Executive summary: The author argues that offering and asking for help — through referrals, expense negotiation, executive assistance, and knowledge-sharing — is an underrated and accessible lever for stewarding the EA movement during a period of rapid growth.
Key points:
The author recommends sharing job boards, open roles, and career transition programs with high-integrity friends who may not identify as EAs, arguing that community growth cannot keep pace with hiring needs.
EA organizations that don’t negotiate operating expenses over $5,000 could enlist university EA students to do so, with the author reporting average savings of 40% on software subscriptions and 20% on other expenses.
The author argues that investing in a Chief of Staff or Executive Assistant can substantially increase leadership productivity, citing their own case where collaboration reduced their manager’s grant-writing time by half or more.
The author suggests that staff covering multiple functions should proactively seek best practices from others via the EA Forum, EA Anywhere, or EA Operations Slack rather than working in isolation.
The author estimates their own career outreach has amounted to roughly 1,200 messages and 600 calls or in-person meetings, representing approximately 6 FTE weeks of effort.
The author contends that offering and asking for help is low-cost, high-upside, and available to almost anyone in the movement, and is underrated relative to the levers of donating, direct work, and building career capital.
This comment was auto-generated by the EA Forum Team. Feel free to point out issues with this summary by replying to the comment, andcontact us if you have feedback.
Executive summary: The author argues that offering and asking for help — through referrals, expense negotiation, executive assistance, and knowledge-sharing — is an underrated and accessible lever for stewarding the EA movement during a period of rapid growth.
Key points:
The author recommends sharing job boards, open roles, and career transition programs with high-integrity friends who may not identify as EAs, arguing that community growth cannot keep pace with hiring needs.
EA organizations that don’t negotiate operating expenses over $5,000 could enlist university EA students to do so, with the author reporting average savings of 40% on software subscriptions and 20% on other expenses.
The author argues that investing in a Chief of Staff or Executive Assistant can substantially increase leadership productivity, citing their own case where collaboration reduced their manager’s grant-writing time by half or more.
The author suggests that staff covering multiple functions should proactively seek best practices from others via the EA Forum, EA Anywhere, or EA Operations Slack rather than working in isolation.
The author estimates their own career outreach has amounted to roughly 1,200 messages and 600 calls or in-person meetings, representing approximately 6 FTE weeks of effort.
The author contends that offering and asking for help is low-cost, high-upside, and available to almost anyone in the movement, and is underrated relative to the levers of donating, direct work, and building career capital.
This comment was auto-generated by the EA Forum Team. Feel free to point out issues with this summary by replying to the comment, and contact us if you have feedback.