Like so many sustainability professionals, Angelina Skowronski’s career trajectory hasn’t been linear. After several years working in the seafood industry, building sustainability programs from the ground up and leading Fishpeople Seafood to maintain B Corp status, Skowronski took a sidestep into the adventure sports industry before returning to the sector in her current role as commercial manager at the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). In this interview, she discusses how she came to that decision, the massive challenge we all face

When Lindsay Vignoles joined skincare company Rodan + Fields in 2018, she didn’t wait for the right role in sustainability to appear — she set about creating it for herself. Now overseeing environmental, social and governance functions at the San Francisco company as director of ESG, Vignoles talks candidly about how she formally created that role within the business, how to create buy-in from leadership when a company is early in its sustainability journey and how she sees ESG evolving

Prior to accepting a position with Zalando in early February, Christian Smith was partnerships and stakeholder engagement lead at Fair Wear Foundation, a nonprofit that aims to improve conditions for workers in garment factories. Previously, he spent years working to make changes from within the apparel industry, with roles at Tesco, ASOS and TOMS. Here Smith explains how working with an NGO compares with working for a brand, how COVID triggered a new understanding of the systemic problems within global apparel and what Fair

Alli O’Connell has had a jam-packed 12 months. In August 2020, after years spent working in international development and the nonprofit sector, she took the leap into a role at California tech company Autodesk’s charitable foundation. Only a few months into the role, her supervisor left, turning what should have been a six-month contract position into not just a permanent role, but a big promotion for O’Connell too. Now head of marketing and communications at the organization, she talks about

Kyra Kaszynski didn’t have the most typical start to a career in sustainability. She co-founded a record company in the 1990s before taking on a multitude of roles and industries, everything from sales to marketing and innovation, many carried out in a 16-year stint at leading professional services organization Deloitte. Then four years ago, Kaszynski joined the public policy team at Deloitte Global, a role which has allowed her to well and truly “dig in” to sustainability, diversity and inclusion,

When was the last time you were present? Really present in the moment? I bet it’s been a while. I get it, it is much more difficult than it sounds. Life can be chaotic. Full of endless distractions and unfinished to-do lists. Who has the time to sit and simply enjoy the feeling of, say, fresh air on their face? Or sit and notice the bubble of contentment that comes with achieving a small goal or spending an evening with family and friends? There

The rising generation is willing to take salary cuts in order to work with companies they believe in – here are three ways leaders can attract the next generation of business leaders. The younger generation has a whole different set of values to those that came before them.   Whereas career ambitions for Baby Boomers and Generation X revolved around pay, prestige and promotion up the ranks, for both Millennials and Generation Z (roughly speaking, anyone 35 and under) the definition of success has shifted. 

How can you become a more emotionally intelligent leader? Shannon joins Hays Worldwide for their Leadership Insights Podcast to share her expert advice to help you develop this increasingly important trait. You can listen to the podcast on your favourite channel or listen to the full episode here: If you’d like some support to develop your emotional intelligence skills, you can book a 30 minute trial session here to discuss your challenges and objectives in more detail.

Shannon joins Hays Worldwide for their Career Advice Podcast to talk about doing Good Work. You can listen to the podcast on your favourite channel or listen to the full episode here: If you’d like some help to do more Good Work, you can book a 30 minute trial session here to discuss your challenges and objectives in more detail.

It might be billed as one of the best ways to get ahead but in reality, relentless networkers end up making more enemies than friends. Is there anything worse than that person who LOVES networking? We’ve all met them. There you are standing at a conference minding your own business when they barrel in, reel off their resume, drop a few high powered names and thrust a business card (“it’s new, embossed, cost a fortune”) into your hand. Then, while

Shannon was thrilled to be featured in Forbes as part of Erik Kobayashi-Solomon’s My Big Picture column. My Big Picture articles focus on making sensible choices in the resource-constrained Anthropocene world in which we live. Some of these articles deal with wonkier topics related to economics and resource usage; some (like the one you are reading now) concern topics related to managing our lives on a day-to-day basis in the Age of Climate Change. Executive Summary The Netflix documentary Seaspiracy offers a

You’ve seen the light. After a decade as an accountant or sales manager or marketing executive, you decide a career in corporate sustainability is the thing for you. And why not? The power of business can potentially help to resolve some of the most taxing social and environmental issues of the day. Being part of that promises plenty of exciting development and brain-twisting challenges along the way; not to mention the quiet satisfaction that derives from doing a job that

