Iāve been thinking a lot about how mass layoffs in tech affect the EA community. I got laid off early last year, and after job searching for 7 months and pivoting to trying to start a tech startup, Iām on a career break trying to recover from burnout and depression.
Many EAs are tech professionals, and I imagine that a lot of us have been impacted by layoffs and/āor the decreasing number of job openings that are actually attainable for our skill level. The EA movement depends on a broad base of high earners to sustain high-impact orgs through relatively small donations (on the order of $300-3000)āthis improves funding diversity and helps orgs maintain independence from large funders like Open Philanthropy. (For example, Rethink Priorities has repeatedly argued that small donations help them pursue projects āthat may not align well with the priorities or constraints of institutional grantmakers.ā)
Itās not clear that all of us will be able to continue sustaining the level of donations we historically have, especially if weāre forced out of the job markets that we spent years training and getting degrees for. I think itās incumbent on us to support each other more to help each other get back to a place where we can earn to give or otherwise have a high impact again.
āI think itās incumbent on us to support each other more to help each other get back to a place where we can earn to give or otherwise have a high impact again.āāDo you have any thoughts on what kind of support would be most useful?
Iāve been thinking a lot about how mass layoffs in tech affect the EA community. I got laid off early last year, and after job searching for 7 months and pivoting to trying to start a tech startup, Iām on a career break trying to recover from burnout and depression.
Many EAs are tech professionals, and I imagine that a lot of us have been impacted by layoffs and/āor the decreasing number of job openings that are actually attainable for our skill level. The EA movement depends on a broad base of high earners to sustain high-impact orgs through relatively small donations (on the order of $300-3000)āthis improves funding diversity and helps orgs maintain independence from large funders like Open Philanthropy. (For example, Rethink Priorities has repeatedly argued that small donations help them pursue projects āthat may not align well with the priorities or constraints of institutional grantmakers.ā)
Itās not clear that all of us will be able to continue sustaining the level of donations we historically have, especially if weāre forced out of the job markets that we spent years training and getting degrees for. I think itās incumbent on us to support each other more to help each other get back to a place where we can earn to give or otherwise have a high impact again.
āI think itās incumbent on us to support each other more to help each other get back to a place where we can earn to give or otherwise have a high impact again.āāDo you have any thoughts on what kind of support would be most useful?