You might be interested in our podcast on using data science to end poverty, where we interview a data scientist at Berkeley’s Center for Effective Global Action. In a similar vein to CEGA, you could check out J-PAL.
I imagine that a few relevant things here might be:
Do you want to be directly applying your data science skill set, or are you happy to have a more general role? I imagine that small organisations won’t have enough work of the specific type for which your skill set will be most useful for you to do that full time. So it might open your options more if you were happy to do more generalist work.
Your quant problem solving background might be an indication that you’d be good at some more qualitative roles, but it will be a bit harder for people to know exactly how indicative, and if someone hasn’t hired a data scientist before they may not know how to interpret your background. That likely means you’d have to apply to more positions in order to have a chance of getting one, because it increases noise in the application process.
I imagine it could be hard for organisations to really know what you’d be able to help with for the (very kind!) offer above. One option could be suggesting a specific project to an organisation that you think would be useful for them. We’ve got a bit of advice on how you might do that. You might also check out this site, which tries to match volunteers with projects.
Your first point is definitely true. There are a lot of smaller nonprofits that could use 0.2 data scientists or 0.4 software engineers, but can’t hire them in fractional quantities without all of the additional hassles associated with contractors.
I have a project and a (short) list of organizations I would like to pitch. Originally the list was ‘a couple of organizations I have worked with before, maybe 25% one of them will say yes or refer me somewhere useful’, but I like your advice to be more proactive—cold-emailing people is intimidating but not actually that costly or intrusive.
(At least that is what I think “Spend a weekend putting together a solution to these problems, and send them to a couple of people at the company with an invitation to talk more” is suggesting.)
I have some stupid questions about this:
My instinct is to contact someone with the minimum seniority to implement my project—but that still means someone with hiring authority—job titles like Program Manager, Assistant Director, or Director. Does that sound right to you?
I’m also inclined to to prefer using an individual public email address if it exists. Usually it doesn’t. My guess would be that unsolicited LinkedIn messages will go to spam, but maybe I should send them anyway? Along those lines Twitter is semiprofessional these days but probably kind of sketchy and I’m not on it. Should I just prioritize people with public emails? The only other thing I can think of is organizations with ‘slush’ emails for general jobseeker inquiries, etc. Am I thinking about this wrong?
Hey!
You might be interested in our podcast on using data science to end poverty, where we interview a data scientist at Berkeley’s Center for Effective Global Action. In a similar vein to CEGA, you could check out J-PAL.
I imagine that a few relevant things here might be:
Do you want to be directly applying your data science skill set, or are you happy to have a more general role? I imagine that small organisations won’t have enough work of the specific type for which your skill set will be most useful for you to do that full time. So it might open your options more if you were happy to do more generalist work.
Your quant problem solving background might be an indication that you’d be good at some more qualitative roles, but it will be a bit harder for people to know exactly how indicative, and if someone hasn’t hired a data scientist before they may not know how to interpret your background. That likely means you’d have to apply to more positions in order to have a chance of getting one, because it increases noise in the application process.
I imagine it could be hard for organisations to really know what you’d be able to help with for the (very kind!) offer above. One option could be suggesting a specific project to an organisation that you think would be useful for them. We’ve got a bit of advice on how you might do that. You might also check out this site, which tries to match volunteers with projects.
Thanks, that is good advice.
Your first point is definitely true. There are a lot of smaller nonprofits that could use 0.2 data scientists or 0.4 software engineers, but can’t hire them in fractional quantities without all of the additional hassles associated with contractors.
I have a project and a (short) list of organizations I would like to pitch. Originally the list was ‘a couple of organizations I have worked with before, maybe 25% one of them will say yes or refer me somewhere useful’, but I like your advice to be more proactive—cold-emailing people is intimidating but not actually that costly or intrusive.
(At least that is what I think “Spend a weekend putting together a solution to these problems, and send them to a couple of people at the company with an invitation to talk more” is suggesting.)
I have some stupid questions about this:
My instinct is to contact someone with the minimum seniority to implement my project—but that still means someone with hiring authority—job titles like Program Manager, Assistant Director, or Director. Does that sound right to you?
I’m also inclined to to prefer using an individual public email address if it exists. Usually it doesn’t. My guess would be that unsolicited LinkedIn messages will go to spam, but maybe I should send them anyway? Along those lines Twitter is semiprofessional these days but probably kind of sketchy and I’m not on it. Should I just prioritize people with public emails? The only other thing I can think of is organizations with ‘slush’ emails for general jobseeker inquiries, etc. Am I thinking about this wrong?
Thanks for your help!