The Environment Agency has issued warnings about UK water shortages by 2050—here’s how to take action. If you’ve Googled, ‘how do I reduce my water usage?’, chances are, you’re aware that it’s a scarce commodity – and one that we need to be using less of. Case in point – the sheer scale of British water consumption from laundry alone has been revealed in a new study. Up to 360 billion litres of water go down the drain each year

Emotional intelligence (EQ) can be the difference between a good leader and a great one. Simply put, those with a high EQ can manage and control their emotions and — even more critically — effectively manage the emotions of those they work alongside. They can listen to others, take on board feedback and ideas, motivate their team, identify conflict before it causes a problem, and create a workplace where they and all those around them feel flexible, supported, and encouraged to bring their ‘A

One of the trends I’ve noticed over the past several years is that a growing number of my friends and peers have adopted lifestyles that put a large emphasis on protecting the environment. I know a handful of people who have also changed jobs or industries to better align their careers with those values. As Earth Day (April 22) approaches, I thought it would be a good idea to explore how you can make such a career move. The odds

As a Brit based in Santa Monica, California, Daniel E. Ingram is the chair of investment advisory company Wilshire’s ESG and Diversity Committee. Wilshire, which has more than $72 billion in assets under management and $1 trillion in assets under advisement, recruited Ingram in 2017 as part of an effort to expand its ESG and socially responsible investing capabilities. Previously, Ingram was head of responsible investing for BT Pension Scheme, the United Kingdom’s largest corporate retirement plan. Ingram is also

Finding a job in sustainability or social impact wasn’t easy even before COVID-19 blindsided and bludgeoned the global economy. This will only get harder as the world economy continues to struggle, but be confident that it will eventually rebound. In spite of the pandemic, now is still a great time to get yourself familiar with the landscape and begin to position yourself and start to make plan for your career in the impact space. Policymakers are calling for the COVID-19 economic recovery

In 2019, Alan Jope did something that few chief executives do. Standing in front of a crowd of journalists, the boss of Unilever—the company behind Marmite, Magnums and Dove—announced the company was no longer interested in brands within its portfolio that failed to have some kind of a positive impact on either planet or society. Profits were no longer enough. In fact, he’d go so far as to sell off brands that didn’t do good. “Principles are only principles if

It wasn’t that long ago that corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability teams were shoved in back offices, miles from the core operations of a business. Even worse, responsibility for corporate sustainability would sometimes be awkwardly shoved onto an existing role with little care or attention from senior leadership. Now, the picture looks very different. A perfect storm of climate change, COVID, and conscious consumerism has forced all businesses across every sector to reevaluate their actions on social and environmental issues. One survey of

This is an edited extract from Good Work by Shannon Houde. Do you want an impact-focused job role? The range of opportunities in the impact space is quite diverse, and it helps to consider what sort of organization and role would be the best fit for you. Note that government is quite different from NGOs, which in turn are different from social enterprises and sustainable businesses. In the same vein, being an entrepreneur is very different from working in operations for

Shannon joins Anna Runyan for the Classy Career Girl Podcast to talk about doing Good Work. You can listen to the podcast on your favourite channel or watch the full video here: If you’d like some help to do more Good Work, you can book a 30 minute trial session here to discuss your challenges and objectives in more detail.

With 8.1 million job openings and 9.8 million unemployed Americans looking for work, according to Kenan Institute, a partner of University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School, there is a lot of career movement in the workplace. Sustainability is an especially hot hiring space right now, and likely will remain so for the foreseeable future, as issues such as climate change, biodiversity and environmental justice continue to be top of mind for policymakers, corporations, nonprofit advocacy groups, and many other stakeholders.

Joel Makower interviews Good Work author, Shannon Houde, about the evolving impact economy and how to shape a career that makes a difference.

We’re all looking for a little more purpose in our lives Even more so with the uncertainty that currently swirls around us on a daily basis. In fact, a strong desire to make a difference within their professional lives is one of the key reasons that two thirds of women say they want to substantially shake up their career in 2021. The great news is that there’s rarely been a better time to find your place within the burgeoning ‘purpose economy.’ A

As Darwin once said: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is most adaptable.” More than your education, your experience or your skill level, studies show that the way in which you respond and adapt to adversity can determine how successful you’ll be. Challenging as I know it is, the Coronavirus is the perfect opportunity to take a long hard look at your own resilience and take steps

2020 might have been wrought with crisis for many sectors; but for sustainability and ESG professionals, it marked a turning point. The last year has firmly cemented the relationship between purpose-led business and corporate success, with a wide swathe of companies now stepping up recruitment of specialist sustainability and impact roles. Jobs that touch on the “green” economy alone are expected to soar 105 percent by 2026, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For the many motivated and experienced sustainability professionals

