Lots of learning - Anonymous employee On Purpose Employee Review

2.0
Oct 14, 2018
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Charismatic founder and CEO. The nature of the business (enabling emerging talent transition into purpose led jobs) provides opportunities to work with leading social innovators and entrepreneurs. Has growing networks within London and across Paris & Berlin. Still small and responsive so scope for personal contribution to make a difference. Staff are highly committed, resourceful and collaborative

Cons

Small scale without a clear route to sustainable growth. Very demanding work environment (long hours and plenty of low value add tasks required of employees at all levels). Business model relies on volunteers and goodwill, this undermines the professionalism of the highly motivated staff. Poor diversity track record and apparently lacks will to address this within the employee profile or within its Associate Programme. Accusations of elitism are unfair though the organisation doesn't know how to engage with different forms of intelligence, yet.

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On Purpose Response
7y
Hello, thanks for your review, and pleased to hear that you learnt a lot while you were involved with On Purpose, and that you found the core team to be committed and resourceful. To respond to your comments, we’ve grown considerably over the last few years, with new programmes in Paris and Berlin, and for CEOs in London. This kind of international growth is unusual for a social enterprise. We see how we work with our community of professional volunteers as a valuable innovation that means we’re able to access people with valuable skillsets and experience for our programme participants. To respond to your comments about diversity, thank you for sharing your view, and this is one of the areas we are focusing on in 2019, and beyond. On Purpose is committed to equal opportunities and welcomes applications from candidates with diverse backgrounds and skills. We are expanding the places where we actively promote the Associate Programme and would be pleased to hear any suggestions you have – please drop us a note at contact@onpurpose.org. Our mission is to create an economy that works for all, and we recognise our responsibility to challenge the system and improve the demographic, cognitive and experiential diversity of our programmes and organisation.

Explore other reviews about On Purpose

3.0
Nov 25, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- A critical and timely mission - A highly inspiring founder and CEO - A great group of programme associates and alumni across the network

Cons

Unfortunately, the founder's mission and vision don't easily translate into the day-to-day operations of the On Purpose Associate programme: * During my time on the programme, the work placements caused a good bit of stress and frustration among those involved, even tears. In 2025, several On Purpose Associates - from across cohorts - discontinued their work placements. The underlying problems included (1) a lack of meaningful and/or appropriately challenging work from the perspective of the On Purpose Associates, (2) poor overall fit between On Purpose Associates and placement hosts. For context, it is important to understand that fees generated through the work placements are the main source of income for On Purpose. That said, the programme operators seemed to place way more emphasis on signing up / retaining enough work placement providers to make the On Purpose organisation financially viable than on making sure that the work projects themselves (1) were truly purpose-driven and appropriately scoped; (2) matched the professional experiences and purpose-driven aspirations of the Associates. * The weekly learning curriculum was mainly delivered through unpaid volunteers, given the limited capacity of the (very hard working and capable) core team. A lot of the learning lessons seemed random, sometimes last-minute and often disconnected from the thoughts that the founder shares publicly on social media.

3
5.0
Feb 22, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Lots of variety in learning and opportunities to do placements in new fields.

Cons

None - it's a great programme if you're considering transitioning your career into the impact space

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