In brief...
SRI-CONNECT has demonstrated a long-standing commitment to support skills and career development within SRI & corporate governance. Specifically, the site can be used by industry participants to:
- Improve their research skills and understanding of the SRI & CG value chain
- Build personal profile in the global SRI industry
- Network with peers and industry opinion-leaders
- Learn more about the career options available to them
- Actively pursue new opportunities
In detail...
Improve research skills and industry understanding
Developing the skills relevant to being an SRI investor will always require a combination of:
- subject matter expertise and industry understanding
- informal and formal learning
- online and live engagement with others
- reading and discussion
SRI-CONNECT provides opportunities in all areas
- For subject matter expertise, update your profile to ensure that the most relevant research and opinion pieces are selected for your weekly research highlights email and use the buzz search facility to select topics to explore
- For industry understanding, read the (somewhat old but still highly relevant) discussion documents on SRI Dynamics. Also, search the buzz for subjects in the SRI interest area.
- For informal learning and online engagement, join some of these discussion groups
- Numerous live events to improve awareness and understanding of sustainable investment are organised by the Sustainable Investment Fora, by Responsible Investor and by the UN PRI. For these:
- See SRI Diary for major events in the year ahead
- See Events page – for events currently being advertised via SRI-CONNECT
- Keep an eye on Market Buzz and your weekly email for other events of relevance to you
- Formal training programmes on SRI are run by:
- CFA Institute: ESG Investing – A Comprehensive Overview (Online learning)
- Concordia University: Sustainable Investment Professional Certification
- ICGN: ICGN Integration Course
- PRI: PRI Academy
- RIA (Canada): Canadian RI Fundamentals | Financial Designation - Become a Certified RI Expert
- RIAA (Australia): Certified Financial Advisor programme
- SASB: Fundamentals of Sustainability Accounting
- US SIF: Online courses and live training
Also, the Swiss Sustainable Finance maintains a list of academic and practitioner courses covering SRI & wider sustainable finance. Details can be found here:
Build personal profile
First of all, update your personal profile on the site with your interests and a photo. The interests define how you are found via searches of the Directory … and no-one ever hired anyone with an avatar instead of a face.
There are three primary ways to develop your profile in the global SRI industry:
- Online networking (connecting with individuals and contributing to the debate in discussion groups)
- Being recognised by clients – and getting ranked in the widely-viewed annual IRRI Survey
- Via face-to-face meetings at industry events
Network with peers and opinion leaders
Make ‘connections’ on SRI-CONNECT to people that you find interesting.
Use the Directory actively to find people who share your interests, are employed by firms or in countries that you would like to work in … and then ‘connect’ to them. If you want ideas, take a look at The Directory’s Cut.
Learn about options
There are three ways to learn more about career options in SRI
- by reading / engaging online (Buzz search for General - Skills & Careers, joining online discussions (Discussion Group: Skills, careers & jobs in SRI) and participating in events on the subject
- by attending events on the subject
- (Next SRI-CONNECT organised event: Skills & careers in SRI – October 2017 – precise date TBC)
Actively pursue new opportunities
The tools below help site uses actively pursue new opportunities in SRI & corporate governance:
- SRI-CONNECT Jobs Board
- Listing of headhunters that are active in the space (List of executive search firms | List of individual headhunters)
