Yeah, I think this is basically right. EA orgs probably favor Profile 1 people because they’ve demonstrated more EA alignment, meaning: (1) the Profile 1 people will tend to be more familiar with EA orgs than the Profile 2 people, so may be better positioned to assess their fit for any given org/role, (2) conversely, EA orgs will tend to be more familiar with Profile 1 people, since they’ve been in the community for a while, meaning orgs may be better able to assess a prospective Profile 1 employee’s fit, and (3) if the Profile 1 employee leaves/is fired, they’ll be less inclined to trash/sue the EA org.
Favoring Profile 1 people because of (3) would be bad (and I hope orgs aren’t explicitly or implicitly doing this!), but favoring them because of (1) + (2) seems pretty reasonable, even though there are downsides associated with this (e.g., bad norms are less likely to get challenged, insights/innovations from other spheres won’t make it into EA, etc).
That said, I think one thing your post misses is that there are a lot of people who are closer to Profile 2 people (professionally) who are pretty embedded in EA (socially, academically, extracurricularly, etc). And I think orgs also tend to favor these people, which may mitigate at least some of the aforementioned downsides of EA being an insular ecosystem (i.e., the insights/innovations from other spheres one, if not the challenging norms one).
A final piece of speculation: getting a job at an EA org is a lot more prestigious for EAs than it is for people outside of EA, and the career capital conferred by working at EA orgs has a much lower exchange rate outside of EA. As a result, it wouldn’t shock me if top Profile 2 candidates are applying to EA jobs at much lower rates and are much less likely to take EA jobs they’re offered. If this is the case, the discrepancy you’re observing may not reflect an unwillingness of EA orgs to hire impressive Profile 2 candidates, but rather a lack of interest from Profile 2 candidates whose backgrounds are on par with the Profile 1 candidates’.
Yeah, I think this is basically right. EA orgs probably favor Profile 1 people because they’ve demonstrated more EA alignment, meaning: (1) the Profile 1 people will tend to be more familiar with EA orgs than the Profile 2 people, so may be better positioned to assess their fit for any given org/role, (2) conversely, EA orgs will tend to be more familiar with Profile 1 people, since they’ve been in the community for a while, meaning orgs may be better able to assess a prospective Profile 1 employee’s fit, and (3) if the Profile 1 employee leaves/is fired, they’ll be less inclined to trash/sue the EA org.
Favoring Profile 1 people because of (3) would be bad (and I hope orgs aren’t explicitly or implicitly doing this!), but favoring them because of (1) + (2) seems pretty reasonable, even though there are downsides associated with this (e.g., bad norms are less likely to get challenged, insights/innovations from other spheres won’t make it into EA, etc).
That said, I think one thing your post misses is that there are a lot of people who are closer to Profile 2 people (professionally) who are pretty embedded in EA (socially, academically, extracurricularly, etc). And I think orgs also tend to favor these people, which may mitigate at least some of the aforementioned downsides of EA being an insular ecosystem (i.e., the insights/innovations from other spheres one, if not the challenging norms one).
A final piece of speculation: getting a job at an EA org is a lot more prestigious for EAs than it is for people outside of EA, and the career capital conferred by working at EA orgs has a much lower exchange rate outside of EA. As a result, it wouldn’t shock me if top Profile 2 candidates are applying to EA jobs at much lower rates and are much less likely to take EA jobs they’re offered. If this is the case, the discrepancy you’re observing may not reflect an unwillingness of EA orgs to hire impressive Profile 2 candidates, but rather a lack of interest from Profile 2 candidates whose backgrounds are on par with the Profile 1 candidates’.