Long-time non-profit guy here. Totally get where the author is coming from and I'm in a very similar position in terms of where my role relates to my organisation, but I still love my job despite having exactly the same issues. Why?
Non-profits are a funny old space. In theory, they're not out there to make money, so people gravitate towards them seeking "purpose". Everything is fine once you realise that you're not going to get that, or at least in the way people come to it for.
Non-profits have ridiculous, completely unachievable goals, particularly when you put their budgets in context. Some provide truly excellent services and products (e.g., reports), most don't.
So what's so great about a non-profit tech job? I've got an interesting problem space, I love trying to work out how to measure things that are inherently difficult to measure. I have a hell of a lot of autonomy, freedom of tooling, people listen to me on tech issues -- even when they probably shouldn't.
I bust my arse because I'm interested in what I'm doing, but I could easily coast if I wanted to. The pay is enough for me, and my colleagues are for the most part super nice and interesting. If I want to learn something, I can make an excuse to play with it at work and run with it.
Seeking to have "impact" through a data job at an average non-profit is naive, but a lot of these jobs have stuff to recommend them beyond that.
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Edit: slight addition to my list of joys of non-profit nerding
Non-profits are a funny old space. In theory, they're not out there to make money, so people gravitate towards them seeking "purpose". Everything is fine once you realise that you're not going to get that, or at least in the way people come to it for.
Non-profits have ridiculous, completely unachievable goals, particularly when you put their budgets in context. Some provide truly excellent services and products (e.g., reports), most don't.
So what's so great about a non-profit tech job? I've got an interesting problem space, I love trying to work out how to measure things that are inherently difficult to measure. I have a hell of a lot of autonomy, freedom of tooling, people listen to me on tech issues -- even when they probably shouldn't.
I bust my arse because I'm interested in what I'm doing, but I could easily coast if I wanted to. The pay is enough for me, and my colleagues are for the most part super nice and interesting. If I want to learn something, I can make an excuse to play with it at work and run with it.
Seeking to have "impact" through a data job at an average non-profit is naive, but a lot of these jobs have stuff to recommend them beyond that.
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Edit: slight addition to my list of joys of non-profit nerding