There are lots of ways to accurately predict a job applicant’s future success. See the meta-analysis linked below, which finds general mental ability tests, work trials, and structured interviews all to be more predictive of future overall job performance than unstructured interviews, peer ratings, or reference checks.
I’m not a grantmaker and there are certainly benefits to informal networking-based grants, but on the whole I wish EA grantmaking relied less on social connections to grantmakers and more on these kinds of objective evaluations.
There are lots of ways to accurately predict a job applicant’s future success. See the meta-analysis linked below, which finds general mental ability tests, work trials, and structured interviews all to be more predictive of future overall job performance than unstructured interviews, peer ratings, or reference checks.
I’m not a grantmaker and there are certainly benefits to informal networking-based grants, but on the whole I wish EA grantmaking relied less on social connections to grantmakers and more on these kinds of objective evaluations.
Meta-analysis (>6000 citations): https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.172.1733&rep=rep1&type=pdf