“It’s not just AIM, all of EA has been shooting its own foot since inception with its criteria for accepting people. Don’t follow their example. Find more experienced veterans. Don’t consider so highly academic backgrounds.”
In general, I’m somewhat sympathetic to the claim that EA in general can be too focused on young graduates from a few Universities, but I think its pretty hard to make that charge stick on AIM.
Some people who go through the program did indeed go to Ivy League/Oxbridge Unis, but many (including me) did not and the cohorts have a diverse range of people with different life experiences.
It is my understanding that AIM does try to attract people who have a lot of experience as well as young people, but, as I’m sure you can appreciate, when the ‘job’ includes almost no job security, low pay and potentially needing to relocate to the other side of the world, its often more attractive to younger folk with fewer commitments.
If you are considering not applying because you don’t think you have the right ‘CV’ (for any reason) I would strongly recommend you DO apply. I almost counted myself out for this reason and I am very glad I put in my application.
And there may be a tradeoff between attracting more experienced candidates and moving to a model where more charities are founded but a greater percentage of them fail. For example, some career fields are less likely to look kindly on someone doing something in left field and then trying to return if the new career was unsuccessful. Some of that is unavoidable, but I expect that being selective with founders and not having more incubated charities than could plausibly get midrange funding would reduce the risks to mid-career folk.
This is a heartening reply. I’m also glad you put yours in and got in. Let me ask you from your observations, when you say diverse, could you expand on that. Is it really all mixed up or is it mostly 25 year olds and one 37 year old. Was there anyone post 45? Your point about it being more doable for younger people is a good one, but I think we mostly are known about by young people. There’s plenty of 35-55 year olds in career transitions that if they knew would apply, and often they have some security so the transition is affordable. I’d love to hear more about how actively AIM pursues them. I’d be glad to update.
“It’s not just AIM, all of EA has been shooting its own foot since inception with its criteria for accepting people. Don’t follow their example. Find more experienced veterans. Don’t consider so highly academic backgrounds.”
In general, I’m somewhat sympathetic to the claim that EA in general can be too focused on young graduates from a few Universities, but I think its pretty hard to make that charge stick on AIM.
Some people who go through the program did indeed go to Ivy League/Oxbridge Unis, but many (including me) did not and the cohorts have a diverse range of people with different life experiences.
It is my understanding that AIM does try to attract people who have a lot of experience as well as young people, but, as I’m sure you can appreciate, when the ‘job’ includes almost no job security, low pay and potentially needing to relocate to the other side of the world, its often more attractive to younger folk with fewer commitments.
If you are considering not applying because you don’t think you have the right ‘CV’ (for any reason) I would strongly recommend you DO apply. I almost counted myself out for this reason and I am very glad I put in my application.
And there may be a tradeoff between attracting more experienced candidates and moving to a model where more charities are founded but a greater percentage of them fail. For example, some career fields are less likely to look kindly on someone doing something in left field and then trying to return if the new career was unsuccessful. Some of that is unavoidable, but I expect that being selective with founders and not having more incubated charities than could plausibly get midrange funding would reduce the risks to mid-career folk.
This is a heartening reply. I’m also glad you put yours in and got in. Let me ask you from your observations, when you say diverse, could you expand on that. Is it really all mixed up or is it mostly 25 year olds and one 37 year old. Was there anyone post 45? Your point about it being more doable for younger people is a good one, but I think we mostly are known about by young people. There’s plenty of 35-55 year olds in career transitions that if they knew would apply, and often they have some security so the transition is affordable. I’d love to hear more about how actively AIM pursues them. I’d be glad to update.