WorkingNation interviewed leaders in sustainability at the GreenBiz 20 Conference in Arizona as part of their #WorkingNationOverheard campaign. Shannon Houde is the founder of Walk of Life Coaching, the first international career development and talent advisory business focused on the sustainability, CSR and impact sectors. In this clip, Shannon talks about one of the biggest challenges for companies who are looking to ramp up their sustainability effort and find skilled talent for work in the green job space. “From a recruiter

I am finding that there are some hidden benefits to this nasty Coronavirus after all.  Most of us at one time or another has begged and pleaded to have the opportunity to work remotely!  Well we have been granted our wish it seems with this global shutdown. So look on the bright side!  We not only get to save commute time and invest that time back into our personal wellbeing and into our relationships, but, we also get to contribute

Spring is nearly over – don’t let the season pass without updating your key social media accounts for maximum impact in the impact sector! LinkedIn is particularly valuable for social impact and environmental professionals working to achieve results across the three levels of the triple bottom line. With few formal networks and a multi-disciplinary skillset, we don’t tend to fit into the typical boxes. This is a major challenge for those of us working in the sector as well as

There are signs of a growing specialist market for senior sustainability roles According to Forbes’ latest “10 jobs that didn’t exist 10 years ago” listing, sustainability experts are up there with social media managers and app developers. Currently, corporate responsibility and business sustainability roles are often filled by internal candidates who already have an understanding of the organisation they are in and make the step sideways or upwards into a sustainability role. In a recent survey by Boston College Center for Corporate

Earlier this year, I teamed up with Net Impact and Mark Horoszowski from Moving Worlds to co-host a webinar, How to Land an Impact Job You Love. The webinar was designed to share how professionals can find and create meaning in their career. To build on the discussion from that webinar (embedded below), we teamed up again for this follow-up article to share even more practical steps about how to: Figure out what you want your job to be Build the

‘I’m experienced, educated and articulate – so why can’t I get through interviews to a job offer?’ If I had a fiver for each time I’ve encountered a jobseeker with that problem, I’d be meditating on a beach rather than tapping away on a keyboard! Selling yourself on paper – whether through the traditional CV or on LinkedIn – is a skill in itself, and here at Walk of Life, we’ve written plenty on how to do it. But wowing

So you want to make a difference? That’s what 98% of my career-coaching clients say when I ask them why they want to get into the sustainability sector. We tend to be values-led people, seeking jobs that allow us to “make a difference”, “give back” and “have a positive impact”. So it’s all the more important for us to walk the talk in our personal lives, as well as our professional ones. One way of doing just that is what

I always start coaching with the scariest question “What do you do?” (which is similar to the interview question, “walk me through your resume”).  It is a set-up question. Which, as simple as it is, throws us off.  It makes us uncomfortable.  But, if well-thought through, authentic and well-practiced, will be a short and impactful career story.  Many of us blow it.  We either lead with our name, title and company name (boring!!!) or we drone on and on about our passions,

As the UK moves towards a more environmentally conscious society, more roles will be needed in the emerging green jobs market. So which degrees best prepare graduates? Leah Bennett has always wanted to make a difference. The 23-year-old graduate from Preston has volunteered to clean up beaches, investigated the politics behind the Amazon forest fires, researched alternatives to plastic packaging and given up her time to edit a digital magazine for the environmental organisation Louder Than The Storm. Jobs with purpose

Careers in sustainability are increasing in demand but how do you break into this highly competitive market? What are companies looking for in employees and how do you set yourself apart? Whether you are new to sustainability, a recent graduate, looking to make a career change, or looking to advance your current career in sustainability, this discussion hosted by Net Impact Amsterdam is for you.   

WorkingNation interviewed leaders in sustainability at the GreenBiz 20 Conference in Arizona as part of their #WorkingNationOverheard campaign. Shannon Houde is the founder of Walk of Life Coaching, the first international career development and talent advisory business focused on the sustainability, CSR and impact sectors. In this clip, Shannon talks about artificial intelligence as a job or career game-changer. “Something to be aware of if you’re getting into sustainability and interested in technology,” Shannon tells us, “is definitely AI.” Shannon’s passion

After realizing the potential to affect change while studying systems engineering at the University of Virginia, Brigitte Hoyer Gosselink began her journey to discover how technology might have a scalable impact on the world. Gosselink worked within international development and later did strategy consulting for nonprofits before joining Google.org, where she is focused on increasing social impact and environmental sustainability work at innovative nonprofits. We talked to her about her efforts as head of product impact to bring emerging technology

