What are the things you look for when hiring? What are some skills/experiences that you wish more EA applicants had? What separates the “top 5-10%” of EA applicants from the median applicant?
We hire for fairly specific roles, and the difference between those we do hire and don’t isn’t necessarily as simple as those brought on being better as researchers overall (to say nothing of differences in fit or skill across causes).
That said, we generally prioritize ability in writing, general reasoning, and quantitative skills. That is we value the ability to uncover and address considerations, counter-points, meta-considerations on a topic, produce quantitative models and do data analysis when appropriate (obviously this is more relevant in certain roles than others), and to compile this information into understandable writing that highlights the important features and addresses topics with clarity. However, which combination of these skills is most desired at a given time depends on current team fit and the role each hire would be stepping into.
For these reasons, it’s difficult to say with precision which skills I’d hope for more of among EA researchers. With those caveats, I’d still say a demonstration of these skills through producing high quality work, be it academic or in blog posts, is in fact a useful proxy for the kinds of work we do at RP.
What are the things you look for when hiring? What are some skills/experiences that you wish more EA applicants had? What separates the “top 5-10%” of EA applicants from the median applicant?
Thanks for the question!
We hire for fairly specific roles, and the difference between those we do hire and don’t isn’t necessarily as simple as those brought on being better as researchers overall (to say nothing of differences in fit or skill across causes).
That said, we generally prioritize ability in writing, general reasoning, and quantitative skills. That is we value the ability to uncover and address considerations, counter-points, meta-considerations on a topic, produce quantitative models and do data analysis when appropriate (obviously this is more relevant in certain roles than others), and to compile this information into understandable writing that highlights the important features and addresses topics with clarity. However, which combination of these skills is most desired at a given time depends on current team fit and the role each hire would be stepping into.
For these reasons, it’s difficult to say with precision which skills I’d hope for more of among EA researchers. With those caveats, I’d still say a demonstration of these skills through producing high quality work, be it academic or in blog posts, is in fact a useful proxy for the kinds of work we do at RP.