15 ways to grow your career and impact in 2024. New year, new job? Or do you need an impact side-hustle...

Opportunity Seeker highlights ways you can grow your career and personal impact. We’re here to open up opportunity so more of us can belong in spaces that need us.

Hello my friends, January has well and truly begun and opportunities are starting to pop up to grow your career and impact.

It’s been awhile since I sent a fresh newsletter, Covid struck me pretty hard at the end of last year so I took a little rest break. But from here on in, expect an Opportunity Seeker newsletter every two to three weeks. If you’re new here, you can find out more about me, read some back issues, or subscribe.

Here is what we’re going to cover this week…

• Is 2024 a year for a new job? 👀

• Impact side-hustles

• 3 unexpected ways to pivot into a VC career 💸

• AI and creative leadership… a match made in heaven?

• And how to get a climate fellowship…

And to get us in the mood here are some words from one of the 19th century’s most gifted novelists, who refused to play with the hand of cards she had been dealt…

Time for a leap forward…

• London/Hybrid: I can’t believe I just found out about this, but Byway is a travel company that books and plans train travel holidays across Europe. It’s possible to do this on your own, but from personal experience I can say this is not easy once you start going through multiple countries. They’re currently hiring for a Backend Developer, and bonus, you’ll get company equity.

• Berlin: Got a strong marketing background? Faircado helps you find pre-owned alternatives while you shop. They won the Slush 100 competition last year and are now looking for a Head of Marketing as they scale - German would be a bonus, but not essential.

• New York: Look, I love what a weird and beautiful job this would be to have on your resume. Did you know that the giant harbour surrounding NY used to be filled with oysters keeping the water pure? Now a group called the Billion Oyster Project are bringing them back and they’re hiring 2 oyster restoration project officers. You’ll need a degree in environmental science or something similar, and while general project manager experience would be ideal, no specific skills in oysters are required.

• London: Médecins Sans Frontières are looking for a Director of Communications for its UK team. It’s not going to be an easy comms role as they provide urgent medical care in some of the world’s most under threat places, including Gaza and Sudan. They want an experienced journalist or someone with a communications management background for this one.

• Australia Remote: Want to harness your personal campaigning for a clean energy transition into an actual job? The Sunrise Project is looking for a Communications Campaigner. You’ll need to be ready to run digital campaigns and handle media relations, and come with a passion for climate justice.

Ready for an impact side-hustle?

Love you current role, but want to have more impact on the side? Here’s some non profits with voluntary board director positions that could do with your support…

• London: Stonewall Housing provides urgent accommodation and support to LGBTQ+ people who are at risk of homelessness. They’re looking for new board directors, and actively want people who haven’t been trustees before.

• Barcelona: They’ve helped close to half a million children receive education, now Street Child is looking for a board member to support their work in Spain.

• Australia: For all those interested in landscape restoration and birds🐦, Birdlife Australia is looking for several new board directors. Their remit is broader than birds (as great as they are), and they campaign tirelessly for climate and our environment.

• Remote: Not sure what being a charity trustee or board member really entails? There’s a great UK organisation called Getting On Board, they’ve received funding to provide free trustee training in February.

3 ways to pivot into VC and investing…

• Remote EU/USA: This one’s for anyone who has well and truly caught the AI bug and loves connecting with people. Air Street Capital is a fund set up to invest in AI startups by Nathan Benaich. He’s looking for a Community Lead to run AI events in London, Paris, SF and NYC.

• Sydney/Melbourne/Auckland: For those in the Australian tech scene, Startmate is kind of an epicentre. They run accelerators for founders and angel investors, and have helped deploy over 2 billion in capital. They’re looking for a new Investment Associate. You’ll need relationship and problem solving skills for this - but previous tech experience is not essential.

• New York/London: Got a strong background in communications? CREO is a syndicate of investors backing climate solutions. They describe themselves as a ‘think-and-do tank’ and are looking for a Director of Communications. You’ll need to have the right to work in London or New York.

Learning opportunities

January is the perfect month to get the green light from your manager for some professional development training in 2024. Here’s two very different opportunities:

• The New School: If you’re ready to glow up your AI skills, but work in the Creative Industries, the New York based The New School has the ideal 2024 training opportunity for you. The AI for Creativity and Leadership Certificate runs on-demand and you don’t need tech skills for this one.

• Climatebase Fellowship: Want to kick off 2024 with some serious climate upskilling? Based out of San Francisco, Climatebase are about to kick off Cohort 5 of their 12-week fellowship. The best bit is that it runs from 11-2pm Pacific Time, which means if you’re based in Europe or even Australia you can still join. Great for those who want to build out their network.

For next time

In the next newsletter we’ll be covering the full career spectrum, with a round up of C-level roles and a collection of paid internships for those who are planning ahead to the summer ☀️. Got a position, learning opportunity, or event you think belongs in this newsletter? Hit reply and share it with me.

Signing off from a very snowy Scottish Highlands… ❄️

P.S. Got a spare second and feeling generous of heart?

Probably at least half of you read this on your phone. Things are not so easy for many others. Due to relentless bombing from Israel, people in Gaza are struggling to use their phones to connect to family, and journalists are under fire with little to no data left to tell stories that urgently matter.

Watching horror unfold on the tiny screens of our phones is a unique and horrible product of recent times. It’s something that makes you feel hopeless, grief stricken and numb. But in the face of such hopelessness I give you practicality.

Mirna El Helbawi is an Egyptian novelist and journalist who started campaigning for people to sponsor e-sims for those in Gaza last year. Over 100,000 e-sims have been shared so far. It’s not a perfect solution as this VICE article documents, but it gives some measure of connectivity.

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to purchase and ‘gift’ an e-sim to someone who needs it in Gaza. Want to know more? Read about Mirnoa El Helbawi’s activism in this CNN article.