Back in 2016 when I graduated as a designer, there was no real path for me to apply my skills to problems that I cared about. The shiniest jobs were in advertising, but that didn’t appeal to me. Instead, I joined a non-profit that works with women in shelter homes as… a project coordinator. The work mattered. But I wanted a formal design role in an organization that was doing good in the world. And I wondered, “How hard could that be to find?”

It was hard.

It took me another gig in early childhood education, followed by a master’s degree in designing for impact, plus a couple of internships, to finally land my first big break as a designer on a large-scale public health project.

A decade later, I see fellowships offering what it took me years to figure out on my own. They build bridges for designers who want to work on hard problems, and are a low-risk way to test the waters. What skills can you carry over? What additional domain knowledge do you require? Who else has walked this path before you?

Whether you’re just starting off in design or weighing a career switch, here’s our handpicked list of fellowships for good to consider.

Read my article and leave a comment on LinkedIn if you have fellowships that I missed.

Mahima Chandak (Co-founder of Hard Problems)

Our good friend Desigan wants to let everyone know that the Tor Project is looking for new board members who are passionate about privacy and censorship.

We think that boards give designers and PMs an excellent stepping stone to working on hard problems.

We added about 153 new jobs to the job board in the last week. These ones are especially good: