First, a community; then a job

This ad is strange and very long. It’s like this because what we want to say is “we have found the job of our dreams”, but everyone would say that. So we wrote all of this instead.

The chance that it is the job of your dreams too is tiny, but exists. In truth, it’s not a job, it’s more of a community. Some would say a life choice. Second Tree. Twenty-seven people from all over the world who left much better-paid jobs to work in refugee camps in Greece. Everyone in the team is here because of their commitment to help people, and to do that in a specific way we find ethically valuable.

But this is not for everyone; it’s actually not for most people. We all do an enormous amount of work (but for something really meaningful), for very small compensation (but it’s the same for everyone: founders, directors, top management, everyone).

And this level of transparency goes beyond our compensation policy: not only can you, but you are expected to, criticise your bosses. If you don’t, you are not a good fit for a group of people who want to improve.

So, if you have been close to the reality of refugees in Greece through social solidarity networks, legal work, or just rational compassion; or if you are a disillusioned humanitarian who is looking for a place that really cares; or you work in another sector and want to start doing work that is meaningful; this might be for you.

YOU

You are someone who is driven by purpose, not profit. There is nothing wrong in wanting to get rich, but we cannot do that here: our main criterion in deciding how to invest our time is trying to make the world a better place.

You might be surprised, maybe even sceptical, while reading this ad: can a place like that even exist? You want to find out, and you will ask us all of the questions that you have in your mind. You will not be polite; you want to really understand if this thing can actually exist.

You want to work with people who care deeply, you want to be in a team that’s just as committed as you are. People who are extremely effective at what they do, because they have the skills required or are willing to put in the hard work that is necessary to develop those skills.

You have the competence and the resolution to translate your ethical drive into meaningful and effective action. You have:

- Intelligence: You have changed your mind and made someone else change their mind, through rational conversations, at least once in the last two weeks
- Honesty: There is nothing you wouldn’t say, except the things you say you wouldn’t say. If you mess up, you say so. If someone else messes up, you say so too
- Engagement: When you read the Wikipedia entry for Aumann’s Agreement Theorem you get excited. You don’t want to “be yourself”, you will try to improve us
- Ethical drive: You have decided (no matter how recently) that it’s not about what you’re good at or what you like to do, but about what is right to do
- Sense of humour: You are ruthless. Listening to this advice for humanitarians, from an Afghan teenager with an extremely painful story, moves you

You also have:

- English Proficiency: Speaking good enough English is necessary since it’s our working language. Other languages (like Arabic or Persian) are valuable. But the language we communicate in is English.
- Possibility of Long-Term Commitment: Any new team member receives an incredible amount of investment. The most senior people in the organisation will sit down with you and try to see how you can grow and, hopefully, in the long term you can replace them. Of course, no one can commit to something like this without seeing it first. But if you already know that in two months, you’ll be doing something else, this is not worth it for either of us.
- Potential: Show us your skills, orthodox or unorthodox. Whether you have something you can contribute with, or you are someone eager and able to learn quickly. Here, new team members gain responsibilities; there is no ceiling. If you show that you are very capable, you might be the person who runs programmes in refugee camps in Greece, who delivers courses at universities across Europe, provides training in Syria or Iraq, or speaks with important institutions on the global stage.

US

Second Tree was founded by a group of volunteers working together in one of the worst refugee camps in Europe (Katsikas, close to Ioannina). Some lived in the camp, some did not. From the beginning, we realised that making such a distinction – even with good intentions – “othered” refugees. At the time we didn’t know that our actions were called community engagement; we just knew that we were building a community.

Ten years later, Second Tree has kept the same ethos and turned it into a community engagement model, a policy, and a package of training programmes for local authorities, international institutions and civil society organisations.

We still work in the refugee camps in Greece (Epirus), our root and innovation lab, where we keep learning and developing new ideas. But now we also advocate – through writing, public speaking and thought leadership – for a world reception system that sees refugees as equals.

