If you’re new to the EA/AI safety community, and want to get more involved, attend an EAG! Schedule A LOT of 1:1s. Volunteer. Chat with people.
I’ve only been in the EA community for the past 6 months, but I got the recommendation very early on to try to attend an EAG conference and since I live in Czech Republic and the last one was in London, it was not difficult to make this happen.
Relevant background:
17 years technical + events/program management
4 BlueDot courses
80,000 hours career consultation
~ 15 hours of online EA/AI safety related webinars
many, many, many hours of reading
Primary Goal:
Arrive with an open mind, using it as an opportunity to learn more about the EA community, its members, organisations and goals
Struggles:
Everything I read said to focus on 1:1s. This was difficult because I was (am) still uncertain of which concrete direction to aim for in AI safety. (Currently field building and operations). Would people actually talk to me?
I wanted to volunteer, have 1:1s and attend talks. There weren’t enough hours in the day.
Final Results:
18 hours volunteering
12 1:1s (mixture of people I reached out to vs reached out to me)
2 rejected 1:1 requests + 1 no-show
1 last-minute cancelled 1:1 due to a family emergency
1 hiring manager approached me about a job
1 offer for volunteer team lead role at EAG NY and SF
0 Satellite events (but not for lack of trying!)
Pros:
Overall, the experience was incredibly positive. It was a little bit bizarre meeting people whose names I had been seeing for months, but most people were very kind and welcoming. I appreciated that the space was welcoming for someone like me who was still trying to figure out where I fit in the community had so many opportunities to discuss career and impact paths. I was able to scratch some ideas right off of my list and also boost some others based on feedback from people active in funding and field-building. I was also pleased to be able to give feedback to people already in the industry, asking me about my experiences and what would have improved it. I loved volunteering and got to meet so many people that way. I’ve already committed to volunteering in NY and SF and I’m really excited to meet more people there.
Cons:
My only con had to do with satellite events. I was strategic about the satellite events that I applied to, sent my applications in 2 weeks ahead of time and didn’t apply to multiple events held at the same time. I applied to 1 event each evening between Thursday and Sunday. They all rejected me. This would have been fine but the rejections were all 2-3 hours before the events, leaving me no time to make alternate plans.
Next steps:
I’ve already started reaching out to more people in the field building and operations space to get more perspectives and bounce ideas off of
Applying to more operations roles and field-building opportunities
BlueDot Frontier AI Governance course
I’m going to reach out to potential organisers for satellite events at EAG NY and SF to see if they need an event/program manager to help them organise their calendars for the weeks before and after EAG
What do you think?
For those of you who are new to the EA space, do you have any thoughts, ideas or suggestions?
What about those of you already in the community? Recommendations for next steps or plans for EAG NY or SF?
My First EAG Experience
Summary:
If you’re new to the EA/AI safety community, and want to get more involved, attend an EAG! Schedule A LOT of 1:1s. Volunteer. Chat with people.
I’ve only been in the EA community for the past 6 months, but I got the recommendation very early on to try to attend an EAG conference and since I live in Czech Republic and the last one was in London, it was not difficult to make this happen.
Relevant background:
17 years technical + events/program management
4 BlueDot courses
80,000 hours career consultation
~ 15 hours of online EA/AI safety related webinars
many, many, many hours of reading
Primary Goal:
Arrive with an open mind, using it as an opportunity to learn more about the EA community, its members, organisations and goals
Struggles:
Everything I read said to focus on 1:1s. This was difficult because I was (am) still uncertain of which concrete direction to aim for in AI safety. (Currently field building and operations). Would people actually talk to me?
I wanted to volunteer, have 1:1s and attend talks. There weren’t enough hours in the day.
Final Results:
18 hours volunteering
12 1:1s (mixture of people I reached out to vs reached out to me)
2 rejected 1:1 requests + 1 no-show
1 last-minute cancelled 1:1 due to a family emergency
1 hiring manager approached me about a job
1 offer for volunteer team lead role at EAG NY and SF
0 Satellite events (but not for lack of trying!)
Pros:
Overall, the experience was incredibly positive. It was a little bit bizarre meeting people whose names I had been seeing for months, but most people were very kind and welcoming. I appreciated that the space was welcoming for someone like me who was still trying to figure out where I fit in the community had so many opportunities to discuss career and impact paths. I was able to scratch some ideas right off of my list and also boost some others based on feedback from people active in funding and field-building. I was also pleased to be able to give feedback to people already in the industry, asking me about my experiences and what would have improved it. I loved volunteering and got to meet so many people that way. I’ve already committed to volunteering in NY and SF and I’m really excited to meet more people there.
Cons:
My only con had to do with satellite events. I was strategic about the satellite events that I applied to, sent my applications in 2 weeks ahead of time and didn’t apply to multiple events held at the same time. I applied to 1 event each evening between Thursday and Sunday. They all rejected me. This would have been fine but the rejections were all 2-3 hours before the events, leaving me no time to make alternate plans.
Next steps:
I’ve already started reaching out to more people in the field building and operations space to get more perspectives and bounce ideas off of
Applying to more operations roles and field-building opportunities
BlueDot Frontier AI Governance course
I’m going to reach out to potential organisers for satellite events at EAG NY and SF to see if they need an event/program manager to help them organise their calendars for the weeks before and after EAG
What do you think?
For those of you who are new to the EA space, do you have any thoughts, ideas or suggestions?
What about those of you already in the community? Recommendations for next steps or plans for EAG NY or SF?