It’s interesting that this comment talks about more generalist roles being mentioned at EAG that haven’t been publicised. I wonder if it is more likely that specialist roles get ‘officially’ publicised, while the more generalist ones are likelier to not be, maybe to the extent of only living in someone’s head in the style, ‘we could really do with someone to help us out on operations…’
As I was only looking for operations roles I don’t know if there is a difference to specialists. At the moment there seems to be a lot of dynamics with orgs getting new funding and being able to expand quickly. People at the orgs might be able to tell you they are in the process of writing a job post or they might already have a document but not have posted it publicly. Also for some jobs I assume it might be easier to approach people or networks before posting them and then dealing with many applications. But this is only speculation.
What I would find really useful as more of a generalist is advice around ‘here’s how to use your skill stack to get a job in EA’.
My impression is that often co-founders of organisations don’t know themselves what a generalist might be doing in a year as everything is changing quickly. This seems to be very similar to startups. When hiring I would always point out that a job title in a contract should be seen as a starting point and might have little overlap with the actual job a few months in.
The upside is that as a generalist in a small and growing organisation you can bring your specific talents to the table and have the chance to change the role so that it fits your strengths. You can then help outsource or hire talent that can cover your weaknesses.
For mid-career people, it feels like runway may be less of an impact relative to the knowledge you may be giving up something with a guaranteed impact, even if it may not be optimal, on the basis of uncertain factors.
In terms of giving up something, you might try to get a sabbatical at your current company to try out direct EA work for a year. If this doesn’t work out you might discuss quitting on good terms so that they’d be willing to hire you again if they have a job open after a year. It might be useful to research how likely this would work out for you.
For the general framing of impact, I personally ask myself: How can I increase the expected value of the EA community having a bigger impact? Especially in longtermist organisations, the additional dollar donated might be much less useful at the moment than being a co-founder or an early employee of a new organisation. This can be still true if the organisation has a high risk of failure but might do a lot of good if it succeeds.
I see that this can make it hard for many mid-career people to change jobs and leave a secure position. But in willing to do it, you’re filling a neglected gap. The counterfactual expected value of your work might be one or two orders of magnitude higher than earning to give.
As I was only looking for operations roles I don’t know if there is a difference to specialists. At the moment there seems to be a lot of dynamics with orgs getting new funding and being able to expand quickly. People at the orgs might be able to tell you they are in the process of writing a job post or they might already have a document but not have posted it publicly. Also for some jobs I assume it might be easier to approach people or networks before posting them and then dealing with many applications. But this is only speculation.
My impression is that often co-founders of organisations don’t know themselves what a generalist might be doing in a year as everything is changing quickly. This seems to be very similar to startups. When hiring I would always point out that a job title in a contract should be seen as a starting point and might have little overlap with the actual job a few months in.
The upside is that as a generalist in a small and growing organisation you can bring your specific talents to the table and have the chance to change the role so that it fits your strengths. You can then help outsource or hire talent that can cover your weaknesses.
In terms of giving up something, you might try to get a sabbatical at your current company to try out direct EA work for a year. If this doesn’t work out you might discuss quitting on good terms so that they’d be willing to hire you again if they have a job open after a year. It might be useful to research how likely this would work out for you.
For the general framing of impact, I personally ask myself: How can I increase the expected value of the EA community having a bigger impact? Especially in longtermist organisations, the additional dollar donated might be much less useful at the moment than being a co-founder or an early employee of a new organisation. This can be still true if the organisation has a high risk of failure but might do a lot of good if it succeeds.
I see that this can make it hard for many mid-career people to change jobs and leave a secure position. But in willing to do it, you’re filling a neglected gap. The counterfactual expected value of your work might be one or two orders of magnitude higher than earning to give.