This panel on DE&I was diverse in and of itself — with a Korean American, a Quebequois, a Canadian American immigrant and a gender non-binary representative. These speakers made us think differently and challenge our unconscious biases, as well as our use of terminology when discussing diversity. The covered issues such as representation of women in the workplace, Gen Z, getting a sponsor vs. a mentor, and non-binary gender definitions. According to Anna Blue, Co-Executive Director of GirlUp, diversity is not just

Center yourself in 3 minutes or less Autumn seems busier every year, doesn’t it? There’s no shortage of impact conferences and organizations the world over are pouring over the last quarter’s results and firming up their strategies for the coming 12-months. For my clients, it’s also time to take stock and think about the professional position they’d like to be in when the leaves start to fall, shedding the old for the new growth. Whether you are looking for a complete career change or to

Safia Minney, consultant and founder of People Tree, has pioneered sustainable and ethical sourcing in the fashion industry. She has won many international awards, been acknowledged by the World Economic Forum as an outstanding social entrepreneur and received recognition from Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II for services to the fashion industry and fair trade. Minney is author of nine books about sustainable fashion and is featured in “The True Cost,” a movie that showcases her company’s best-practice sustainable work. Minney is a British citizen of Indian-Mauritian and Swiss

Walking up to a potential new contact at a conference, or cold calling someone on the phone, is often the most intimidating part of networking for jobseekers. It’s hard to make the first move and much easier to keep yourself out of a vulnerable situation. However, if you’re looking to make a career move into sustainability, corporate responsibility or the green economy, in-person networking remains the best way to convert potential opportunities into real jobs. So, if you tend to

Deb Geyer, corporate responsibility officer for Stanley Black & Decker. Deb Geyer, corporate responsibility officer for Stanley Black & Decker, has a vision for a thriving workforce that meets the needs and challenges of a changing economy for decades to come. Shannon Houde, Managing Director of Walk of Life Leaders, recently chatted with Deb about how Stanley Black & Decker is using purpose, partnership, and innovation to advance its new corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy. Shannon Houde: What drove you

In 2010 there were almost 1.2 million self-employed women – 30% more than there were in 2000 – but there is still a huge gap between female entrepreneurs and male entrepreneurs. Indeed, women in the UK are half as likely to set up a business as men – with 4% of working-age women engaged in early-stage entrepreneurial activity, compared to 9% of men. When asked whether they believe they have the skills and experience to start up, 39% of working-age

With competition tough, what training, skills and experience should you highlight when applying for a job that appeals to your sustainability values? A study conducted by the global management consultancy Hay Group, which surveyed 600 graduates and managers at 40 of the UK’s largest graduate employers, found that more graduates are prioritising career progression and the ability to make a difference over bonuses and benefits. But it’s not only graduates who are changing their priorities. Neil King, HR director at the London Early

This Monday morning workshop kicked off with Kevin Hagen, VP of ESG Strategy at Iron Mountain, asking the packed room, “So, why haven’t all companies been able to become sustainable? We’ve been doing this a long time —why aren’t we there yet?” There is a notion that many companies experience a plateau in their sustainability journey and the data backs it up. Hagen and SB’s Director of Knowledge & Insights, Dimitar Vlahov, sit on the SB Working Group — with 10 colleagues and an advisory board

Here’s some candid, creative, real-world advice about how to break into impact work without a lot of direct experience: Be smart with the communications tools at your disposal Sustainability professionals need great communication skills, so use yours to start a conversation with potential employers through social media. It’s critical to use all the tools at your disposal to develop an engaged, online presence and start piecing together a circle of contacts. Twitter and blogging are fantastic ways to do this

You spent hours on your CV, targeted the right employers and positions, tackled the dreaded cover letter, and made it through the initial screening process. Then you landed the interview — congratulations! With sustainability jobs in high demand (most hiring managers receive an average of 200 applications per role) this is quite an accomplishment. You are getting close to the finish line but still need to give a great interview before you land your dream job. Before any interview (and

An organization in the U.S. is teaching kids character. Yes, really. They’ve developed an educational framework for schools that supports the “social, emotional and ethical development of students.” Or, as Daniel Goleman would term it: emotional intelligence. Now that’s just core character if I have ever heard it! Sounds odd though, right? When I was at school the idea of teaching character would have been laughed out of the classroom. Character was something that we were expected to acquire over time