But we live in the real world, and we understand trade-offs (if you decide to apply, alongside what’s written in the “how to apply” section, include in your email a description of how good you are with trade-offs). We understand that the life we all live is not for everyone. It’s a life full of meaning, but also of a lot of sharing, and some sacrifices. The very idea of having such a compensation policy, where everyone is the same, is a trade-off: we want as many resources as possible to go to the activities we do for the people who live in refugee camps. We are aware that this way we will lose some people, but we think this is better than giving higher salaries and doing less good things.

OUR PHILOSOPHY

We don’t see refugees as victims, but as human beings. The community engagement model we developed is called “Refugees Are People”, or RAP. Often, in the humanitarian world and in the reception systems of Europe, refugees are perceived and treated as victims.

People that you need to protect, because of their vulnerability, or celebrate because of their heroism, or avoid upsetting because of the culture they are reduced to. This depiction is often used by NGOs, activists, academia, and individuals to foster support, highlight injustice and counter anti-refugee sentiment. However, despite being well-intentioned, it undermines and disempowers refugees in a similar way to how the opposite form of “othering” (perceiving refugees as invaders, thieves, etc) does.

At Second Tree, we place significant emphasis on countering these victimising sentiments. It’s not easy. We all carry biases within us, and committing to this belief requires consistent discussion and self-reflection.

It means engaging intellectually, disagreeing, joking with refugees as you would with other people, and holding them to the same standards – not lower, not higher – as anyone else. This, practising joint responsibility and the same high expectations for everyone involved, is how Second Tree has managed to build strong communities.

How To Apply

Bear in mind that the application process is long and has several steps. If you decide to apply, send an email in English to [email protected] including (at least):

Something you would have wanted to know 5 years ago
Tell us the story of one time when you challenged your boss
Something you disagree with in this article. What are we wrong about?

In your email:

Put “Strange Ad” as the subject line
At the bottom, copy-paste the link to the ad you are responding to

Attach:

How can you still be optimistic, in such a world? What keeps you going in the face of it all? Attach a voice message describing this.

If the application includes all of these, and you show that you read the whole ad, we will get back to you in a maximum of 48 hours.

Please don’t use AI in a way that makes us read things that are not what you think or how you would express it. We promise you that humans, and not robots, will read your applications; be kind to them.

FAQs

1. Do you get money from the EU? How does this interact with your values as an organisation?

Yes. Only for projects we write or contribute writing, with partners (local authorities, organisations, universities) around the world we value; and only for things and ideas we want to do. We believe very much in our work, and we think it would be immoral to turn down funding we could do important things with. Of course, unless it has constraints that go against our principles or requires us to do things we don’t want to. We have turned down projects (also big ones) that would have compromised this.

2. Do you get money from the Greek government?

No. But not in principle. If there was funding, offered by the Greek government, that would allow us to do things we consider meaningful, without having to compromise our principles, we would try to secure it. In these ten years it has never happened, but it might be that we haven’t been good enough at finding it.

3. Where does the majority of your funding come from?

We have legal entities in 4 different countries, with Greece, Ioannina, being our headquarter. Overall, last year 62% of our funding came from grants and foundations, 38% from small donations on our websites.

4. Aren’t NGOs in Greece just businesses disguised as charities? Or scams?

No. And definitely not Second Tree. The level of access and transparency we decided to commit to on topics like decision making, funding, policies, etc is totally at odds with that. Can you imagine a scam project where everyone knows what everyone else earns? If you’d like to talk to current or former team members, let us know. We are not transparent because we owe it to someone, but because it is our choice.

5. Do you have a horizontal hierarchy? What does that mean?

We don’t know either, what that means exactly. We have positions and responsibilities, but they don’t entail being right in a discussion (or a higher salary). Certainly, if a decision needs to be made with a tight time constraint, the person that is in charge of that position will make that decision. But that decision will be under everyone’s scrutiny. Actually, newer team members are required to provide points of improvement for their managers (and, hopefully, take their jobs!) We do not do this because we are “nice”, but because it’s the only way to keep improving the way we function.

