Comment by edent
3 years ago
You said "company". Have you considered working for your local civil service?
I've worked on things which have had a positive contribution to society. It can be something as "simple" as making a confusing form simpler, or it can be something as complex as advising on national technology policy.
The salary may not be as high as a private company (although you'd be surprised) - but the pension is usually pretty good. You get to work on things which - nominally - a plurality of your fellow citizens have decided is a priority.
If your national government isn't your thing, then your local government is probably crying out for decent technologists. That way you can make an impact on your community.
Are you going to agree with everything your bosses say or do? No. But that's not much different to any other organisation.
I wish there were a way to volunteer some of my spare time to civic stuff (as a technologist) instead of having to make it my primary employment. I'd do that in a heartbeat, and I bet lots of others would too
If you're US based, there's Code for America which is exactly that - https://codeforamerica.org . There are many local, typically city-based chapters who meet up regularly and are formed almost entirely of part time volunteers contributing whenever they have time, to whichever project match their skills and interests.
Also TechCongress, Presidential Innovation Fellowship, and a few others that have popped up with similar missions/goals. OpenPhilanthropy may do a tech policy fellowship again, if you're in the UK I believe there's a No10 fellowship
This looks awesome, I'll check it out
Send me your cv and let's see if a suitable project or task comes up.
jobs@openup.org.za