the big reveal: my new job!
Where’s Jodi? Jodi is now a research fellow at the University of Melbourne Faculty of Business and Economics. I’ll be focusing for the next 3 years on measuring the benefits of social investments -- those investments intended do social good and (possibly) turn a profit at the same time, ranging from philanthropy to microfinance to partnering with local businesses in the developing world etc. The goal is to spin off an independent research cluster that will be self-funding by the end of the three-year term.
This is the first time I’ve ever had a job get excited about the *diversity* of my CV-they had no more expected to find a single person able to handle the range of topics than I had expected to find a role using my whole background. Development and environment, organisational behaviour, accounting and international reporting, finance, writing research proposals, working with large databases while also getting focus groups… it’s all here. A high-calibre university in a cosmopolitan city full of interesting people, walking distance from home, at grown-up wages that still have space to grow. In a country where I’m expected to work 35-40 hours a week and take plenty of holiday.
Needless to say, I’m over the moon! This both what I went to graduate school for in the first place, and why I went into economics: supplying evidence to evaluate and bolster people’s efforts to make the world a better, more sustainable, more liveable place. No compromise, not too much bullshit. I didn’t always believe that I could achieve this. That doubt led me to not seek it out, rather than risking the heartbreak of trying for something I wanted so deeply and failing.
This is day 3 on the job, and par for the course at any large organisation, it’s mostly been paperwork and IT. But I’m pretty confident that it will be awesome when I get some momentum behind me. I’m at the main Parkville campus of the university, in a shiny purpose-built building that’s about 4-5 years old. I’m a bit removed from the buzz of the main campus, but OTOH I’m only 3 blocks from the Queen Victoria Markets.
This is the first time I’ve ever had a job get excited about the *diversity* of my CV-they had no more expected to find a single person able to handle the range of topics than I had expected to find a role using my whole background. Development and environment, organisational behaviour, accounting and international reporting, finance, writing research proposals, working with large databases while also getting focus groups… it’s all here. A high-calibre university in a cosmopolitan city full of interesting people, walking distance from home, at grown-up wages that still have space to grow. In a country where I’m expected to work 35-40 hours a week and take plenty of holiday.
Needless to say, I’m over the moon! This both what I went to graduate school for in the first place, and why I went into economics: supplying evidence to evaluate and bolster people’s efforts to make the world a better, more sustainable, more liveable place. No compromise, not too much bullshit. I didn’t always believe that I could achieve this. That doubt led me to not seek it out, rather than risking the heartbreak of trying for something I wanted so deeply and failing.
This is day 3 on the job, and par for the course at any large organisation, it’s mostly been paperwork and IT. But I’m pretty confident that it will be awesome when I get some momentum behind me. I’m at the main Parkville campus of the university, in a shiny purpose-built building that’s about 4-5 years old. I’m a bit removed from the buzz of the main campus, but OTOH I’m only 3 blocks from the Queen Victoria Markets.