22 opportunities to grow your career + impact. How to get into a sold out festival. And a round up of Product roles.

Roles, courses + accelerators just for you

Author

Hannah Wickes
February 21, 2024

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.

Hi hi, today I’m coming in hot with 22 opportunities to grow your impact, your career and have a fun time along the way. You might have been forwarded this newsletter or just signed up on a whim… so if you’re wondering who’s writing this I’m Hannah.

But on to the newsletter. Today we’re going to explore:

  • How to volunteer at 2024’s best events

  • The Guardian’s Marketing team needs you…

  • GitHub’s accelerator for AI founders 🚀

  • 5 fresh Product positions

  • 2 CEO roles that revolve around football + plants (I’m not joking)

And because I’m listening to a Joan Didion audiobook right now, here she is to challenge us before we dive in…

❝

I know what the fear is. The fear is not for what is lost. What is lost is already in the wall. What is lost is already behind the locked door. The fear is for what is still to be lost.

Joan Didion

Five opportunities to pivot into impact

If you’re wanting to shift into a role with impact and purpose the quest can be a difficult one.

First up you have to figure out what your transferable skills are and how to talk about them (this article from Harvard Business Review is a good read). Secondly you’ve got to sift through job postings to see who’s open to non-linear candidates, but to get you started here’s four roles that are (two are CEO positions)…

  • London: Want to work at one of the UK’s most powerful media brands? The Guardian is hiring a Senior Marketing Manager. The role focuses on socials and growing the publication’s podcast brands. It’s a perfect one for those who want to move from hands-on social media management, and into a broader marketing role.

  • Remote UK: Football is the world’s biggest sport and it has huge power to change social norms. One org taking on that challenge is Kick It Out. They’re a non profit that has worked for 30 years to change how racism, homophobia, sexism and pretty much all the ‘isms are talked about in football. They’re looking for a new CEO with a non-hierarchical approach to leadership and deep understanding of intersectionality.

  • Berlin: Based in Berlin, Share the Meal is an app developed by the World Food Programme to enable people to easily donate meals to those most in need around the world. They’re hiring a Head of Partnerships, and though you’ll have to go through the very clunky UN hiring platform, the Share the Meal team runs more like an independent tech startup than a huge NGO.

  • Cornwall: In the depths of British South West sits the Eden Project. It’s a series of giant dome greenhouses built into an old china clay pit. It is now a plant filled theatre, community space and series of gardens. The space has hosted everything from the G7 summit to big music gigs (they’ve got The National playing this summer). They’re now looking for a Group CEO to manage the business as it scales to new locations.

  • London: And finally, this is a voluntary position, but a good one for those working in People or HR teams and wanting to grow their impact (literally). Trees for Cities are looking for a new trustee to input on people topics and support their CEO Kate Sheldon in expanding urban forests.

How to get into a sold out event…

One of the best ways to get a dose of new ideas and grow your network is to head along to a festival or conference. But the biggest and best events can be either too expensive 💰 or sell out in minutes 🙅‍♀️. So just how do you get in there? Volunteer my friends, volunteer.

Here’s my 3 picks for this year:

  • SXSW: It’s hard to describe what kind of festival South by Southwest really is. There’s a music track, a climate track, an AI track and an advertising track. Basically it’s 30,000 people sharing ideas and eating BBQ, and if this sounds like a last minute thing you’d like to do volunteer roles are still open for this year’s festival in March.

  • Glastonbury: Tickets for this year’s Glastonbury music festival sold out in 25 minutes. So if you want to see artists like Lizzo, Elton John, Arctic Monkeys and Wizkid share a lineup you’ve got one path… volunteer with Oxfam. It’s still tough to get a spot, but there are a bunch of other summer festivals you’ll also be in the running for - plus its open to EU citizens.

  • SLUSH: Taking place in Helsinki every November, Slush is arguably Europe’s biggest startup and VC get together, and usually sells out for investors. Applications for volunteers will open late spring, so bookmark this for later.

Fresh starts for Product people

I tried to find a theme here. But honestly this whole segment is inspired by some of the messages I have had asking for Product roles and opportunities. Bonus is that most of these positions focus on building and supporting communities or having impact through behaviour change…

  • Paris/Bordeaux/London: Born out of Bordeaux, Back Market is a marketplace for refurbished tech (and yes, the phone I’m editing this email draft on did come from there). They have a few general Product Manager roles going - but the Product Director position is a perfect step up for those ready to lead more than one team.

  • Sydney: You can’t really use instagram without stumbling across a Linktree in someone’s bio. Started by a couple of Australian music managers who needed a way to support the bands they managed, the company has scaled wildly. They’re now looking for a Senior Product Designer with 8 years experience. Based in the USA? They’re also hiring for +10 engineering and people op roles.

  • Remote USA: This Head of Product role is a fascinating one at 776, one of my favourite VCs. Co-founded by the ex-CEO of Reddit, Alexis Ohanian, he’s now looking for someone to work with him directly on building a product for venture capital firms and their startups.

  • Berlin: They’ve been flying under the radar for a few years (which can happen when your HQ is in Chemnitz), but Staffbase has officially closed a Series E which has pushed it into 🦄 status. They’re on the hunt for a Product Designer - only 2 years experience required.

  • Remote USA: Medium has grown to over 100 million users and they’re looking for a new Director of Product to lead on membership. Want to know more about the role? Have a read of this post from Alex Benzer, who had the job before.

💡 Intrigued by the Product Manager career path and thinking about a pivot? Career Foundry has put together a huge guide for entry-level Product Managers on how to get that first role. They also have a free 5-part Introduction to Product Management course to see if this career path is for you.

Learning opportunities

  • Get that Oxford knowledge glow: Last year I shared an opportunity to attend a biodiversity course at Oxford University, and one Opportunity Seeker reader (hi Anilla 👋) signed up and came back with a glowing review.

    So here's my pick of Oxford’s continuing education courses. The big win is that their short courses have more accessible pricing than most universities.

  • GitHub Accelerator: A big FYI for AI focused founders, GitHub is still accepting global applications for its 10-week accelerator. There’s also undiluted funding up for grabs.

  • Climate Tech Career Pathways Scholarship: As the green economy scales there’s a growing concern that the communities most impacted by the climate crisis are being left out of the transition. The excellent Dream.org has stepped in with a scholarship to fund career pivots for BIPOC individuals within the US. Deadline, March 8.

Next time

I am off to the United States until April, so you should hopefully get a newsletter written from a co-working space in Brooklyn or somewhere similar in March.

I’ll be travelling around both the West and East Coast, and would love to meet up with people in climate, impact tech, VC, non profits, and of course anyone wanting to do a career pivot. Feel free to reply to this newsletter and say hi 👋 if that sounds like you (or if you have a friend I should meet).

Tschüs from Berlin my friends!

Hannah, your questing opportunity seeker in arms

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

The last few newsletter sendoffs have focused on Gaza and finding ways to support communities under threat.

It’s easy to feel hopeless right now, especially as the US vetoed a ceasefire for the third time. But one of the best ways to reset is to get out to a rally and find a sense of community with others who feel the same frustration. There’s no global map with all the events so use socials to research (some lists here for the UK, US, AU).

Double check your legal rights before you go, save a legal helpline number to your phone, and be aware that people in France have faced tear gas, and been arrested in Germany - so if you are on a visa be especially careful.

Not in a position to be able to head to a rally?

Find an event with proceeds supporting non profits on the ground. There’s one in London this Sunday hosted by Brave Poets with funds going to support the work of Médecins Sans Frontières in Gaza, Sudan and the DRC.

Stay safe my friends!