What I’ve learned from informal background checks in EA
I sometimes do informal background or reference checks on “semi-influential” people in and around EA. A couple of times I decided not to get too close — nothing dramatic, just enough small signals that stepping back felt wiser. (And to be fair, I had solid alternatives; with fewer options, one might reasonably accept more risk.)
I typically don’t ask for curated references, partly because it feels out of place outside formal hiring and partly because I’m lazy — it’s much quicker to ask a trusted friend what they think than to chase down a stranger who was pre-selected to say something nice.
Main takeaway: curated references tell you little. What actually helps is asking trusted mutuals or mutuals-of-mutuals who’ve worked with the person directly — ideally when things weren’t going perfectly. Ask what went wrong, how it was handled, and whether they’d recommend working closely again. Those short, candid conversations are gold.
People in EA are surprisingly open to act as such informal references if you approach them with integrity and transparency — they’ll tell you what they know, what they don’t, and often volunteer what to watch for. But you would need to build trust in advance. Thus, building trust in EA might be underrated. That said, I think if you consistently act with honesty, you’ll soon have access to genuinely useful informal information.
If you want to build strong collaborations here, earn trust by being open and careful — and don’t hesitate to cross-check before partnering or taking funding. On funding: it’s often wise to ask for concrete commitments quickly. Some people genuinely mean well but keep others waiting for months because they’re themselves over-committed.
(For context: informal reference checks not feeling right has only happened twice for me, and others might have seen the same things and made different judgment calls. That’s fine — I just tend to stay on the cautious side. Also, I’m no expert; but I’ve seen things go wrong and might have some biasing battle scars. Happy to hear suggestions or additional thoughts on how others approach this.)
What I’ve learned from informal background checks in EA
I sometimes do informal background or reference checks on “semi-influential” people in and around EA. A couple of times I decided not to get too close — nothing dramatic, just enough small signals that stepping back felt wiser. (And to be fair, I had solid alternatives; with fewer options, one might reasonably accept more risk.)
I typically don’t ask for curated references, partly because it feels out of place outside formal hiring and partly because I’m lazy — it’s much quicker to ask a trusted friend what they think than to chase down a stranger who was pre-selected to say something nice.
Main takeaway: curated references tell you little. What actually helps is asking trusted mutuals or mutuals-of-mutuals who’ve worked with the person directly — ideally when things weren’t going perfectly. Ask what went wrong, how it was handled, and whether they’d recommend working closely again. Those short, candid conversations are gold.
People in EA are surprisingly open to act as such informal references if you approach them with integrity and transparency — they’ll tell you what they know, what they don’t, and often volunteer what to watch for. But you would need to build trust in advance. Thus, building trust in EA might be underrated. That said, I think if you consistently act with honesty, you’ll soon have access to genuinely useful informal information.
If you want to build strong collaborations here, earn trust by being open and careful — and don’t hesitate to cross-check before partnering or taking funding. On funding: it’s often wise to ask for concrete commitments quickly. Some people genuinely mean well but keep others waiting for months because they’re themselves over-committed.
(For context: informal reference checks not feeling right has only happened twice for me, and others might have seen the same things and made different judgment calls. That’s fine — I just tend to stay on the cautious side. Also, I’m no expert; but I’ve seen things go wrong and might have some biasing battle scars. Happy to hear suggestions or additional thoughts on how others approach this.)