Benjamin Todd

It's hard to meet all of these criteria in one job but they're all worth looking out for.

Here are some more considerations in choosing where to work.

Should you work in the private sector or at a non-profit?

The private sector might actually be a better place to learn productivity because the clear feedback mechanism of profit weeds out ineffective work faster.

Our impression is that many conventional non-profits are pretty dysfunctional which is one reason why non-profit leaders often recommend training up elsewhere.

Another big factor is there are far more jobs in the private sector and the higher pay can help you build up your runway.

That said, there are lots of great organizations and teams across all sectors, including non-profits, government, and academia.

Even putting impact aside, working in an organization with a social mission can offer major advantages, such as getting to learn about a pressing global problem, meeting and being around other people who want to do good, and more motivation and meaning.

Should you work for a small or large organization?

In smaller organizations, you can usually learn a wider variety of skills and potentially get more responsibility faster.

Larger organizations are usually more well-known, so offer good credentials for your CV and have roles with lower variance, and often have more capacity for training and mentorship.

More speculatively, smaller organizations may have better feedback loops between performance and success, while succeeding in large organizations becomes more about navigating politics and bureaucracy, though these can be valuable skills too.

If you want to work in the non-profit sector longer term, many of the organizations are small, so working at a smaller organization may give you more relevant skills.

However, if you want to work in government and policy, large organisations could be better preparation.

What will the people be like?

There's a lot of cultural variance between organisations and even between teams within the same organisation.

If your goal is career capital, you should prioritise working somewhere you'll get good mentoring and feedback on your work.

It's hard to learn without good teaching or role models.

Likewise, the character of the people you work with will rub off on you.

Which concrete options seem best?