stripe for EBT, i.e. food stamps

Nearside (https://www.nearside.com), banking for small businesses

KeeperTax (https://www.keepertax.com), tax savings for independent contractors

Bio/Pharma/Healthcare:

Q Bio (https://q.bio), creating a more data-driven approach to health

Reverie Labs (https://www.reverielabs.com), accelerating drug development with ML

PathAI (https://www.pathai.com), increasing diagnosis accuracy

Benchling (https://www.benchling.com), cloud for biotech R&D

Mental Health:

Alma (https://helloalma.com), providing easier access to therapy

Headway (https://headway.co), same as Alma

Juniper (https://www.juniperplatform.com), workflow tools for autism providers

Real Estate:

Orchard (https://orchard.com), buy your next home before you sell

Ribbon (https://www.ribbonhome.com), cash offers to improve home access

Hardware:

Sofar Ocean (https://www.sofarocean.com), collecting ocean data

Climate:

Watershed (https://watershed.com), platform for enterprises to reduce carbon emissions

Sweep (https://www.sweep.net)

Pachama (https://pachama.com)

Defense (if you believe that Western influence is positive impact):

Anduril (https://www.anduril.com), building high-tech defense products and reducing gov waste

Palantir (https://www.palantir.com), building data products for government

[dead] goodpoint
lowkey_
I'm not! I added the caveat to defense that not everyone thinks it has a positive influence, but the rest are hard to debate with. If you have reasons why they're negative, I'm open to hearing!
AussieWog93
I think at least part of the objection would be to Palantir being on the list. They got into all kinds of hot water for helping Trump administration do various unethical things (I don't remember the specifics)
lowkey_
I listed them in the defense category as it's not universally viewed as positive (though I think it very much is sadly necessary and positive), but in addition to that, Palantir works with tons of positive organizations including the NCMEC (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children) on tracking and preventing child sex trafficking.
spaetzleesser
I work at a medical device company. I definitely feel our products can change the lives of many people for the better. The business side of healthcare in the US is pretty dirty and work sometimes can be very slow due to regulation and the need to prevent patient harm (no "move fast and break things" here). But overall I think my work contributes to producing technology to make the world a better place.
akuataya
Hi, which company? I'm looking to combine my backgrounds in product design and molecular biology.