Escape the City aims to connect smart, talented, ambitious professionals with new opportunities at genuinely exciting organisations. But how to define “exciting organisation”?
Introducing “21st Century Employers”
21st Century Employers is our new campaign to spotlight the kinds of organisations worth working for in the 21st century – it’s about social impact, entrepreneurialism and exciting, progressive brands.
Here we are in the second decade of the 21st Century – faced with massive challenges and even bigger opportunities. The employers of the future are building organisations to meet these challenges.
In this series we are going to celebrate the startups, SMEs, social enterprises, NGOs, charities and corporates (yes them too) building progressive organisations with innovative ways to solve problems, consciously adding sustainable value to the world (through impact, profits & jobs).
Our objective with this campaign is to celebrate employers doing things differently. We hope that by showcasing these organisations (and their jobs) we’ll provide you with the inspiration and tangible information to make a viable career transition to work that matters to you.
21st Century Employer #4 – The Adventurists
Celebrating an appetite for adventure, extreme challenges and superb memories.
Name: The Adventurists. Mission: to make the world a bit less boring and a bit more difficult, and to bring chaos into over-sanitised lives. Location: Bristol and the world over.
“Some git has already walked off the edge of all our maps, there’s a traffic jam to get to the top of the world’s tallest mountain, every millimeter of our good planet has been scanned by satellites and rammed into your mobile phone. We live in a hermetically sealed, health & safety shit-storm where using a ladder is considered unacceptably dangerous and adventure travel means a guided tour up a mountain or staying in a hotel with less than four stars. What room is there left for those of us who still yearn for a bit of old school adventure?”
Fighting to make the world less boring
Quite plainly, all of the above upsets The Adventurists, whose very existence is emblematic of an impassioned defence of challenges, trials, tribulations and monumental achievements. These are people who yearn for less guidance, less clarity, and less monotony. They want escapades and they want adversity. They want to be outside their comfort zone, they want to be challenged, and they want things to go wrong. Seriously, read the copy on their website, they really want things to go wrong.
Why? Because when things are tough and tiresome and traumatic, they are also exciting and invigorating. Plus those are the kind of adventures that give stories that stand up for a lifetime. And more than anything else, these things make life a whole lot more interesting than it might otherwise be. And that’s something that The Adventurists value very highly.
Having put together a portfolio of six challenges – Mongol Rally, Rickshaw Run, Mototaxi Junket, Ice Run, Mongol Derby and World Cycle Race – that should inspire even the most hardened of adventurers, these guys are pushing the boundaries in terms of exciting challenges and inspiring achievement. They are entrepreneurial, ambitious, risk-taking, innovative and exciting to the power ten. Oh, and the flipside to all of this is that it’s social impact adventuring; escapades with a conscience.
Superbly, along with coordinating a host of phenomenal adventures, The Adventurists are also philanthropists and through their adventures, have raised a huge amount of money for a number of different charities. Their focus at the moment is supporting Cool Earth in its efforts to preserve and protect at-risk rainforest.
“So basically what you’re telling me is that this is an org that does its very best to have an absolute wail of a time on thrilling adventures around the world, whilst at the same time fundraising for high impact charities that protect the very world that allows it to have those adventures?” Correct, that’s exactly what I’m telling you. Class act stuff from a class act org.
[Note - all the images in this post have been borrowed from the legends at Maptia - check them out.]
Our verdict:
Often, part of an escape is the element of adventure – breaking from security, trying new things and aiming to achieve big things. All of these things play out with The Adventurists which means we can’t help but be wowed by the org. It’s brave, different and empowering. 21st Century Employers come in all shapes and sizes, and entrepreneurial, adventurous escapism is certainly one of them. As The Adventurists say themselves, “it’s all in the name of glorious, glorious mayhem.”
When The Adventurists are hiring they post new roles here.
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[Which organisations would you love to work for? Who would you like us to profile? Who deserves celebrating as a progressive organisation doing things differently? Comment below to us know.]
[View the 21st Century Employers directory here.]
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