Great post! It seems to line up with much of 80K’s advice on building career capital, while adding additional points I don’t think I’ve seen articulated by anyone else (or at least, not so clearly).
Organizations like MIRI and FHI have hundreds of applications per year for researcher roles, whereas the number of people per year who ask to join as research assistants are something like thirty times lower.
This is a really useful thing to point out. During my 2018 application process for EA jobs, I was one of several hundred research applicants to Open Phil and one of very few applicants to several operations or executive-assistant positions at other research organizations. In at least one case, I may have been the only applicant.
Ryan/Tegan: Did you get your “something like thirty times lower” estimate from any particular research organization(s)? Is it a best guess based on your participation in someone’s hiring process, or some other element of your personal experience?
Of the four strategies, getting weird is probably the riskiest, and the one fewest people are suited for. Projects chosen at random from the list are overwhelmingly likely to be of no value whatsoever, so you’d have to rely on your (probably untested) ability to choose well in the face of little evidence.
Also really useful. I love lists of ideas for things to work on, and it’s good to consider a wide range of things you could be doing, but the first step you take in any potential long-term project should involve serious analysis of the project’s paths to impact and expected value.
You should also be thinking about ways to test your idea as quickly as you can, if that makes sense for your style of work. The Lean Startup is a classic book on this topic. (I liked it much more than I expected to; it’s not just about the bits that have been quoted ad infinitum by founders.)
Ryan/Tegan: Did you get your “something like thirty times lower” estimate from any particular research organization(s)?
This is an order-of magnitude estimate based on experience at various orgs. I’ve asked to be a research assistant for various top researchers, and generally I’m the only person asking at that time. I’ve rarely heard from researchers that someone has asked to research-assist with them. Some of this is because RA job descriptions are less common but I would guess that there is still an effect even when there are RA job descriptions.
This isn’t really comparing like with like however—in one case you’re doing cold outreach and in others there are established application processes. It might make more sense to compare the demand for researcher positions with e.g. the Toby Ord’s Research Assistant position.
But if your point is that people should be more willing to do cold outreach for research assistant positions like you did, that seems fair.
Were any of the RA positions advertised or were they exclusively cold outreach? I can’t think of times when I’ve seen this sort of position being advertised (context being that I’ve mostly looked at effective animal advocacy research positions, and very occasionally positions at meta EA orgs)
I’m interested if these sorts of “assistant” roles crop up very often, be it in research or otherwise.
If they aren’t formally advertised, do you think that people have to accept very low salaries to have a decent chance of securing a role? If an org/researcher has a need for an assistant, why wouldn’t they have advertised for it?
I hear more people do cold outreach about being a researcher than RA, and my guess is that 3-10x more people apply for researcher than RA jobs even when they are advertised. I think it’s a combination of those two factors.
My recommendation would be that people apply more to RA jobs that are advertised, and also reach out to make opportunities for themselves when they are not.
I think about half of researchers can use research assistants, whether or not they are currently hiring for one. A major reason researchers don’t make research assistant positions available is they don’t expect to find one worth hiring, and so don’t want to incur the administrative burden. Or maybe they don’t feel comfortable asking their bosses for this. But if you are a strong candidate, coldly reaching out may result in you being hired or may trigger a hiring round for that position. Although often strong candidates would be people I have met at an EA conference, that got far in an internship application, or that has been referred to me.
I don’t think the salaries would be any lower than competitive rates.
Great post! It seems to line up with much of 80K’s advice on building career capital, while adding additional points I don’t think I’ve seen articulated by anyone else (or at least, not so clearly).
This is a really useful thing to point out. During my 2018 application process for EA jobs, I was one of several hundred research applicants to Open Phil and one of very few applicants to several operations or executive-assistant positions at other research organizations. In at least one case, I may have been the only applicant.
Ryan/Tegan: Did you get your “something like thirty times lower” estimate from any particular research organization(s)? Is it a best guess based on your participation in someone’s hiring process, or some other element of your personal experience?
Also really useful. I love lists of ideas for things to work on, and it’s good to consider a wide range of things you could be doing, but the first step you take in any potential long-term project should involve serious analysis of the project’s paths to impact and expected value.
You should also be thinking about ways to test your idea as quickly as you can, if that makes sense for your style of work. The Lean Startup is a classic book on this topic. (I liked it much more than I expected to; it’s not just about the bits that have been quoted ad infinitum by founders.)
--
(I work for CEA, but these views are my own.)
This is an order-of magnitude estimate based on experience at various orgs. I’ve asked to be a research assistant for various top researchers, and generally I’m the only person asking at that time. I’ve rarely heard from researchers that someone has asked to research-assist with them. Some of this is because RA job descriptions are less common but I would guess that there is still an effect even when there are RA job descriptions.
This isn’t really comparing like with like however—in one case you’re doing cold outreach and in others there are established application processes. It might make more sense to compare the demand for researcher positions with e.g. the Toby Ord’s Research Assistant position.
But if your point is that people should be more willing to do cold outreach for research assistant positions like you did, that seems fair.
Were any of the RA positions advertised or were they exclusively cold outreach? I can’t think of times when I’ve seen this sort of position being advertised (context being that I’ve mostly looked at effective animal advocacy research positions, and very occasionally positions at meta EA orgs)
I’m interested if these sorts of “assistant” roles crop up very often, be it in research or otherwise.
If they aren’t formally advertised, do you think that people have to accept very low salaries to have a decent chance of securing a role? If an org/researcher has a need for an assistant, why wouldn’t they have advertised for it?
I hear more people do cold outreach about being a researcher than RA, and my guess is that 3-10x more people apply for researcher than RA jobs even when they are advertised. I think it’s a combination of those two factors.
My recommendation would be that people apply more to RA jobs that are advertised, and also reach out to make opportunities for themselves when they are not.
I think about half of researchers can use research assistants, whether or not they are currently hiring for one. A major reason researchers don’t make research assistant positions available is they don’t expect to find one worth hiring, and so don’t want to incur the administrative burden. Or maybe they don’t feel comfortable asking their bosses for this. But if you are a strong candidate, coldly reaching out may result in you being hired or may trigger a hiring round for that position. Although often strong candidates would be people I have met at an EA conference, that got far in an internship application, or that has been referred to me.
I don’t think the salaries would be any lower than competitive rates.