I’m in a pretty similar situation (I’m a CS senior in the US and took a SWE job offer from a unicorn). If I had the choice, I would go into direct work. Ben Todd said the following earlier this year:
I’d typically prefer someone in [non-leadership] roles to an additional person donating $400,000–$4 million per year (again, with huge variance depending on fit).
To me, those numbers sound high enough to swamp the downsides of working on community building that you mentioned, if you’d like to choose whichever option is higher-impact.
(I’m posting this as a comment because it’s not as well-thought-out as the answers others have given.)
I’m in a pretty similar situation (I’m a CS senior in the US and took a SWE job offer from a unicorn). If I had the choice, I would go into direct work. Ben Todd said the following earlier this year:
To me, those numbers sound high enough to swamp the downsides of working on community building that you mentioned, if you’d like to choose whichever option is higher-impact.
(I’m posting this as a comment because it’s not as well-thought-out as the answers others have given.)
Have you considered applying for funding from the EA Infrastructure fund? They’re keen to support community building as far as I know :)