How to Find Companies Working on Problems You Care About

Guide

You may know which problems interest you before you know which company you want to join. Perhaps you have watched a restaurant throw away good food, struggled to plan an accessible journey, or helped someone navigate a confusing healthcare service. You would like to work on making something like that better, but the same familiar employers keep appearing in your job search.

Start with the problem. Learn how people are tackling it, find the organizations doing that work, and ask what joining one would actually involve. The steps below will help you build a shortlist based on both the work and the working environment.

1. Turn your interest into a specific question

Your own experience can give you a starting point. In REWORK, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson call this “scratch your own itch.” In their discussion of the chapter, they describe building Basecamp to address problems they experienced managing client projects. You can borrow that approach for a job search: a frustrating experience may lead you to an organization already developing a better way.

Think about something specific you would like to improve: helping adults fit education around work, making bus information easier to understand, or reducing the paperwork that delays access to care. Then learn from the people affected; your own experience is one starting point, and others may need something different.

Write one sentence about the change you want to help make and who would benefit. "Less food waste" is a starting interest. "Help restaurant kitchens avoid preparing food they will throw away" is a search direction.

Pick one question for this round of research. If the results feel uninteresting, change the question before dismissing the whole field.

For a hypothetical search about adults struggling to continue their education, you might investigate flexible course schedules, affordable training, or support for learners returning to study. Each takes you toward different organizations and different kinds of everyday work.

2. Learn how people are tackling it

Find a credible resource that explains the problem's possible solutions. Look for a specialist research organization, public agency, or university working on the subject. Use its vocabulary to make your searches more precise.

For food waste, the US Environmental Protection Agency explains approaches including prevention, donation, upcycling, and composting. Each involves different work. If preventing overproduction interests you, collecting names of composting businesses will not answer your question.

Try searches such as:

• restaurant food waste measurement companies
• surplus food redistribution organizations [your region]
• adult learning support organizations [your region]

Read enough to choose an approach you want to understand better. You can broaden the search later.

3. Find organizations through specialist resources

Use a specialist directory to start your list. ReFED's Solution Provider Directory is one starting point for food waste. Its provider network includes businesses and nonprofits. This is a way to discover names you may never encounter through a familiar job board.

Other useful routes include project partners, accelerator portfolios, and conference programs focused on the specific approach. Look for the teams building, testing, or delivering something you would like to work on.

For example, the US Department of Energy's workforce projects name organizations developing training in heat-pump installation and maintenance. Following those names could lead you to teams helping people learn to install and maintain the equipment.

Check each organization's current website before adding it to your shortlist. A directory or project page can help you discover a team, but its work may have changed and it may have no vacancies.

4. Explain what each organization actually does

A mission statement gives you a claim to investigate. Open the product or service page and look for what the organization spends time and resources building. Try completing this sentence:

This organization helps [specific people] do [specific thing] through [product, service, or approach].

Winnow, for example, describes tools that help commercial kitchens track discarded food and plan how much to prepare, alongside coaching for the people using them. That gives you several kinds of work to investigate: building the tools, helping kitchens use them, and supporting changes to daily routines. You would still need to check what a particular role involves.

Consider where your existing skills could help deliver that solution. Experience training colleagues, supporting customers, or coordinating services could give you a useful starting point. Check current job descriptions for the responsibilities and specialist knowledge required; the product description alone does not tell you which roles are available.

Read a customer or delivery partner's account where one is available. Look for how people use the solution, what they have to change, and what remains difficult. Treat results reported in promotional case studies as claims to investigate.

Keep unanswered questions visible. If you cannot tell who uses the service, record "users unclear" rather than filling the gap with an assumption.

5. Ask whether you would want to work there

An interesting problem can draw you to a company. Its working practices will shape whether you can contribute well and want to stay. In It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work, Fried and Hansson argue for running a company without habitual overwork and manufactured urgency. That is a useful question to bring to an organization whose work you admire: how does it make room for sustained, careful work?

Look for specific practices you can discuss with the team. The 37signals Guide to Internal Communication describes a preference for written discussions and says immediate responses should be reserved for genuine emergencies. This gives a candidate something concrete to ask about. A published policy is a starting point; ask colleagues how it works during a busy week.

For a team tackling a problem you care about, you might ask:

• When feedback from users changes a project, who decides what to postpone?
• How do people doing research, building the product, and delivering the service share what they learn?
• Which decisions could someone in this role make independently?
• When demand exceeds what the team can deliver, how does it handle workloads and working hours?

Listen for recent examples and consider whether those practices suit you. A field team responding to urgent needs will organize its work differently from a team developing teaching materials. For more help deciding what matters to you, see How to Find Meaningful Work on a Team That Fits You.

6. Build a shortlist you can act on

For each promising organization, record:

• Its name and current website.
• The people it serves and the approach it is developing.
• One concrete product, project, or customer source, with the date you checked it.
• What interests you about the work and what you know about the working environment.
• A relevant role or careers page, plus one question to investigate.

A hypothetical shortlist entry might read:

Work: A service that coordinates surplus-food collections from local shops.

Why it interests me: I enjoy solving delivery problems with people in different organizations.

What I found: A project page describing a pilot with three shops; no current vacancy listed.

What I need to learn: Is the team expanding collections, and who works with shops when pickups go wrong?

Separate a working solution from a pilot, planned launch, or research project. All may interest you, but you would be joining different stages of work. Keep pay, location, and other practical requirements in view so you do not spend hours researching an opportunity you could not take.

Choose two organizations for a closer look. Compare their approaches and current priorities, then read their roles or ask a focused question. "Are you expanding the service to new kitchens or improving how existing kitchens use it?" is more useful than an open-ended request to tell you about the company.

Start with one problem you would like to help solve and two organizations worth a closer look. By the end of that research, you should be able to explain what each is building, whom it helps, and what you need to learn about working there. That can open up teams and roles you would never have found through a familiar job title.

Frequently asked questions

What if an organization has no suitable vacancy?

Keep it on a research list rather than assuming an opening exists. Check its official careers page. If it invites speculative inquiries, explain which part of its work interests you and ask about that function. Do not treat an old vacancy copied onto another site as current hiring evidence.

How can I tell whether a company's mission is genuine?

You cannot establish that from a slogan. Ask for a recent decision where the stated purpose affected what the company built, funded, changed, or stopped doing. Compare the answer with its products, projects, and accounts from the people using them. If the evidence is thin or conflicting, keep the question open while you investigate further.

Should I exclude nonprofits or companies without a particular label?

Use the work as your starting point. A business or nonprofit may be developing the approach you want to join. A label does not tell you enough about its solution, your responsibilities, or the team. Investigate those details before narrowing by organization type.

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Find organizations worth a closer look

Explore organizations on Scaling Impact, then use your shortlist questions to investigate their work and the teams behind it.

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