Quant Researcher

About Work on Climate Work On Climate is a leading non-profit focused on building the workforce to solve climate change equitably and justly. You probably know us for our online community that has helped thousands of people find jobs and start companies, highlighted in most major business press, from Fast Company to New York Times. However, our work goes even farther: we are creating change in systems that produce the workforce in the first place – learn more about our approach in this deck.

Most of Work On Climate has been created by a nimble team of highly talented and dedicated volunteers. Supporting the workforce is a uniquely impactful climate solution that helps all other climate solutions, and by volunteering with our team, you can be on the leading edge of this critical work.

About the team Simply put, the Impact Research team studies the impact of Work on Climate’s community through surveys and data on the usage of our programs. Our team’s findings guide program design and prove impact to our allies and funders. Today, the team is located throughout the United States.

Role Summary We are looking to bring experienced Quant Researchers who are skilled at designing, administering, and analyzing results of quantitative research surveys.

Time commitment

5 hours/week consistently for the next 6+ months (We’d like a minimum of 6 months, and love it when volunteers stay on longer).

Is it a good use of my time?

Yes, if you want the following:

• To work on interesting and challenging quantitative research that actually matters
• To get a great line on your resume and portfolio – the results of your work will be public!
• To learn a lot – our team is super smart, passionate, emotionally intelligent people who know what they’re doing

What will I do?

You will contribute to some or all parts of the lifecycle of a trustworthy quantitative survey:

• Setting research goals in collaboration with our Executive Director and our program staff
• Design, test, code surveys that can meet these goals
• Crafting survey samples, administering and distributing surveys, coordinating the distribution process
• Performing quantitative analysis of survey data to answer research questions, including data cleanup, summarization, de-biasing, and so on
• Translate your findings into clear and compelling narratives, both internal and external
• Work with our Marketing team to publish your findings

What skills and commitment do I need?

The most effective candidates tend to be like this:

• 3+ years of experience conducting quant research, ideally in a setting with human subjects (e.g. polling, surveys, A/B testing, etc.)
• 3+ years analyzing quant research data, ideally in a programming language like Python or R
• 3+ years of experience communicating research findings to a range of audiences
• Dependable and communicative. We appreciate your help and know that we’re not entitled to your time – but others on our team need to be able to count on you when you commit.
• High-agency. There will be many times when you need to learn something, talk to somebody in order to get “unstuck”, or roll up your sleeves and do something you didn’t realize was needed. Our most successful volunteers enjoy “doing whatever it takes”.

Common Challenges

Some of the hardest parts about quantitative survey research in our setting are:

• Crafting surveys that capture the complexity of people’s career paths and our impact on them. For example, if we want to measure how many founders we helped: who counts as a founder? (do people exploring an idea count?) And what counts as “helping”? How do we know that different respondents understood our questions in the same way?
• Low response rates – even in a community of 30,000+ people, we usually get only 400-600 responses
• Sampling bias – what if the responses mainly come from people who are happy with our work? What if it’s the opposite?

I’m interested! What do I do?

Yay! We’re excited to learn more about you Please fill out this application form to tell us about your skills and interests in volunteering with our awesome team. It would be most helpful if you submit a portfolio showing your previous quantitative research/data analytics experience in addition to your resume/CV! If you are selected for an interview, our team will be in touch in 1-2 weeks.