An important point here is that if you’re considering this move, there’s a decent/good chance you’ll be able to find career transition funding so that you can have 3-12mo of runway during which you can full-time talk to people, read lots of stuff, apply to lots of things, etc. after you quit your job, so that you don’t have to burn through much or any of your savings while trying to make the transition work.
I agree. To point to a singular source of funding to complete this call to action, I encourage relevant onlookers to look into the Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund.
I strongly encourage people to consider applying for one or more of these things. Given how quick applying often is and how impactful funded projects often are, applying is often worthwhile in expectation even if your odds of getting funding aren’t very high. (I think the same basic logic applies to job applications.)
For what it’s worth, I’d say (partly based on my experience as a grantmaker and on talking to lots of other grantmakers about similar things):
It’s notthe case that everyone who applies will get funding, and it is the case that track record and other signs of talent/skill would be taken into account
But people also have a decent chance of getting at least a few months of funding even if they have neither a very good track record nor clear signals of strong talent/skill
And people who think they don’t have much signals of strong talent/skill should probably in any case strongly consider just applying, because:
people often underestimate themselves or misjudge what grantmakers will be happy to take a bet on
applying doesn’t cost much (usually just a few hours) and the upside can be quite large
grantmakers may then be able to say what sort of ways they’d want the project plan to change or what sort of further evidence they’d want to see before making the grant
So if funding would be useful, people should probably just have a go and see what happens rather than spending lots of time trying to predict their odds by themselves
An important point here is that if you’re considering this move, there’s a decent/good chance you’ll be able to find career transition funding so that you can have 3-12mo of runway during which you can full-time talk to people, read lots of stuff, apply to lots of things, etc. after you quit your job, so that you don’t have to burn through much or any of your savings while trying to make the transition work.
I agree. To point to a singular source of funding to complete this call to action, I encourage relevant onlookers to look into the Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund.
Agreed—and to point to lots of sources, I’d highlight List of EA funding opportunities and my statement there that:
Also, less importantly, Things I often tell people about applying to EA Funds.
Is that only true for people who have a very good track reckord or are very talented or skilled?
For what it’s worth, I’d say (partly based on my experience as a grantmaker and on talking to lots of other grantmakers about similar things):
It’s not the case that everyone who applies will get funding, and it is the case that track record and other signs of talent/skill would be taken into account
But people also have a decent chance of getting at least a few months of funding even if they have neither a very good track record nor clear signals of strong talent/skill
And people who think they don’t have much signals of strong talent/skill should probably in any case strongly consider just applying, because:
people often underestimate themselves or misjudge what grantmakers will be happy to take a bet on
applying doesn’t cost much (usually just a few hours) and the upside can be quite large
grantmakers may then be able to say what sort of ways they’d want the project plan to change or what sort of further evidence they’d want to see before making the grant
So if funding would be useful, people should probably just have a go and see what happens rather than spending lots of time trying to predict their odds by themselves
See also Don’t think, just apply! (usually)