Last year, the World Economic Forum produced a report on the ‘Future of Jobs’, in which they outlined the 10 skills we’ll all be needing by 2020. I was revisiting this report recently for an executive coaching project I’m working on, and got to thinking about what their projections mean for the sustainability jobs market. How can sustainability professionals be 2020-ready? How can organizations future-proof their hiring strategies?  It’s clear that the trends the report identifies are being felt already:

No matter what your university career advisor told you, your resume or CV is most definitely not about you. It’s a marketing tool. Therefore, it should be all about the market: appealing to the hiring manager, meeting the company’s needs, using the organization’s language, communicating what your audience wants to hear. A CV that goes into every tiny detail of your entire career history is absolutely not what a hiring manager wants to read. You have to do the screening

Careers in the impact economy can be hard to come by and the routes in are yet to be formally mapped. Transitioning out of your current role and into this new and exciting sector is a challenge! That said, you’ll see that there are a number of potential avenues for your career path that are worth exploring.   The direct route: impact investing Impact investing is emerging as a vibrant new field that seeks measurable social and environmental impact alongside

Life seems busier these days, doesn’t it? I call it the Q4 crunch: Organizations the world over are pouring over annual targets and firming up their budgets and strategies for the following 12 months, while for me and my job-seeker clients and career readers, it’s a time to take stock and think about the position we’d like to be in when the leaves start to fall in 2017. I’ve never been the sort of person to wait until New Year

Talking numbers can be an awkward and nerve-wracking experience. But you need to roll those shoulders back and put on your brave face because — as you well know — once you are in an organization it is difficult to make a big jump in salary. That is why you need to negotiate your worth at the very start. Knock-out your next stint in the hot seat with these 6 tips: 1.Don’t rush Don’t talk numbers until after the hiring

As this great article on Forbes points out, ‘your actions + what others say about you = your reputation’. It’s a formula that I tell all my jobseeker clients to write on a sticky note and pin to their desktop. Why? Because your reputation is your currency and it has a major impact on your employability – especially in the social media era.

Ever wonder why that recruiter you are working with is not actually getting you a job? Sorry for the disappointing news but recruiters work for companies, not candidates. Think about it. Who is paying them? What’s more, they don’t usually have time to do the market research and networking for each individual candidate to help them “get a job.” It doesn’t matter that you are a lovely person with a marketable skill-set; if you don’t fit the exact requirements for

Last month, I led a fascinating Net Impact café style workshop along with three other sustainability leaders. Today, I’m going to introduce you to my fellow panelists, each of whom has taken a very different route into their sustainability career. If you’re looking for inspiration, take a minute to read their stories.

You did it! Your killer CV, brilliant phone interview, and smart bio have gotten you to the final interview. You know the company, you know the job, you can do the job and even love it. Now you have one more chance to “wow.” Stay calm, cool, and collected to land your dream job with these 6 prep tips: Breathe I am a meditator who finds grounding in daily (well, almost daily) spiritual practice. You too have probably heard about

CSR and sustainability jobs have never been hotter. As impact-driven millennials seek out work that aligns with their values, recruiters are seeing a continued upswing in the number of applications they receive. It’s common to have over 200 applicants for any given position, and for a recruiter to have less than 15 seconds to glance over a CV. With this kind of flow rate, how can organisations optimize their HR processes to make sure great candidates don’t slip through the

In response to a recent article I wrote on making time to become a mentor, one former client wrote me to ask, “Ok that’s great, Shannon…but where do I go to get mentoring support?”

This article originally appeared on the Net Impact website. Our team recently caught up with Shannon Houde, a longtime advisor and friend of Net Impact, and owner of Walk of Life Coaching, the leading talent and career advisory service in the impact and sustainability sectors. Here, she shares why she comes back to the Net Impact Conference year after year, how students and professionals can make the most of their Conference experience, and why it’s one of the best investments anyone

Millennials are the 21st Century’s great hope – and they’ve got a lot to teach us about social innovation. But to get them on board business has to speak their language.

