Value-alignment of the team is super important, so non-EA team members are risky, less motivated, and usually don’t work out.
I thought this comment on Michael’s post was interesting. If it really is best practice for nonprofits to ignore how committed potential employees are and just hire on competence, it seems like we should take that pretty seriously.
BTW, it might be a mistake to conflate “value-aligned” with “currently thinks of themselves as an EA”. For example, if you advertise an EA job on a regular old job board, and make it clear that you want to hire someone who’s passionate about your cause area and you’re offering a below-market salary, it seems like anyone you found through that process would have at least some degree of value alignment (assuming that they could be making substantially more money working for a less altruistic employer).
Also EA engineers are going to stick around in the movement, so if you train them up and get to know them the community will benefit in the future, whereas non-EAs will go elsewhere.
I’d think that the opposite logic applies—EA engineers are likely to stick around in the movement regardless of whether you hire them, whereas non-EA engineers might choose to become more involved through their experience working for you.
It seems like the value of information is really high here. Feels like at least one of the 5 organizations you mention should experiment with hiring non-EA engineers, if the talent crunch really is as bad as you say. Unfortunately I’m not that excited about working for any of the 5 organizations you mention, but I’d be happy to help them interview engineers to get an idea of how competent they are. (I’ve got some experience doing this.)
I thought this comment on Michael’s post was interesting. If it really is best practice for nonprofits to ignore how committed potential employees are and just hire on competence, it seems like we should take that pretty seriously.
BTW, it might be a mistake to conflate “value-aligned” with “currently thinks of themselves as an EA”. For example, if you advertise an EA job on a regular old job board, and make it clear that you want to hire someone who’s passionate about your cause area and you’re offering a below-market salary, it seems like anyone you found through that process would have at least some degree of value alignment (assuming that they could be making substantially more money working for a less altruistic employer).
I’d think that the opposite logic applies—EA engineers are likely to stick around in the movement regardless of whether you hire them, whereas non-EA engineers might choose to become more involved through their experience working for you.
It seems like the value of information is really high here. Feels like at least one of the 5 organizations you mention should experiment with hiring non-EA engineers, if the talent crunch really is as bad as you say. Unfortunately I’m not that excited about working for any of the 5 organizations you mention, but I’d be happy to help them interview engineers to get an idea of how competent they are. (I’ve got some experience doing this.)