The strongest piece we’ve published on this is Philosophy Means Business. Its argument: companies increasingly stake their reputations on frameworks like ESG, diversity and inclusion, and corporate social responsibility, and philosophers are well suited to building them, because argumentation, emotional intelligence and analytical skill are business skills.
The lay of the land#
Most jobs in most companies are not technical. Operations keeps the machine running. Programme and project management makes specific things happen on time. People teams, ESG teams and generalist roles like chief of staff round it out. Search for operations associate, programme coordinator, project manager, ESG analyst, people & culture associate or chief of staff. None of these titles mention philosophy; all of them reward someone who can structure ambiguity and write clearly. The mentoring and non-profit world, like Magnify Mentoring below, runs on the same roles with a mission attached. A reasonable approach: pick organisations you’d be glad to help run, apply to their generalist openings, and use Philosophy Means Business as the language for your cover letter.
Philosophers who’ve done it#
From our events#
- High-impact Mentoring with Kathryn Mecrow-Flynn (July 2021)
- Business & Philosophy (January 2021), Hunting for Non-Academic Jobs (February 2021) and our CV Workshop with Mind the Grad (December 2020)
Start here#
- Philosophy Means Business — the case to make about your own degree
- Mutual Stress Tests — on how technology and philosophy shape each other; useful framing for tech-adjacent interviews
- Mentoring in both directions: Magnify Mentoring as a place to work, and the GCRI advising program as a way to find your own mentor
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