Work in Public Interest Tech, Civic Tech, and similar areas is still growing and changing, with folks working across academia, local/state/federal American government, non-US governments, contracting, philanthropy, and the non-profit space.
As far as I can see, we lack guidance on evaluating opportunities in this space, especially for more junior folks without a developed network, or people trying to break in – especially those who developed skills in the private sector and seek more mission-oriented work after reading A Civic Technologist’s Practice Guide or Recoding America.
Chris Kuang has a great guide on breaking into civic tech that lists various places to look and Jacob Kaplan-Moss has advice for hiring managers and - but how do you know if an opportunity is a good fit? What are red and green flags particular to this space?
These are my best guesses, meant to supplement existing resources for any job-seeking situation.
Keep in mind:
- Saying the right missions-oriented buzzwords doesn’t make an org actually mission-oriented.
- Being mission-oriented does not mean an organization is a good place to work or a boss is a good person to work for. Evaluate those separately.
- Working alone to bring reform or new ideas is much, much more challenging than being part of an aligned team. It’s possible, but be aware of the challenge and talk to someone who tried to go at it alone.
- The manager who hires you and the team you join may have different expectations about what sort of change/transformation is possible from your work. It can be helpful to talk with someone on the team in addition to a possible manager.
- Your best time to negotiate is before taking the job.
- Serving and producing good outcomes for the public may not lead to rewards on the job, unless an organization measures public outcomes when evaluating your performance. Oftentime, serving the public helps you only if it gets good press or you develop a good reputation (because you do a good job communicating internally about the impact of your work).
Questions I suggest asking the possible job:
- What do you hope to see in six months if you make a successful hire for this role? What outcomes are you hoping for?
- How do you measure the impact of the organization’s work for your users/customers (or on the public)?
- Where do you see my skills reinforcing areas where the team is strong, and where do you see my skills filling a gap on the team?
- Let’s say you and I identify a possibly deeply impactful project I might do, but there’s no straightforward way to fund or support it in the org today. What would the process be like to get support for that?
- Ask this if you want room for the job to explore/create your own work.
- What has happened in the past if someone on the team is concerned about the impact of a decision on your users/the public?
- Ask this if you think you might be asking this sort of question - this especially applies with a contractor.
Questions I suggest asking yourself:
- Will I be working with aligned colleagues I trust?
- If not, what will be my professional support system?
- Do I know how this work will be funded, and if that funding will be maintained?
- How has it worked for others on this team who came from similar backgrounds as mine into similar roles?
- How do I know I can trust my future manager? Have I talked to someone else who has worked for them?
- What are the incentives of the team I’m joining and the boss I’ll be working for? Will I enjoy work that serves those incentives?
- Specificially, is there an incentive for them to be interested in my professional development and growth besides benevolence? Does the organization culture support professional development?
- Do I share values with my manager? Can I be my fullest professional self in a way that aligns with them and the organization?
- How does the organization I’m joining’s stated values compared to their lived values?
- If you are joining a new organization, look at the track record of their parent organization. Stating interest in doing something new/better does not mean the ingredients are actually present for change.
- (for those newer to this space) If the job is risky, am I ok with the main outcome of this job being that I will learn a lot and not be able to deliver?