By Kunal Modi  on Tue 29 Nov - 0 Comments
Categories: Careers, News, Social Finance

• Tweet

On Monday November 21st, the Social Enterprise Club at HBS hosted a career panel focused on social finance. We had a terrific line-up of practitioners, including Deborah Drake, from ACCION; Christine Phillpotts, from Grassroots Business Fund; Alex Bashian, from Invested Development; and Rishi Shukla, from Next Street. They provided students with insights about trends, career opportunities, and challenges in the social finance industry.

Panelists talked about the reasons that drove them into social finance and the excitement they found in that space. For instance, social finance is still a new industry, full of entrepreneurial opportunities and boutique shops developing creative ideas. People are smart, passionate and mission-driven. They are shaping the social finance industry, working with a wide range of stakeholders, from government to traditional companies to non-profit. Exciting opportunities are numerous for young motivated people in social finance.

While some communication and education efforts are still needed, the social finance space is becoming more mainstream, and is getting more visibility and recognition than it used to have. Other trends are toward more innovation and more sophistication in terms of financial products. Some challenges exist, and professionals see risks in the question of investment exits over the coming years. Fundraising is another challenge, but impact-focused investors are growing in number, especially when it comes to angel investors.

The employmeny search is mostly network-based, and there is no formal route to get a job in social finance. Although the demand for jobs in this space is high, there are plenty of opportunities for young professionals. This is especially true in field offices for emerging markets funds, which see an increasing trend in terms of recruiting relative to headquarters offices, and growing needs for professionals based in the countries.

Students are advised to find their edge, define their interests, and know what they want to do on a day-to-day basis. The good news is that almost any professional background can bring value on a social finance job, as the space is in need for a widely diversified range of skill sets.