I was first exposed to the ideas of taking responsibility for our world and making a difference in my last years in the university, when I joined AIESEC. Then the gates were open and I could walk into this world of people eager to make a change, to make the world a better place. At first I thought it is this organization that I joined that opened eyes, but I came to see that there were so many more of us around. I met new exciting people from various walks of life who were all thinking great thoughts, who were above the as-long-as-I'm-good-all-is-good paradigm. I came to realize that the mass media and mainstream culture gave much more importance to the only-money world than it deserves. Reading relevant books, studying websites and talking to different people has made me realize that the number of people that care are increasing, and increasing fast. You can see the statistics in different studies that are made, you can see it in the amount of books, websites and movies that talk about this, in the number of organizations that are trying to do their part to heal the world.
Last year I wanted bad to continue my career in an organization where I could help to create the world I want to see. I applied to huge amounts of positions all around the world in large organizations (UN, Oxfam etc) and smaller non-profits. What I didn't anticipate is that the amount of people that want to do the same is just... enormous. For strong majority of the positions I didn't even make it past the pre-screening: the number of exceptional candidates was just so huge. Several of my friends that are really smart people with impressive credentials ran into the same problem: even though we badly wanted to work to save the world, we couldn't get hired. There are today literally millions of people who want those jobs. The demand for those jobs is far higher than supply.
In the recent months me and Sarah have come upon several non-profits and social ventures that take people on non-paid positions and imagine that: only the very best, the highly talented few get those positions. There is an application and interview rounds for these non-paid positions. Western world has evolved to a stage where money doesn't rule (as much) anymore, we are hungry for meaning. We want our lives to have a purpose. We don't wanna spend our lives making shareholders rich. We want to change the world and we are ready to work even for free.
Hint: It's probably the best time ever to start your own social venture; you can get badass employees even for free. Hey, starting your own gig is probably even easier than getting employed.
