Job Searching in an Unfriendly Market: Try Nonprofits

Everybody knows it: This job market royally stinks. Supposedly there are jobs out there, but if you have any recent graduate friends (who have already been looking for a year) who can’t find jobs, this assertion seems suspicious.

Maybe Monster.com and Jobfox aren’t working for you. Maybe you’re afraid of Craigslist. Perhaps you’ve heard the spiel about how awesome Linkedin is supposed to be, but since you’ve already exhausted its supply of useful-looking jobs, you really don’t understand why.

In light of this morass of seemingly non-existent employment opportunities (as well as a fiendish belief in activism and social justice), I went searching for job-search websites of the nonprofit and social-justice oriented variety.

Here’s a collection of what I found:

  • Feminist.com marketplace: This website offers resources of a feminist variety, and is looking for grant writers, volunteers and green writers, among other things.
  • Feminist Majority Foundation Career Center: Provides links to feminist jobs around the country, plus you can sign up for a weekly digest that will go straight to your inbox.
  • EngenderHealth Jobs: An organization dedicated to improving maternal health worldwide.
  • Idealist resource center: There are literally thousands of job, volunteer and internship opportunities on this website in all sorts of nonprofit sectors.
  • Opportunity Knocks: Not only has jobs, but advice columns, conferences and studies about nonprofit jobs.
  • NonProfit-Jobs.org: Jobs are listed by posting date, so getting something specific might require some time-consuming effort.
  • NonProfitJobs.org: See what a little dash can do? Completely different website from the above, but has much better search options
  • National Women’s Studies Association: A listing of available appointments to women’s studies/critical gender studies academic positions
  • Association for Women’s Rights in Development: Largely a list of jobs in developing/underdeveloped/poor nations (there are arguments on which term is PC). If Peace Corps-type jobs (one without negative “colonial” associations) appeals to you, this might be the place to look
  • Oxfam Careers: Oxfam is dedicated to poverty reduction.
  • International Rescue Committee Jobs: The IRC responds to humanitarian crises (Hurricane Katrina, Haiti’s earthquake, Pakistan’s floods) to save lives and lessen the gendered and racial impacts.
  • Nonprofit.CareerBuilder.com: Seems to be a branch of CareerBuilder.com, specifically devoted to the nonprofit sector.
  • Change.org’s Career Center: Change.org, well-known for its petitions and its blogs, also has a career center.
  • Greenjobs.com: My inner eco-feminist geek demanded I include environmentally-friendly tech job searches (both inside and outside the U.S.)
  • Green Jobs Network: Includes tips on getting into the “hidden green market,” along with networking opportunities and a listing of green job fairs.
  • SustainableBusiness.com: Where to search for your “green dream job.”
  • TreeHugger.com: Not just a job board–more like an online magazine with three steps: Get Informed, Interact, Take Action.
  • GreenJobsReady: Equipped with a job board, a blog and “green training.”
  • SustaineLane: The greenified Uncle Sam Logo is a nice touch.

Hopefully this list can help you jump-start your Social Justice-minded job search. Any other links, or feedback on these sites, you want to share with job-hunting readers?

Photo from Flickr.com user deanmyersnet through Creative Commons License 2.0

About

Kathleen Richter is a recent graduate of the University of California, San Diego in the field of International Studies. She has been a feminist ever since kindergarten when she proved that she too could belch with the best of them. When she is not engaged in life-sustaining activities, she is most likely either drawing feminist comics or writing feminist sentences.