5 Steps to Starting a Job Search in Impact Investing
Impact investing is still a new addition to the financial services industry landscape, but there are no special tricks when it comes to landing a job in this booming sector. All the traditional approaches to any job search still hold true, and there is also real opportunity to shape new roles and positions as extensions of unique skill sets.
Match your skills
Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs has a primer on the impact investing sector that breaks down a variety of career paths based on the "entire cycle of an investment" and notes that, for job seekers, specific expertise in finance is only part of the story:
There are areas within impact investing such as impact assessment and portfolio management that may not need a prior investment banking or corporate finance background.
Some of the skills that employers look for are:
- Strong analytical and problem skills
- Financial skills
- Partnership and relationship building skills
- Experience in international development work
- Impact evaluation/assessment experience
- Sector knowledge (healthcare, education, microfinance, etc.)
- Language skills
Read: Career Opportunities in Impact Investing [PDF]
Understand your options
At socialearth.org, Thien Nguyen-Trung has written an extensive series detailing his six-item "impact investing career checklist" and delves deeply into characterizing the types of roles available to job seekers at both investment and consulting groups, noting the desired level and breadth of expertise for each:
While VC/PE-like impact investment funds and national development finance institutions in general will expect their portfolio managers to be more fluent with equity or debt deal structuring and execution, foundations still do heavily rely mostly on grants, which requires a different skillset. Thus, people with grantwriting or with experience evaluating grants in previous nonprofit jobs tend to gravitate towards these positions as well.
However, perhaps more so with foundations, the background of program officers can vary more widely than investment managers and analysts, who usually have corporate or advisory firm profiles.
Read: How to Get a Job in Impact Investing
- Part 1: Identify the opportunities and assess your potential role
- Part 2: Understand who runs the show and the target organizations they fund
- Part 3: Clarify expectations and know yourself
Study your subject matter
Emma Vaughn at Fast Company underscores the importance not just of having a high-level understanding of impact investing generally, but also a deep familiarity with your area of interest and the variety of strategies employed by related funds:
In a rapidly growing but still relatively young industry, you’ll find different funds with similar philosophies pursuing different goals with varying strategies. While linked by a common thesis, they all have varying sector and geographical focuses and even slightly different priorities. ... From healthcare investments to financial inclusion to domestic issues or international development, there are now a range of approaches and sub-sectors to target based on your specific experience and interest.
Read: 7 Tips to Landing a Job in Impact Investing
Build your networks
The Wesleyan University blog, ENGAGE, offers a rundown of organizations of interest to job seekers looking to broaden their exposure to the industry, including networks (Global Impact Investing Network, Toniic), financial services companies (Impact Assets, Good Capital), and funding platforms (Kiva).
Read: Interested in a Career in Impact Investing? A Sample of Networks and Organizations to Explore
Lorainne Lopez at Inspiring Capital additionally recommends impact investing-related Meetups and lists several worthwhile conferences such as SOCAP, Social Good Summit, and Social Enterprise Conference.
Read: The Dream Job: Tips on Starting A Career in Impact Investing (No M.B.A. Degree Required)
Think big
Finally, Sasha Dichter, the Chief Innovation Officer at Acumen Fund in addition to being a popular blogger and speaker, strongly advises taking the long view. It’s still too early in the evolution of the impact investing sector overall, he says, for job seekers to pigeonhole themselves into the known and traditional finance industry roles. Right now presents the opportunity to define new roles in a nascent industry:
For something so new, with so many talented people excited and looking to make an impact, the orientation cannot be around how to get picked for the tiny number of jobs that exist for the massive number of amazingly qualified applicants. Instead, the opportunity is to create a job, a role, a set of experiences that will allow you, over time, to help us all shape and move and define this new space.
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More shapers and visionaries and big thinkers, please. We are still just at the beginning.
