To ask for advice about find a career which allows me to look at myself in the mirror

[thepeopleversuswork]

Prompted in part by the thread earlier from someone saying she feels ashamed about being a cleaner (she absolutely shouldn't).

I have an almost opposite problem: I'm ashamed of what I do for totally different reasons, I feel that my soul is utterly corroded by what I do. Its a white collar job (not going to say what as its too outing) very well paid (not boasting just setting out facts) and has fairly high status but has no ethical or society-focused underpinnings whatsoever.

I justify what I do on the grounds that I am a single mother without any childcare or financial support and have huge outgoings to pay my mortgage and the childcare which allows me to work. I escaped from an abusive marriage and I really needed to make a lot of money in a hurry.

I still need to make what by most people's standards is a fairly high salary in order to survive where I live and support my ability to work but I increasingly feel that I can't live with myself, that I'm running myself into the ground in order to enrich people who don't need any more money and to support people who at best are morally neutral capitalists, often far worse.

I look around at what is happening in the world (huge and widening gap between rich and poor, climate crisis, western democracies having been taken over by right wing thugs, discrimination against women and minorities still blighting society) and I keep hearing this voice in my head saying "evil triumphs when good people do nothing". ie, I can no longer justify what I do on the grounds that I need to support my child.

So having got that hair shirt rant out of the way, my question is, has anyone else successfully moved out of a highly paid but morally repugnant career into one where they were able to contribute positively to society without bankrupting themself. This question is aimed primarily at single parents or breadwinners purely on the basis that I don't have anyone else to lean on financially, so reducing hours or relying on someone else isn't an option. If I remain living where I live (and you can probably guess where I live), I would need a high salary and I'd prefer not to move as my child is about to go to secondary school. So while I'm prepared to take a certain pay cut, something like teaching or charity work as a sole career would be out for me at the moment. Volunteering is also not very easy for me as I don't have any childcare other than that which I need to pay for to work.

Has anyone successfully done this without financial support or uprooting their entire family? How did they do it?

Well with the caveats I mentioned above, I think you could just go for it. Identify four or five charities that interest you (start with the small ones - the big ones have boards populated by the great and the good) and send off a CV. Most will be looking for trustees - I know we are. Obviously you need to work out what you can bring - I had to make it clear I wasn’t bringing wealthy connections who would buy tickets to gala dinners which is how many boards seem to operate. I offered strategic advice, financial knowledge and broad corporate experience and they seemed to like that. And I am able to be quite useful if I say so myself !

Oh and check their financial status first. As a trustee you are liable so make sure they are on a solid footing.

Or look at something like Women On Boards who maintain lists of board vacancies in the profit and non profit sector. I went to one of their board CV drafting seminars. V expensive but actually helpful.

Depending on skillset and salary needs, civil service? It will involve a pay cut, we haven't had a proper pay rise in years and tend to get less than private sector equivalent skilled role. There are lots of opportunities at the moment due to all the new roles around Brexit preparations.

Also - a volunteering role you can do from home - the Social Mobility Foundation needs mentors each year in professional type jobs, who can mentor high potential A-levels students from economically deprived backgrounds. You can do it entirely through email contact, so no childcare issues, and can make a real difference to someone's prospects, in just an hour every few weeks. They'll probably be recruiting soon, for new mentors for the summer. It's incredibly rewarding.

Would you definitely have to take a massive paycut to go into the charity sector?
It depends on the figure you're aiming for tbh. Good wages for skilled roles absolutely exist in the charity sector

“ It's more the feeling that what I do essentially props up people who are trying to avoid their moral responsibilities.”

Sounds like a workplace. The worst experience I had, in ethical terms, was with a charity.

Are you sure what you are doing is that bad?

Most industries have green initiatives and/or corporate social responsibility schemes so, depending on your skillset, you could find a corporate role that 'made a difference '. Your current company may have such sections and could even enable your move through CPD.

There are lots of ways to get into being a trustee or help a charity and it’s incredibly rewarding.

If you’re in the city how about joining a trustee development programme - when I was chair of a charity we got a couple of great new trustees from Cause 4 Trustee Leadership Programme. One a city lawyer and one an investment banker/fund manager. Both had very useful transferable skills that were quickly put to use.

Or think bigger and connect your whole organisation to a charity. For example, Pilotlight is an organisation that connects big corporates to charities and we also had some great collaborations with the city through that to help develop our strategy. Most big corps have something similar - to connect their leaders with other sectors - presumably partly for people like you who have an itch they need to scratch.

What about creating some change within your organisation, for example turning it into a B Corp? Have a read of this... qz.com/work/1739547/danone-ceo-emmanuel-faber-is-building-the-worlds-largest-b-corp/

I found it absolutely inspiring and my ambition for this year is to convince the company I work at to become a B Corp.

I really can't think of many jobs outside of banking & law that will give you a 150k plus salary. Tech? start your own business?

OP thank you for starting this thread. I think it's super interesting. If you're earning a decent amount I imagine you're pretty senior.

