EA-ābrandedā jobs are often heavily oversubscribed by people whoāve spent years hanging around EA. Make of it what you willāEAs tend to stick hard to other EAs if they can, and thereās a lot of ingroup bias. EAs are also really awkward about this whole ingroup bias thing, so Iām not surprised it didnāt get mentioned.
Thereās also an issue (from a community perspective) where EA organisations can overpromote applications to their roles because theyāre (overly?) interested in maximising to find the best applicant because of mindsets core to how EA operatesāmaximisation, heavy-tailed distributions, etc. Which means a whole load of talented people get encouraged to apply and then rejected, constantly.
Itās a fair fact that without any track record of successful EA work, youāre heavily selected against in extremely competitive applications rounds. So if youāre really motivated, my advice is: get that track record. Which is hard, given you canāt get an EA role. But thereās stuff you can do on your own initiative.
I noticed Iām getting disagree-voted despite my caveating, so Iāll add on: itās actually a very reasonable thing to do as an EA organisation to concentrate oneās hiring focus on people with a demonstrated track record of successful EA (or āhigh-impactā) work in the skill area youāre hiring for. Itās about the most valuable signal one can pick up from someoneās prior record.
Put it this way, I donāt think the issue is that you donāt have a uni degree. I donāt think thatās what EAs care about. EAs tend to mostly not buy into traditional markers of status where more direct proxies for impact are available.
Anyone who disagrees is welcome to give their own take on good advice for someone whoās been EA jobhunting for months with whatās presumably an in-demand EA skill area and is somewhat bewildered by the inexplicable levels of rejection they face.
For instance, it could be about work test performanceāEA jobs often disproportionately use and value work testsābut I didnāt pick that up from the query.
I really appreciate these comments, thank you. It does seem like every org Iāve applied to mentions an epic story of past EA accomplishments under each staff memberās bio, as though the entire team has been part of the ecosystem for a decade before joining. Which is of course something to be proud of and motivates me to be part of the team, but adversely does make it seem like I donāt fit in, and like thereās no way theyād let me start my EA career journey there.
Iāve started an EA group in my community since thereās not much going on in this area, maybe once thatās grown a bit and I can put it on my resume, Iāll see a difference.
As for work tests, despite their length, I donāt mind them. I get excited for opportunities to prove myself outside of my resume and interview, and have only received a rejection as a direct result of a work test once so far. Sometimes it feels like the work tests are my best hope since my resume might not make me appear as a perfect candidate.
If I were you, Iād put it on your resume right now, along with putting in that you founded the group. EA likes the word āfounderā. You can talk at interview about the challenges youāve faced founding a group and how youāve dealt with them using your skillset.
I was going to wait until the website was up so Iād have some proof, but if it could make all the difference, Iāll put it on there now. Thank you again!!
EA-ābrandedā jobs are often heavily oversubscribed by people whoāve spent years hanging around EA. Make of it what you willāEAs tend to stick hard to other EAs if they can, and thereās a lot of ingroup bias. EAs are also really awkward about this whole ingroup bias thing, so Iām not surprised it didnāt get mentioned.
Thereās also an issue (from a community perspective) where EA organisations can overpromote applications to their roles because theyāre (overly?) interested in maximising to find the best applicant because of mindsets core to how EA operatesāmaximisation, heavy-tailed distributions, etc. Which means a whole load of talented people get encouraged to apply and then rejected, constantly.
Itās a fair fact that without any track record of successful EA work, youāre heavily selected against in extremely competitive applications rounds. So if youāre really motivated, my advice is: get that track record. Which is hard, given you canāt get an EA role. But thereās stuff you can do on your own initiative.
I noticed Iām getting disagree-voted despite my caveating, so Iāll add on: itās actually a very reasonable thing to do as an EA organisation to concentrate oneās hiring focus on people with a demonstrated track record of successful EA (or āhigh-impactā) work in the skill area youāre hiring for. Itās about the most valuable signal one can pick up from someoneās prior record.
Put it this way, I donāt think the issue is that you donāt have a uni degree. I donāt think thatās what EAs care about. EAs tend to mostly not buy into traditional markers of status where more direct proxies for impact are available.
Anyone who disagrees is welcome to give their own take on good advice for someone whoās been EA jobhunting for months with whatās presumably an in-demand EA skill area and is somewhat bewildered by the inexplicable levels of rejection they face.
For instance, it could be about work test performanceāEA jobs often disproportionately use and value work testsābut I didnāt pick that up from the query.
I really appreciate these comments, thank you. It does seem like every org Iāve applied to mentions an epic story of past EA accomplishments under each staff memberās bio, as though the entire team has been part of the ecosystem for a decade before joining. Which is of course something to be proud of and motivates me to be part of the team, but adversely does make it seem like I donāt fit in, and like thereās no way theyād let me start my EA career journey there.
Iāve started an EA group in my community since thereās not much going on in this area, maybe once thatās grown a bit and I can put it on my resume, Iāll see a difference.
As for work tests, despite their length, I donāt mind them. I get excited for opportunities to prove myself outside of my resume and interview, and have only received a rejection as a direct result of a work test once so far. Sometimes it feels like the work tests are my best hope since my resume might not make me appear as a perfect candidate.
Thank you again for commenting!
If I were you, Iād put it on your resume right now, along with putting in that you founded the group. EA likes the word āfounderā. You can talk at interview about the challenges youāve faced founding a group and how youāve dealt with them using your skillset.
I was going to wait until the website was up so Iād have some proof, but if it could make all the difference, Iāll put it on there now. Thank you again!!