6. What does a week look like?

Everyone creates their own schedule, with only a few meetings everyone is required to attend (for example, our team meeting is on Wednesday morning). That means that people often work very different schedules, some people prefer to work at night, some people on Saturday morning, some wake up early and finish early. But two things are true: we all work very hard, and there are commitments that have fixed times (e.g. if you are teaching Greek in a refugee camp, you’ll have a fixed schedule on the days you go there; if you work in the communication department, you’ll have fixed meetings with the comms team; etc).

7. What’s the compensation policy you mention?

Our compensation policy was created with the central idea that we are not rewarding a job description, but allowing team members to live a decent life while doing our meaningful work, for as long as we all want. And use the rest of the resources to benefit refugees. We don’t believe it is morally wrong for humanitarians to have high wages, but it’s not how we want to do things. You can read more here. Of course, ask us all the questions you’d like. Don’t be shy about this.

8. How long is the recruitment process?

It’s long. We have put a lot of effort, and time, in our recruitment process. We commit to answer you in 48hs, and to have human beings read what you write and speak to you. That shows how much we care about choosing people well. That is also reflected in the length of the process. The full length depends on your answers and our interactions, but it will likely include multiple interviews.

9. How likely is it that I will be selected?

It’s quite unlikely. We don’t have lots of resources, and invest a lot in new team members. And, frankly speaking, only very few people are the right match for our team.

10. Ok, right, but I want to know the likelihood of being accepted if I send this application?

We don’t have a percentage, because we have never published an ad like this. In our normal volunteer applications, our acceptance rate is very low (in our latest internal report it was 1.8%).

11. Is it possible to work remotely?

Yes. But most of the people in the team are based in Ioannina. Some people work full time remotely, some of them abroad. However, the roles that can be done remotely are fewer, so it’s more unlikely that you’ll be selected. If you want to work remotely, specify it in your email.

12. Is accommodation or food provided for?

We have five houses in Ioannina that we all share, where the people in the team that ask for accommodation could stay. Wanting accommodation or not does not impact the likelihood of being selected. We do not provide food.

13. You said everyone gets the minimum to survive, but do you have formal contracts?

Yeah, we don’t do illegal stuff, and we don’t think we should. The policy is the same for everyone, and it depends on how long you’ll stay at Second Tree. New team members have a trial period, during which some expenses are refunded. For those of us who are staying longer, the easiest way to make sure we have enough money to survive is through a standard (and small) employment contract. The bureaucratic framework depends on the person’s circumstance (e.g. an American might be hired by Second Tree US). In general, for those who work in the headquarters in Greece, that is a normal EFKA contract.

14. How much of the work is field-based versus office-based?

It depends on your role. Even if your job is field based (like a Greek teacher), there will be a significant portion of other work (preparing your classes, Education meetings, etc).

15. What were you all doing before Second Tree?

Very, very different things. Some people worked in NGOs, some were in academia, some were doing manual jobs, some worked as journalists or in think tanks, many were (and some are) teachers. But there are many more options. One team member worked in finance, one was a scuba diving instructor, one for a TV channel.

16. Is it really true that it’s ok to criticise and make fun of my managers?

No. It’s not “ok”, it’s required.

17. What is the thing that new team members struggle the most with?

Generally speaking, it’s TAD (Trust And Discussion), our internal culture. We are very straightforward with each other. Our practices are: Good Faith, Transparency, Open Enquiry and High Expectations. Written this way, it can sound easy or vague, but caring for each other this much requires a lot of hard and very concrete effort.

18. Why don’t you ask candidates to apply for a specific role?

We value the person before the skills that they bring. It’s useful to know what you are good at (and what you are bad at), but if our way of sharing purpose doesn’t resonate with you, it won’t last. Some of us used to believe that the humanitarian sector needed professionals, not good people. Now it’s very clear to us that we need good people first.

19. Can I really ask you any question and you won’t get offended?

Yes.