Impactfully No. 68: Viewing the world through a happiness lens
This week, APDS prepares every justice-impacted individual for a living wage job, Pearl Certification helps homeowners build more sustainable homes and reap the benefits, and 75F puts the internet of things to work reducing our climate footprint.
Things are pretty tough in the world right now. I'm reminded of a book called Delivering Happiness – it chronicles the start of Zappos, which popularized shopping for shoes online. The author and CEO of the company, Tony Hsieh, was deeply interested in happiness and built a lot of what he researched into the way he ran the company.
It's worth a read, but I'd like to share two things I remember vividly from that book.
First, he describes happiness as a sort of root cause of why anyone does anything. If you keep asking someone "why," they end up at "because it will make me happy."
For example, ask yourself why you are looking for a social impact job. Let's say it's so you can work on a problem that aligns with your values. Then you would ask why you want to work on a problem that aligns with your values. You'd get another answer. You'd ask why again. Tony asserts that when you get to the end of that chain, you'll find happiness as the key driver.
The second thing I remember is simply a framework for what constitutes happiness. He shares a few frameworks, but this is the one I memorized:
- Perceived progress
- Perceived control
- Quantity and depth of relationships
- Vision and meaning – being part of something bigger than yourself
Whenever I'm unhappy, I can point to one of those four things as the reason. Likewise, I think we can attribute much of what is going on in the world – oversimplified of course – to one or more of these areas not being met. Take the frustration over spending power for instance – people essentially went backwards, a lack of perceived progress.
Originally, I was going to write a bit more here about our featured company this week, APDS, who does excellent work helping people who leave the justice system find their footing again. It made me think about opportunity and what drives people to the system in the first place. I don't have the answer to any of these big, hairy, complex issues facing the world today. But I do think if we can identify the unhappiness and address it, we can have a huge impact.
Here are this week's job opportunities:
APDS is preparing every justice-impacted individual for a living wage job. They provide educational tools and partner with other organizations to help prepare individuals for careers after incarceration.
- Marketing and Communications Manager – Remote
- Product Manager – Remote
- UX Lead – Remote
Context Travel offers expert-led tours that connect travelers to some of the most popular destinations around the world, all while promoting sustainable travel. If you love to travel, you'll find a host of opportunities to lead tours across the pond. They also have some openings on the administrative side of the business.
- Marketing Manager, Email and Content – Remote
- Expert Tour Guide – Washington, D.C.
- Travel Fulfillment Coordinator - Italy + Southern Europe – Remote
- Guide Community Senior Associate Asia, Americas, UK, Iberia Specialist – Remote
Locus is a nonprofit that helps foundations use their money to make a difference in their communities. They provide education, support, and investment tools to help foundations invest in local businesses and organizations. This is a great way to take a finance or audit background and apply it to social impact.
- Senior Analyst, Impact Investment Services – Remote
- Risk Management Associate – Remote
- Commercial Credit Analyst – Remote
Lemonade is an insurance company that donates unused insurance premiums to charities after paying their operating costs. When someone signs up, they select a cause they care about, and at the end of the year, Lemonade figures out what was left over after paying out claims and donates a significant portion of it to charity. To date, they've donated over six million dollars.
- Insurance Product Manager, Pet – Remote
- Sr Business Systems Analyst, Workday – Remote
- System Administrator, Zendesk – Remote
- Underwriting Operations Senior Manager – Remote
- Social Media Manager – New York, NY
- Senior Data Analyst – New York, NY
- Manager, Technical Accounting & Financial Reporting – New York, NY
Pearl Certification helps homeowners make their homes more comfortable, healthy, and energy-efficient, while also increasing their value. If you're familiar with LEED certification for buildings, it strikes me as similar – just applied to single-family homes. This helps resale value for homes, but I can see this being helpful for anyone who wants to make their home more energy-efficient in general.
- Public-Private Partnerships Director, Northeast – Remote
- Business Development Consultant - Credit / Lending Industry – Remote
- Python Engineer - Mid/Senior Level – Remote
- Public-Private Partnerships Director, California/Northwest – Remote
EA Engineering, Science, and Technology is an employee-owned company that focuses on solving environmental challenges for governments and other businesses. Their jobs page was extensive. I come across a lot of engineering jobs but not a lot of science jobs, so this was like hitting the motherlode – you'll find many opportunities here from early career to senior-level.
- Early Career Geologist – Hunt Valley, MD or Abingdon, MD
- Early Career Coastal or Ocean Engineer – Warwick, RI
- Senior Project Manager – Remote
- Cost Analyst – Lewisville, TX
- Civil Environmental Engineer – Ocean Pines, MD
- Contracts Manager – Hunt Valley, MD
- Project Manager – Anchorage, AK
- Senior Leader - Occupational Health and Safety – Hunt Valley, MD
WorkBright is an HR software company and Certified B Corp that makes it easier for companies to onboard their employees, especially remote ones. I'm linking directly to their open role on Indeed, and you can learn more about their culture and social impact on their website. The team has about 30 people on it, making it a great fit for you if you prefer that tight-knit community feel.
- Director of Implementation & Training – Remote
Guild is an education and upskilling company that partners with employers to offer innovative learning opportunities and career advancement pathways. One of my favorite things about the service is its career coaching – there are all sorts of learning management systems out there, but I've never come across one that gives 1:1 advice to employees.
- Career Coach – Remote
- Cloud Security Engineer – Remote
- Senior Solution Marketing Manager, Skilling & Learning – Remote
- Sr. Director, ABM and Demand Gen – Remote
- Sr. Partnerships Enablement Manager – Remote
- Senior Consultant, Solution Consulting - Healthcare – Remote
- VP, People Experience, Insights and Well-Being – Denver, CO
- Software Architect (Customer Experience) – Remote
75F is making buildings smarter and greener with their IoT-based building management system. It's a win-win for everyone: tenants save money, building owners reduce their carbon footprint, and the planet benefits. If you're an engineer in the Minneapolis metro area or looking to move there, you'll want to check them out.
- Firmware Engineer – Bloomington, MN
- Full-Stack Engineer – Bloomington, MN
- HR Lead – Bloomington, MN
- Senior Android Software Developer – Bloomington, MN
Happy Halloween, and have fun tonight whether you're taking your little ones around the neighborhood or handing out treats!
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