You mentioned good diversity in your place of work which is a great start. could starting new initiatives there in partnership with your HR team, like summer placement programmes for disadvantage young people or return to work schemes provide a balance for you.

It's what I did and I love it.

alwayscoffee that sounds fascinating. Can I ask how you went about this?

MermaidTissues its not self-pity to have the temerity to wonder if you could use your skills in a more socially useful way. Its called ambition and having a different mindset. I've gone out of my way not to be self-pitying.

eternalfun thanks these are super helpful.

Fraggot I don't have an especially huge mortgage but it would be difficult to get it down much. I couldn't realistically live outside London any time soon. A) because its not that easy to do what I do outside London and B) because my child is settled and happy here after a lot of upheaval and I don't want to rock that boat unless I have to.

I was going to say loads of organisations in the voluntary sector need board members and trustees. It might feel that you are at least giving back. Just remember this can be a temporary measure for now. Maybe look at things you would like to do to plan later. My friend works in a job she hates. She has a few years left on her mortgage and then she says she wants to work in a plant nursery...

Great thread and I really admire you for wanting to do this.

I was also going to recommend the Effective Altruism book. More generally, there is a school of thought within that movement that seeking to make lots of cash and donating it to good causes can be as morally valuable and effective as working for a good cause. Though I do get your point about it all sticking a bit.

In the very short term, have a look at UN volunteering online. A lot of it is admin/translation work, but some projects do require legal or finance skills (without asking for formal advice). You do this from home in your spare time.

If you’re in anything to do with finance, can you apply pressure internally/within industry re: women? There are voluntary targets etc. Agree it’s not so easy in reality.

Would also second a charity trustee position, people with your skills can be so helpful and I have seen this first hand. Although, as a PP says, go for somewhere established and with sound finances and CEO. You can search for trustee jobs on LinkedIn, Guardian, Do-It.org and Women on Boards. As others have said, there can be a bit of a career ladder with trusteeships - start somewhere small, then maybe national, then the ones with the great and the good on it. Also have a look at various government-type boards by searching Cabinet Office appointments - things like being on various quango boards or sometimes museum boards, those sometimes pay too.

More long term, the civil service could be ok - sign up for Civil Service Jobs alerts just to get an idea, they send a daily email. Also consider your profession’s, or related, regulators - the money is better.

Stargazy has said much of what I came on to say. Another lead for voluntary work / boards would be:
Do-it.org great for small charity roles
SGOSS, Inspiring Governors, and Academy Ambassadors for school governing board roles
NHS trust roles are advertised online (and are generally paid).

You could think again about the public sector too. It’s very variable - not all as turgid as your experience was.

stargazy egremont thank you both. I hadn't thought about the trustee angle, that sounds really interesting. Also Effective Altruism sounds worthwhile. Thanks all, this has been really helpful.

Egremont’s post has prompted me to remember one more thing - NHS Ethics Councils. Haven’t been on one or interacted with one, but saw it on a BBC4 programme fairly recently and have remained curious since. They basically sign off new, experimental or unusual treatments and they have lay members as well as medics. You read papers and attend in person, a lot like a trustee. There will be one local to you and you can usually shadow for one meeting.

www.hra.nhs.uk/about-us/committees-and-services/res-and-recs/become-rec-member/

stargazy thanks! that does sound interesting

You could start by becoming a school governor?

If you’re working in the gambling industry I’d agree, yes, get out and do something else instead.

You could start by becoming a school governor?

We don’t need any more corporate types trying to inflict their business practices on education!

Yes, I read the cleaning thread and feel exactly like you do. Actually worse, I feel like crying every day. I ended up in a corporate job (well, a whole series of them) and hate it so much. My job is utterly pointless and boring - I use code/data to make the company more money and work out how to get customers to us rather than competitors. The company is a massive polluter. If I died tomorrow, the planet would probably be better off. I don't even do my job - I don't believe anyone can concentrate 7.5 hours a day. I work between 0-4 hours a day, spend the rest of it browsing and have only had good feedback over the past 4 years. I'm convinced most people must be doing the same!

Once we've bought a house, I am quitting to either go into teaching or a practical career (my hobby) which will pay minimum wage. Then again I save £1200/£2200 monthly salary which implies I could live off minimum wage just fine.

Smart kids in this country get told to go to a top uni, do a STEM subject and then sit in an office making companies money. No-one mentions these jobs are dull AF and soul destroying. Why shouldn't "academic" kids be encouraged into trades or public services - jobs that are actually rewarding? I constantly wish I'd just gone to technical college to learn a practical skill.

(I mean concentrating 7.5 hours in an office on a laptop - I could definitely concentrate for that long if it was say, kitchen fitting or hairdressing)

I'm always confused by these kinds of threads. How could any sector be "outing" especially with a name change?

Gambling/Oil/Pharma etc, not exactly "outing".

"I work in the oil industry"

oh fuck, it's Brenda from number 42!!