For several years, Josh Newton has been managing an informal listserv that lets the restless water professional–or those who want to become one–know where the job openings are and Newton has announced that it will now operate as a fully fledged hub for water professionals: Josh’s Water Jobs.
Since inception, the listserv has altered the course of many a young, middle manager, or even late stage employee, who is seeking to find the right position on the global water, sanitation, and hygiene career path. The site is currently listing 656 active jobs.
Among a few past beneficiaries were Brent Lyles, who became Executive Director, Colorado River Alliance and Joost Notenboom, who through the listserv, found a position as assistant manager at EY’s Climate Change & Sustainability Services, based in Sydney. Likewise, Marian Neal, found her calling as program manager of the Transboundary Water Management Unit at the International Centre for Water Cooperative (under the auspices of UNESCO), SIWI. And the listserv played a role in Kata Molnar and Fraser MacLeod finding their way to the World Water Council.
Josh’s Water Jobs became a modest, quiet yet powerful matchmaker. And he did it out of passion to make a market for this critical and specialised field of labour.
Much like the early versions of Craigslist it has been through a difficult adolescence, with growing pains and mood swings. It wasn’t always as reliable a connection as it could or should have been, and now and then took a few extra sick days.
But all that’s in the past. Today, the listserv appears all scrubbed, polished up with a new logo, and ready for its face-to-face interview in the corner office.
Visitors can find jobs that focus on both water resources as well as WASH with an effort to be as international as possible.
“I release a weekly digest of all the previous week’s jobs every Tuesday and you can subscribe to this list on the website itself,” said Newton.
Additionally, you can find all jobs posted on Twitter and weekly updates posted on Facebook and LinkedIn.