You’re at a leading industry conference getting a free-trade banana from the display of otherwise fattening snacks, and looking around to catch eyes with someone and “network”. Ahhhh! All of a sudden you see your dream boss, your top influencer. You brave it, walk over, introduce yourself and they are engaged. They ask you simply,   “So, what do you DO?”  Your heart rate goes up, you start to fidgit, and then…freeze.  It seems like such a simple question (like the

Did you know that 97% of human resources and staffing professionals use LinkedIn to search for candidates and that 77% of all job openings are posted there? Making the most of your profile with this Linkedin guide will be one of the best investments you’ll make in your job search and ongoing career and network development. But first… Before you put fingertip to keyboard, take a few minutes to read and digest the following five tips. You’ve got one chance to

Many people make friendly chitchat in everyday life, but develop a phobia of meeting new people when they find themselves in a professional situation. The mere thought of standing alone at an event surrounded by potential employers, clients or contacts has them breaking out in a cold sweat. They’ve forgotten that all networking is basically making new friends, and that it can be fun as well as strategic, although it takes practice. If you’re looking to make a career move

Today I’m drilling down on a specific part of the CV puzzle: accomplishment statements. What they are, why they work, and how to write them to help land your dream sustainability job. In my various professional incarnations — hiring manager, entrepreneur, corporate social responsibility (CSR) corporate consultant, impact career coach, to name but a few — I’ve seen more CVs than you’ve seen job adverts. The candidates that stand out are the ones that use the ‘career history’ section to

Does your CV profile say something similar to this: “I’m a former project manager with wonderful people skills and organisational abilities and a passion for sustainability. Having spent ten years in telecoms, I have a thorough knowledge of the sector, and am committed to using my experience to further the sustainability agenda?” If it does, it’s time to hit delete. A personal profile should contain four sentences, minimal jargon and zero pronouns. Follow my tips below for a concise, clear,

These three panelists’ companies are investing in the future and diversity of their talent base by recruiting and developing opportunity youth and ex-convicts. As Head of FSG’s Talent Rewire program, moderator Kimberly Shin kicked off the session with some shocking statistics: 1 in 7 youth are opportunity youth 1 in 3 American adults have a criminal record 2030 is the year that the majority of young workers under 30 will be people of color We are in the tightest labor market in the last 50 years

Image © Johnson Wang on Unsplash. In today’s world, how you do a job is just as important as what you do. This is especially true for those in positions of influence within the sustainability impact sector. Herding cats through a complex change process while maintaining the bottom line? You’re going to need super-human levels of focus, calm, empathy and mindful leadership. Our ability to align our intellectual intelligence with our emotional intelligence defines our effectiveness as leaders. Businesses are

Recently I explained why your CV should be all about the market: appealing to the market, meeting the market’s needs, using the market’s language, communicating what the market wants to hear. Now, I’m going to help you take a deep, analytical dive into the job description to figure out what the market really wants and tailor your resume to nail it. It is absolutely crucial to translate your skill set to the job you’re applying for. A hiring manager will

If you’re looking to make a career move into sustainability, corporate responsibility or the impact sector, in-person networking remains the best way to convert potential opportunities into real jobs.

Dune Ives Lonely Whale Executive Director Dune Ives shared that the ocean-conservation nonprofit was founded to focus on the threat that affects us every single day: Plastic waste! We produce 300 million metric tons of plastic and less than 10 percent is recycled. 80 percent of marine litter is plastic and most of it is packaging. The prognosis is bleak — by 2050 we will see more plastic in the ocean than fish; and 500 million plastic straws, used per day in the

Net Impact London and I hosted a workshop with a group of sustainability professionals to delve into the questions that every job seeker has: how can you figure out what a potential employer is looking for? And how can you communicate your competitive advantage as a potential employee? Today, I’m sharing key outcomes of our discussion to help you drill down on the common skills, attitudes and values practitioners share to help you land your own dream sustainability job. 1.

Walk of Life Consulting has made it through as a finalist for ‘Consultancy of the Year’ at the Business Green Leaders Awards – the UK’s most prestigious and coveted green business awards.

In my work as a sustainability career coach I have found myself helping many former bankers repair and repurpose their professional lives. The 2008 financial crash forced us to reassess our lives, our careers and our values. Together, we have found that it is possible to make money while also making a positive difference in the world – you just have to know where to look. Impact investing, is emerging as a vibrant new field that seeks measurable social and

Impact investing is emerging as a vibrant new field that seeks measurable social and environmental impact alongside financial return. But can it really make an impact?

