How to not greenwash. 4 ways to grow your community + network this October. And join The Guardian's climate crisis masterclass.

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.

Oh hi friends 👋. It’s Wednesday again, and every time I sit down to write this I wonder if there are going to be enough opportunities to share, and each time I find myself having to leave things out. So this is what made the cut this week…

• 7 opportunities for the writers among us

• How to not greenwash… there’s a course for that

• Get referred for a C-level or executive position

• 4 ways to build your community and network this October

• And a Sifted Summit ✨discount code✨ for Opportunity Seeker readers

Before we jump in I want to talk about failure. Yesterday I joined a lecture from Harvard’s Professor Amy Edmondson about how learning to fail can teach us to thrive. She defined several kinds of failures, there’s basic ones, like forgetting your keys, but there are also ‘intelligent failures’, which according to her research are the key to thriving. Intelligent failures can happen when you take a chance on an opportunity (exactly what this newsletter is about) and they have these attributes:

1. They’re in new territory

2. There’s a credible opportunity they’ll help you advance towards a desired goal

3. They’re informed by your available knowledge aka they’re hypothesis driven

4. They’re no larger than what is needed to gain lessons/insights

5. And even if the opportunity turns out to be a failure, lessons can be learned and used to guide next steps

Professor Edmondson ended her keynote by quoting Louisa May Alcott, an author who carved out a space in a world dominated by male writers — it’s our guiding wisdom before we dive in today…

Flex your writing skills…

AI might be stealing the headlines, but the roles for adept writers and communicators who understand the world of publishing and media are not slowing down…

• Remote/USA: Non profit, Charity:Water has connected over 17 million people with clean water in 29 countries, and are well known for having incredible storytelling. Now they’re on the hunt for a Director of Communications & Marketing. Brady Josephson is the Marketing VP and has shared what he’s looking for over on LinkedIn.

• Remote/Major US city: There’s a technology gender gap, and one organisation pushing to change that is Girls Who Code — they’re working to create the world’s biggest pipeline of female engineers and have run more than 6300 programs so far. They’re hiring a new Director of Communications - and want an exceptional writer.

• London: ClientEarth is the nonprofit that uses the law to protect the earth. They hired a new CEO, Laura Clarke earlier this year and she shared that they’re hiring a corporate communications role to work directly with her on outward facing press, events and socials.

  • Not in London? They also have a Senior Comms Officer role live for Berlin based PR specialists.

• Berlin: Want to pivot your comms skills into climate tech? World Fund VC is looking for a Head of Comms to manage their external messaging and agencies. You’ll be writing everything from socials to deep tech whitepapers, as well as managing agencies. For full transparency — I work with World Fund as an advisor.

• Remote: Last week I talked about one of my favourite publications, Rest of World — which covers tech stories outside of the EU and US (like this gem on China’s online feminism revolution). Their nonprofit newsroom is now looking for a Southeast Asia Editor.

• London: Are you the kind of person with more books than houseplants, and lots of opinions about them? The London Review of Books has a new paid internship role; they have stressed the role is not glamorous, but you’ll get to work with the editorial team and take a big hand in fact checking for their fortnightly publication.

  • On a side note if you visit London/are lucky enough to be based there, the London Review Bookshop has an adjoining cake shop 🍰. I never visit London without at least one slice of cake.

Get referred for a executive and c-level opportunities…

• London: Last week I shared on LinkedIn why I’ve joined the board of the UK’s oldest migration and refugee charity, the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants. We’re now looking for an Executive Director, as our incredible interim ED is finishing up. You’ll be leading an team of lawyers, campaigners and communicators working to push pack on the UK government’s ‘hostile environment’ immigration policy. Ideally you’ll have lived experience of migration, and a background in campaigning or non profits. If this sounds like you, or you have a friend who would be a good fit, hit reply with #JCWI in the subject line.

• Remote/Europe: I can’t share the company name for this role as it’s hush hush, but a European FemTech company is hiring for a Chief Marketing Officer. Ideally you’ll be fluent in French or German, with extensive performance marketing experience — but it’s not necessary to have had a c-level title before. You’ll have a team of 20, a seven figure marketing budget, and importantly for FemTech one of the co-founders is female. More details here, feel free to reply with #FemTech in the subject line if you’d like me to refer you to Sam, who’s recruiting for this one.

✨Head hunting for a senior role you’d like me to share in an upcoming newsletter? Send me a reply email or DM me on LinkedIn. Happy to keep various elements confidential 🤫 if the role isn’t advertised publicly.

Ready to make some new workish friends?

• Start designing for the planet: While aimed at designers, the two day virtual (and free) Design for Planet Festival put on by the UK’s Design Council is going to be valuable for anyone wanting to expand their creative and strategic thinking. There are collaborative sessions for those who want to connect and grow their network.

• Head to Paris to learn about VC: You’ll have to be very quick to sign up for this, but coming up next week is the second WVC:E conference, aimed at creating a community for women in European venture capital (or those wanting to get into the space).

• Berlin Boss Babes: Curated by the excellent Tamara Rose Morales, another round of the Berlin Boss Babes meetup is happening next Monday, October 2nd, it’ll be an unfiltered take on entrepreneurship.

• Accelerate into tech: And in less than a week Sifted Summit is kicking off in London. I went to the Berlin one this summer and the event is a perfect deep dive for anyone who wants to learn more about the founder journey, how to scale your startup, being a tech operator, or what it’s like to invest. London’s October summit has an impressive speaker list, plus GreenTech Alliance are hosting a mixer for climate startups and investors.

  • ✨Interested? The Sifted team have been super lovely and shared a 10% discount code for any Opportunity Seeker readers who want to go — use SSOP10.

Learning opportunities

• How to not greenwash: One of the biggest challenges right now as a communicator or creative is figuring out how to not be part of the greenwashing problem (especially when companies are now facing lawsuits for weak sustainability and carbon neutral claims). If you want to help navigate a brand and company through this, Creatives for Climate have put together a new course, Greenwash Watch - they have a free taster call coming up on October 5.

• The Guardian’s Climate Crisis Masterclass: Get ready to go on a 3-week deep dive with academics, journalists and activists. I’m thinking of signing up to this and would love a group to discuss what we learn along the way — hit reply with #GuardianCC in the title if you’d like to join me.

Next week

It used to be something reserved for Presidents, but now every tech founder is hiring a Chief of Staff — we’ll be deep diving into ways to pivot into tech’s hottest new role. And I’ll be sharing resources to help you get your first board position.

Signing off from my last day in Berlin before I head to Spain ☀️…

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

I’ve already talked about cakes once in this email. But I’m going to dive in again — one of my favourite orgs in Berlin is Refugio. They’re a community space and cafe for new and longterm Berliners to connect. Refugio works closely with the incredible Give Back to Berlin who run German language classes, a music school and community cooking sessions in the Neukölln space. Here’s how you can get involved…

• Volunteer for a shift in the Refugio cafe as a barista, or if you have baking skills they’re looking for support in cooking cakes 🎂 for the cafe.

• Join the Wednesday cooking meet up. It’s one of the best things I’ve done this past summer. The group has also put together it’s first cookbook which you can pre-order here.

• Donate to keep the space open and providing free services to the community.

• Speak fluent German? Volunteer your knowledge with refugees and migrants in the regular language meetups.