For anyone interested, especially university students, here’s my (unsolicited) story of working at SoGive:
Two years out my three main takeaways were probably (1) getting feedback on my writing and practice writing for EA contexts, (2) experience with charity evaluation, and (3) support exploring topics of my own interest, plus (3.5) I really liked working with Sanjay.
I volunteered with SoGive during the last year of my bachelors and later went on to work as an RA for the Founders Pledge Climate Team. During undergrad years prior to SoGive, I was an RA for an academic research lab at my Uni (sciences), had a campus job as a tour guide, held a leadership position with my student co-op, and did a data science internship.
Critically, the things I benefitted from most while volunteering with SoGive were things my other roles didn’t provide. I think specializing in EA research too early probably isn’t a great longterm career move, and diversifying your extracurriculars to get a healthy mixture of community, fun, and targeted skill/career capital building is really important for both well-being and intellectual growth. Because my university had strong research programs for undergraduates, academic labs were probably a more direct way of “testing my fit” for research, but I expect this won’t be the case for most students. This work was a good fit for me as an undergraduate, but especially so because it met criteria others didn’t and provided mentorship from someone I respect (Sanjay).
TLDR; I’d encourage interested students to check out this program and listen to Alex Lawsen’s 80k episode on advice for students.
For anyone interested, especially university students, here’s my (unsolicited) story of working at SoGive:
Two years out my three main takeaways were probably (1) getting feedback on my writing and practice writing for EA contexts, (2) experience with charity evaluation, and (3) support exploring topics of my own interest, plus (3.5) I really liked working with Sanjay.
I volunteered with SoGive during the last year of my bachelors and later went on to work as an RA for the Founders Pledge Climate Team. During undergrad years prior to SoGive, I was an RA for an academic research lab at my Uni (sciences), had a campus job as a tour guide, held a leadership position with my student co-op, and did a data science internship.
Critically, the things I benefitted from most while volunteering with SoGive were things my other roles didn’t provide. I think specializing in EA research too early probably isn’t a great longterm career move, and diversifying your extracurriculars to get a healthy mixture of community, fun, and targeted skill/career capital building is really important for both well-being and intellectual growth. Because my university had strong research programs for undergraduates, academic labs were probably a more direct way of “testing my fit” for research, but I expect this won’t be the case for most students. This work was a good fit for me as an undergraduate, but especially so because it met criteria others didn’t and provided mentorship from someone I respect (Sanjay).
TLDR; I’d encourage interested students to check out this program and listen to Alex Lawsen’s 80k episode on advice for students.