In the noisy, unstructured sustainability jobs market where recruiters and hiring managers are suffering from information fatigue – CVs, LinkedIn profiles, internal job application forms, bios, Twitter feeds and references – how can a jobseeker standout? Simple: Don’t dazzle hiring managers with facts and figures. Instead, entice them with a good story, just like sustainability practitioners have to do with their stakeholders. Narratives are what spark the imagination, weaving themes out of facts in a prose that’s readable, relatable and

As sustainability professionals, we’re always telling people why doing good is good for business. But sometimes we forget that the same logic applies in our own lives too: doing good is good for our careers. Through mentoring others we can enhance our own job satisfaction and invigorate our sense of impact, we can advance our own personal development by honing our listening and interpersonal skills, and we can benefit the organisations we work for by opening to new insights and

From recruiters to academics to consultants to businesses, the message is clear: sustainability is growing, it’s professionalizing and it’s becoming embedded in to core business practice. The only way is up! Core Business That said, there are some key growth areas that sustainability jobseekers will want to take note of. As the link between commercial performance and sustainability become more closely proven and accepted, sustainability related roles in non ‘sustainability’ functions will increase. A particular focus is likely to be

As sustainability professionals we need to get better at practicing what we preach. It’s crucial to success and growth for leaders to ramp up diversity and inclusion tactics. In my work as a talent advisor and executive coach, I have noticed three simple steps to overcome this barrier and start building a more diversified workforce: 1) Set clear, transparent hiring goals Fostering a diverse workforce starts with hiring practices. Attracting, recruiting, and hiring diverse talent should be an easy challenge

TRU Colors Brewing is far from your typical brewery. To work at TRU, you have to be an active gang member — think Bloods, Crips, GD, etc. As crazy as it might sound, TRU Colors is a for-profit company with a tightly integrated social mission to bring rival gangs together and stop gang violence. It all began two years ago, when George Taylor heard about a 16-year-old getting shot on the streets on a Sunday morning in his neighborhood in North Carolina. Having called his

This article was written by Oliver Balch for The Guardian and features Shannon Houde. Female leadership is characterised by vision and the ability to convey it to others, research shows, but senior sustainability jobs are more likely to held by men. In the pale, male corridors of corporate power, Indra Nooyi represents a rare exception. She’s a woman, sure. But she’s also won praise for her long-term strategic vision, highlighted most clearly by her pledge to make PepsiCo’s product line more

The last 15 years have seen major changes in the world of recruitment. When I started out as a hiring manager, we advertised in the newspaper and on the major jobs websites, and CVs arrived by post (usually) or email (occasionally). CVs included a standard summary of a person’s career history, and we’d pile them on the desk and pick through them with a highlighter to extract the information we needed before calling to arrange interviews. Today’s hiring landscape couldn’t be

6 steps in 4-weeks to turn ‘issues’ into successes Whether we want to admit it or not we all have a fatal flaw – one trait that, left unchecked, can drag us to our doom, or send us into a destructive spiral. Often our flaws can masquerade as a virtue: a trusting nature, a stubborn streak or, if I apply the theory to my own life, a blunt and direct manner of speech that has kept me in league with

For more than five years I have been writing a column for GreenBiz. You can view all of my articles by clicking here.

Many of you are getting ramped up to attend Net Impact’s annual conference this autumn. You may also be considering launching or shifting your careers in the impact sector. We all want the job search process to be easy. We want to just be able to hop on the web, look at the job boards, find a job that looks interesting, apply to it, land the interview and, most importantly, get the job offer. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way.

With eight offices across Europe, North America and South America, Quantis sets itself apart from other consultancies through its unique culture based on minimal hierarchy and infused with a dynamic and collaborative spirit. To feed this culture, the entire group comes together once a year for a week-long, off-site seminar. Quantis has been growing in staff size by 25-30 percent a year for the last four years with no intention of slowing down. Quantis CEO Emmanuelle Aoustin shared her insights about leading

The political landscape spurs questions for people looking for their dream jobs in the impact sector. This moment presents unique challenges and opportunities for those interested in sustainability jobs, and a recruiter perspective on those challenges and opportunities can be invaluable. We recently hosted our annual webinar for ICRS with additional insights from Hanan Hanna, an Acre recruiter, and were impressed by the spot-on questions we received from the audience. “Are in-house sustainability roles on the rise, or are companies starting

Making the most of your LinkedIn profile will be one of the best investments you’ll make in your sustainability job search and ongoing career and network development.

As most of my clients will tell you, one of my first pieces of advice for job-seekers is that jobs boards are a waste of your time. Odds are that you will not find and land your dream role through a jobs board, especially since over 50 percent of open roles are never even posted publicly. That being said, jobs boards can serve a useful purpose. They are a great way to scan the market and find out what types

Sorry for the disappointing news but recruiters work for companies, not candidates. Think about it. Who is paying them? They don’t have time to do the market research and networking for each individual candidate to “get a job.” It doesn’t matter that you are a lovely person with a marketable skill-set; if you don’t fit the exact requirements for their current openings, recruiters may not be very responsive. Don’t take it too personally! This is the way the recruitment industry

It would not have been possible for me to be as successful as I am without the easy access of social media as THE marketing platform. While I do not claim to be an expert by any means, I believe there is value in sharing my story for anyone out there who is resistant to jumping on the bandwagon. About a year after launching my business in 2009, Andy Cartland, Acre Resources’ managing director, told me I’d better get on Twitter.

