“These people where encouraging me to use my last savings to retrain to a risky career, but putting in their money was out of the question”—Yeah, I’m sorry you had that experience, that seems unpleasant. Maybe they didn’t understand the financial precariousness of your situation? Like many EAs wouldn’t find it hard to land a cushy job in normal times and likely have parents who’d bail them out worst comes to worst and might have assumed that you were in the same position without realising they were making an assumption?
I did get help from my parents later, so if that where their assumptions they where not wrong. But I did not know this at the time, and when I asked why I could not get funding I got answers of the type: “that is not how things are done”, which made no sense to me.
It is possible that not funding me back then where the right decision for the right reason. But since I where not told the reason, the experience for me where very discouraging and antagonising. That’s why transparency is important!
(I’m not really blaming anyone. I think that the people I where talking to did not have explicit knowledge, so where therefore not even able to answer me. But I think we can do better.)
“These people where encouraging me to use my last savings to retrain to a risky career, but putting in their money was out of the question”—Yeah, I’m sorry you had that experience, that seems unpleasant. Maybe they didn’t understand the financial precariousness of your situation? Like many EAs wouldn’t find it hard to land a cushy job in normal times and likely have parents who’d bail them out worst comes to worst and might have assumed that you were in the same position without realising they were making an assumption?
I did get help from my parents later, so if that where their assumptions they where not wrong. But I did not know this at the time, and when I asked why I could not get funding I got answers of the type: “that is not how things are done”, which made no sense to me.
It is possible that not funding me back then where the right decision for the right reason. But since I where not told the reason, the experience for me where very discouraging and antagonising. That’s why transparency is important!
(I’m not really blaming anyone. I think that the people I where talking to did not have explicit knowledge, so where therefore not even able to answer me. But I think we can do better.)