My impression of this, as I worked in Operations at CHAI for two years and talked to several other operations people, is that we still have a very very high need for Operations people. My intuition is that we have the following level of need from 0 to 10, where 0 is ” we have actually too many Operations people” to 10 where “we have a dire need for Operations people such that an EA-affiliated or EA-adjacent org would pay $20K just to hire that person as a hiring bonus (which I think is really high)”.
COO-type: 7. It’s hard to find those people but the current people in operations can level up really fast and become those. (We have both capable and ambitious people!).
Manager-type: 8. These people are able to manage very well others, motivate them, keep them on track, create and nurture a great excellence-oriented culture. In small EA organizations, it’s quite likely that you one can go from project manager to COO, but as those organizations grow, there will be the additional “manager” step.(EDIT from 01/18/2022: I added this category )
Project manager-type: 7. A proactive person, very agent-y, team-oriented and deeply aligned with the purpose of the org. A junior person out of uni can become this after 2 years of junior work in an EA org or a consulting company-like. We lack this kind of people at the moment but it’s not dire yet.
A very specific type of Project Manager: the Personal Assistant/Chief of Staff: 9. This is an incredibly rare skill set that requires to be in the “brain” of the person they help and multiply their impact. It requires all the properties of the PM, plus a deep alignment with the person they’re helping and the “humility” to be behind the scene and do both high-level work and admin work.
Junior PM: 5 this is the “helpful intern” that an EA org can recruit to help with a project or with an event. We have plenty of brilliant students EAger ( ;) ) to help and their help is really welcome. They’ll become 3 (and hopefully 4!) soon!
As a follow-up to my comment, I would strongly suggest having higher salaries for Personal Assistant/Chief of Staff people. They bring immense value and their salaries need to reflect that. I think this would increase the number of qualified and sustainably-motivated candidates.
A $50k hiring bonus, which I think is really really high—maybe too high. $10-20k would probably make more sense. I’ve edited my comment to say $20k instead of 50 and for clarity. (Curious to know if you think this is about right or not).
My impression of this, as I worked in Operations at CHAI for two years and talked to several other operations people, is that we still have a very very high need for Operations people.
My intuition is that we have the following level of need from 0 to 10, where 0 is ” we have actually too many Operations people” to 10 where “we have a dire need for Operations people such that an EA-affiliated or EA-adjacent org would pay $20K just to hire that person as a hiring bonus (which I think is really high)”.
COO-type: 7. It’s hard to find those people but the current people in operations can level up really fast and become those. (We have both capable and ambitious people!).
Manager-type: 8. These people are able to manage very well others, motivate them, keep them on track, create and nurture a great excellence-oriented culture. In small EA organizations, it’s quite likely that you one can go from project manager to COO, but as those organizations grow, there will be the additional “manager” step.(EDIT from 01/18/2022: I added this category )
Project manager-type: 7. A proactive person, very agent-y, team-oriented and deeply aligned with the purpose of the org. A junior person out of uni can become this after 2 years of junior work in an EA org or a consulting company-like. We lack this kind of people at the moment but it’s not dire yet.
A very specific type of Project Manager: the Personal Assistant/Chief of Staff: 9. This is an incredibly rare skill set that requires to be in the “brain” of the person they help and multiply their impact. It requires all the properties of the PM, plus a deep alignment with the person they’re helping and the “humility” to be behind the scene and do both high-level work and admin work.
Junior PM: 5 this is the “helpful intern” that an EA org can recruit to help with a project or with an event. We have plenty of brilliant students EAger ( ;) ) to help and their help is really welcome. They’ll become 3 (and hopefully 4!) soon!
As a follow-up to my comment, I would strongly suggest having higher salaries for Personal Assistant/Chief of Staff people. They bring immense value and their salaries need to reflect that. I think this would increase the number of qualified and sustainably-motivated candidates.
For the 10⁄10 criteria do you mean a $50k hiring bonus, or a $50k annual salary?
A $50k hiring bonus, which I think is really really high—maybe too high. $10-20k would probably make more sense. I’ve edited my comment to say $20k instead of 50 and for clarity. (Curious to know if you think this is about right or not).