When it comes to a trade off between your salary and your sanity, there is only sustainable choice. As someone who went through this process, I can tell you that you might surprised by how having less money could make you better off in the long term. When I started my career coaching business, I transitioned from a cushy corporate consulting job to a start-up impact career being self-employed. Yes, this change came with a huge pay cut. However, I

The informational interview is one of the sharpest tools in the jobseeker’s box, but, to my constant bewilderment, they are among the least used. Maybe it’s fear, maybe it’s simply lack of awareness, but if you’re looking for a new role in sustainability or corporate responsibility, listen up!

While the lack of clarity around sustainability is a challenge for job seekers, practitioners and hiring managers, it also presents exciting opportunities to redefine professional development.

This month on Triple Pundit, Shannon drills down on the last part of the CV puzzle: accomplishment statements. What they are, why they work, and how to write them to help land your dream sustainability job. Read the full article here. Need some help revamping your CV? Try our new 30 minute CV critique taster session.

Every January, millions of people lay out goals and resolutions for the new year. But by February or March, they’ve almost always forgotten them. Resolutions to lose 10 pounds or call your parents more often are good ones, but I wonder if they are so easily breakable because of how rooted they are in routine. If you are unhappy with your day-to-day routine, sometimes you need to make a much bigger change to shake things up. So this year, why

In our final post of this series, I’ll be drilling down on the last part of the CV puzzle: accomplishment statements. What they are, why they work, and how to write them to help land your dream sustainability job. In my various professional incarnations — hiring manager, entrepreneur, corporate social responsibility (CSR) corporate consultant, impact career coach, to name but a few — I’ve seen more CVs than you’ve seen job adverts. The candidates that stand out are the ones

Does your CV profile say something like, “I’m a former project manager with excellent people skills and organisational abilities and a strong passion for sustainability. Having spent ten years in telecoms, I have a thorough knowledge of the sector, and am committed to using my experience to further the sustainability agenda?” If it does, it’s time to hit delete. A personal profile should contain four sentences, minimal jargon and zero pronouns. Follow my tips below for a concise, clear, communicative

So, you’ve found a posting for your dream job. It looks amazing, you love the company already, it’s in your city, and you think you can do it well. What next for your CV? In last month’s post — What not to do when writing your CV, Part 1: Me, Me, Me  — I explained why your CV should be all about the market: appealing to the market, meeting the market’s needs, using the market’s language, communicating what the market wants

Professional development and in-person networking are paramount to making a successful career move in the sustainability and impact space. Conferences can be great opportunities for developing new relationships and broadening business networks, plus they can be fun ways to get new ideas.  But, as you probably know, there are so many to choose from and attendance comes with a hefty price tag. Therefore, it is important to prioritize events that offer something that specifically interests you. To help you narrow

As most roles are being filled internally, HR managers will need new tricks to assess top talent in this space. But who are these people, and how do we find them?

Sustainability professionals have an important role to play in the circular economy, so how can you make sure your skills fit? As companies across the globe get to grips with the concept of doing more with less, systems thinkers who understand the big picture of finite resources, overburdened ecosystems and the need to reduce social inequality will be the ones to forge the critical links in the value chain that provide the solutions for sustainable business. The fundamental first step

Just as each social media service has its own role in job searches, each has its own biography requirements. Here’s how to take your formal bio and transform it into something smart-casual that’s just right for LinkedIn. The four bios every job seeker needs Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need one biography, you need four: a 140-character micro bio for Twitter, a short bio to work as the four-line profile in your CV , a full bio that’s over

These three panelists’ companies are investing in the future and diversity of their talent base by recruiting and developing opportunity youth and ex-convicts. As Head of FSG’s Talent Rewire program, moderator Kimberly Shin kicked off the session with some shocking statistics: 1 in 7 youth are opportunity youth 1 in 3 American adults have a criminal record 2030 is the year that the majority of young workers under 30 will be people of color We are in the tightest labor market in the last 50

As hiring trends show that most roles are being filled internally, HR managers need new tricks to assess talent in the sustainability space. The key is to identify individuals who are already creating change and exhibiting leadership through disruptive innovation. But who are these people, and where can they be found? Defining Leadership & Sustainability As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others. – Bill Gates Before HR or sustainability hiring managers can