Coding for social good: 7 companies you should know about
Many developers have a dream to work at a FAANG company. It’s hard to resist the appeal of cool perks, great benefits, and a big salary. While many top tech companies are doing interesting and important work, not every developer has a dream of working at one. When considering your career goals, you should consider working for a smaller company focused on making a big impact on social causes, such as animal welfare, suicide prevention, and inclusive hiring processes. Today, we’ll explore seven companies where you can code for social good. Let’s get started!
We’ll cover:
- Upsolve
- VotingWorks
- GoodRx
- Daily Harvest
- Petco Love
- Lesbians Who Tech & Allies
- The Trevor Project
- Wrapping up
Upsolve#
Upsolve is a tech nonprofit headquartered in New York. Upsolve was founded in 2016 to help low-income individuals file for bankruptcy for free. Right now in the U.S., it costs an average of $1,500 to $4,000 to process the court filing fees and attorney fees when you want to file bankruptcy. Upsolve receives funding from the Legal Services Corporation, charitable foundations and investors, and private independent attorneys.
Who they’re looking for#
Upsolve has a small, but growing software engineering team. If you’re passionate about social, economic, and racial justice, Upsolve may be a good fit for you. They’re looking for a software engineer with the following skills and experience:
- 3+ years of experience coding in a modern language
- Experience with NodeJS
- Experience with cloud providers, such as AWS
- The ability to determine whether something should be refactored or shipped
- Experience building intuitive and explicit software products
- Interest in data analytics
- Interest in moving between frontend, backend, and DevOps
- Passion for social impact
For more information, check out their official website.
VotingWorks#
VotingWorks is a nonprofit, non-partisan, and open-source startup with the mission to create more reliable and secure voting technology. In addition to voting machines, they also work on risk-limiting audit software, accessible remote ballot marking, and current and official election reporting.
Overall, VotingWorks enables users to:
- Limit consumption of misinformation
- Access all election information and results
- Use their APIs to inquire about the same election data in real-time
- Build trust and confidence throughout the entire election process
- Access the source code and internal documentation used to power their technologies
Who they’re looking for#
If you’re passionate about increasing voter confidence and influencing the election landscape, VotingWorks may be a good fit for you! They’re looking for software engineers with the following skills and experience:
- 4+ years of experience in software development
- Experience in the frontend (using HTML and JavaScript or React and TypeScript) or the backend (using HTTP, JSON, and relational databases or Python and PostgreSQL)
- Effective communication skills
- The ability to work independently, sometimes with minimal guidance
- The ability to work across the web stack
For more information, check out their official website.
GoodRx#
GoodRx is a website and mobile application that helps you find cheaper prices for your prescriptions and medications. They offer a variety of services, such as:
- Resources for healthcare professionals
- Health information reviewed by medical and healthcare experts
- Blood work and lab testing resources
- Online appointments with healthcare providers
- Savings on prescriptions and medications
Their goal is to give everyone access to affordable and accessible healthcare regardless of their insurance or income status. Thousands of pharmacies in the U.S. accept GoodRx. So far, the service has helped its consumers save $30 billion dollars.
Who they’re looking for#
If you have a customer-first mindset and want to be part of a team that helps Americans find accessible and affordable healthcare, GoodRx may be for you. GoodRx is looking for a full-stack engineer with the following skills and experience:
- 3+ years of product experience
- Experience with front-end technologies like React, TypeScript, NextJS, Redux, NodeJS, etc.
- Experience with RESTful and GraphQL APIs
- Fluency in Type or JavaScript
- Experience with AWS technologies
- Markup and styling experience using CSS preprocessor
- Ability to work with technical and non-technical teammates and groups
For more information, check out their official website.
Daily Harvest#
Daily Harvest is a frozen meal delivery service that aims to make it easy to eat healthier. They provide plant-based meals, including smoothies, oat bowls, flatbreads, soups, and more. They allow users to select their own items, so you know exactly what you’re getting. Mostly all of their ingredients are organic, and they put their resources into reducing food waste.
Their goal is to provide customers with high-quality meals that are full of fruits, vegetables, and nutrients. They understand that it can be difficult to make yourself cleaner meals, so they do the work for you.
Who they’re looking for#
Daily Harvest is looking for software engineers with the following skills and experience:
- 2+ years of experience with software development
- Experience with JavaScript, CSS, and HTML
- Experience using JavaScript frameworks like AngularJS or React
- Experience with some of the following: Redux, TypeScript, Bootstrap, React Native, SASS, etc.
- Experience with Agile
- Experience building RESTful APIs
- CI/CD experience
For more information, check out their official website.
Petco Love#
Petco Love is is an animal welfare organization that empowers communities to make a positive difference in the lives of pets. Petco Love invests in adoption and medical care programs, pet cancer research, spay and neuter services, and much more to better the animal welfare system.
So far, they’ve helped over 6.5 million pets find a loving home. Their mission is “to create a better world for animals and the people who love and need them.”
Who they’re looking for#
If you’re passionate about animal welfare or are interested in playing a role in bettering the animal welfare system, Petco Love may be a good fit for you. They’re looking for full-stack engineers with the following skills and experience:
- 3+ years of experience with Python
- Experience with Next.js, JavaScript, and Node
- 3+ years of experience with Python web frameworks like Django, Flask, Web2py, etc.
- 3 + years of experience working with relational database systems like MySQL or PostgreSQL
- Experience working in Linux
- Experience with tools like Solr and Elasticsearch
- Experience with VCS
For more information, check out their official website.
Lesbians Who Tech & Allies#
Lesbians Who Tech & Allies is a community of over 70,000 LGBTQ+ women, POC, and non-binary leaders. Their goal is to create an inclusive community and an inclusive hiring process and to help more women, POC, and queer and trans people break into the technology field. They help match job seekers with companies that share the same passions and vision.
Lesbians Who Tech also hosts events such as the Pride Summit, which is an interactive conference where you discuss things like democracy, systemic racism, police brutality, the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and much more.
Who they’re looking for#
If you want to join a diverse, inclusive team with a lot of social impact, Lesbians Who Tech & Allies may be a good fit for you. Lesbians Who Tech & Allies is looking for full-stack engineers to work on their inclusive hiring platform called include.io and to support their programs and events. You should have the following skills and experience:
- Experience with JavaScript
- 2+ years of experience with React and Node
- 2+ years of experience using PostgreSQL, SQL, or MySQL
- Experience with GIT or version control
- Experience with documentation
- Experience implementing unit tests
For more information, check out their official website.
The Trevor Project#
The Trevor Project is a nonprofit suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for young LGBTQ+ people. They provide 24/7 support via phone, text, and online chat. They also run a safe space social networking site, along with research, education, and advocacy programs.
Who they’re looking for#
The Trevor Project is looking for machine learning engineers with the following skills and experience:
- Experience in machine learning libraries such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, Keras, and Scikit-learn
- Experience in natural language processing and ML model production
- An interest in learning more about the latest AI research
- The ability to work well with a team
- The ability to create clear and logical systems to support your work
- You have care and respect for everyone
- You care about LGBTQ+ youth and saving lives
For more information, check out their official website.
Wrapping up#
FAANG may be appealing, but it may not be right for you. There are many smaller companies that are looking for talented developers to help them make the world a better place. When navigating through the job market, consider looking for opportunities with smaller companies that are fighting for important social causes.
Continue reading#
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