The green and social transition is revolutionizing all sectors of the economy. Many of you want to make a difference from your first experiences: internship, work-study, employment…
The “jobs that makesense” platform, in partnership with Le Parisien Etudiant, responds to this revolution and launches a major recruitment campaign “1000stages.org” for all actors of change from April 3 to May 26.
Article proposed and written by Fabien Secherre from “jobs that makesense”.
To have a positive impact on the planet, you can choose to join two types of structures. On the one hand, what are called “positive impact structures”, ie companies and associations created with the aim of meeting an ecological or social need. The heart of their mission is therefore impact. On the other hand, traditional companies in transition, which adopt a transformation plan to adapt their activity to social and environmental requirements and reduce their negative impact. But which structure is better to choose? Elements of response in this match in 4 rounds.
1. Remuneration
Advantage company in transition
The first question that comes into play in your arbitration between a company in transition and an impact structure is the salary. Many prejudices exist on the subject, some even thinking that exercising an impact job would require dividing your salary by two. Meaning or salary, do we really have to choose? Here are some facts to answer them.
On the side of the Social and Solidarity Economy, APEC has measured a difference of 10% in salary compared to the average for equivalent positions. This difference is higher according to seniority, but rather around 8% on leaving school.
There is no aggregate data on non-ESS impact companies, but we can see on jobs_that_makesense that small structures tend to align themselves more and more on wages in order to be competitive.
When it comes to companies in transition, it all depends on the company you decide to join. In some cases, you will be able to claim social benefits, participation and profit-sharing, which are more difficult to obtain in a small, nascent structure. But for the latter, you can also obtain shares in the structure (for example BSPCE), which can prove advantageous after a few years!
2. Job prospects
Equally
To start, let’s give some numbers. The Social and Solidarity Economy (ESS) represents 2.4 million jobs in France, including 350,000 executives. Added to this are the out-of-scope SSE impact companies, including the entire startup ecosystem and renewable energy, water and waste treatment companies.
On the other hand, it is much more difficult to retrieve data on the number of impact jobs in companies in transition.
In the end, and this affects both categories of structures, APEC estimates that 25% of managerial job offers include a greening dimension, ie 800,000 jobs. According to the Shift Project, 1.1 million jobs must be created to ensure the ecological transition of the French economy.
Whether you choose to join a company in transition to help it transform or an impact structure, your career prospects are guaranteed! Because in the long term, 100% of jobs will have to integrate social and environmental issues into their daily lives, so you will be ahead!
3. Accessibility & diversity of profiles
Advantage impact structures
What is the most accessible course for you? Of course, it all depends on your training. On the side of companies in transition, many needs for expertise are felt: skills in CSR, decarbonization, carbon footprint, socially responsible investment (SRI),… These structures, which are not natively oriented towards the preservation of environment, will look for qualified profiles, trained or having already had a first experience in this field. An opportunity if you are studying and are looking for which direction to take for your specialization, for example, but these jobs are a little more difficult to access if you have completed a more general course without experience in the field.
As for structures with a positive impact such as associations, we find the same variety of jobs as in the traditional economy. From marketing to project management, including sales, animation and engineering. Opportunities exist in all professions, and joining these structures does not require any additional specific training, other than knowledge of the sector of activity that you are about to join (which is also true of all sectors). ). Recruiters in these structures are generally particularly sensitive to your motivation, and your interest in their raison d’être.
4. Impact
Equally
In which structure have the most impact? Once again, it is difficult to separate the two types of structures.
In a structure that is created to respond to an ecological or social challenge, the impact is direct. By joining it, you contribute to its development, and therefore to increasing its impact. For example, if you join an application that fights food waste as a commercial, each new store you list helps reduce food waste, and you can directly measure your impact in tons of waste avoided.
But the impact is just as real in a large company in transition. If you join a bottled water producer and you contribute to reducing the volume of plastic generated by 0.0001% (by reducing over-packaging for example), then your impact can quickly be monumental given the volume of bottles marketed! With one point of attention, however, for companies in transition: beware of greenwashing! If you are hired to remove plastic cups from a company’s cafeteria and other non-core projects, your impact will be very limited. Worse, you then contribute to diverting the gaze on what really matters to transform this company…
Conclusion
equally
The match is tight, and in reality it is impossible to choose for you whether it is better to join a structure created to meet a social or environmental need or a company in transition. In both cases, you will help transform the planet and society, which is no small feat! Everything then depends on your preferences: do you prefer to integrate a large structure known to all, but perhaps a little less agile, or participate in the launch of a small, very dynamic structure but perhaps a little more fragile? At what level do you want to have impact? At the level of a company, a sector of activity, or society?
In the end, why choose a priori? What if you focused instead on finding an internship or work-study program useful to the planet, regardless of the type of structure? Go to 1000stages.org, thousands of offers are waiting for you.