I love that you decided to take a well-thought-out career risk to work on something more meaningful and impactful. Thanks for doing that, and thanks for sharing it in detail!
I may have missed it, but I’m curious about how you view the career capital you gain from working on EA Philippines. Do you think that this might allow you to have additional Plan Bs outside of direct EA work?
Thanks Edo! Yeah I don’t think I included in the article above how I view the career capital I gain from working on EA Philippines. I’ll talk about this more here now. Sorry if this reply is rather long, but I wanted to quantify and clarify my views on this too.
Since starting the CB grant in October 2020, I’ve been enjoying being able to focus more on EA-aligned work. My goal and vision now is to do direct EA-aligned work for many years, possibly my whole working life, unless earning-to-give becomes possible and attractive to me later on.
My current forecast for how likely it is for EA Philippines to be renewed for a CB grant if we apply again is 70%, which is a pretty decent chance. I can talk more about what this forecast’s basis is privately.
So if my forecast is right, in the ~30% chance that EA Philippines doesn’t get renewed for a grant, I would likely try to look for a different job or contractual/part-time work in the EA space. I may also apply for funding for EA Philippines or a different EA-aligned project from one or more of the EA Funds. I could also explore other funding sources for EA Philippines, but I’m not too optimistic on that, especially as a long-term thing.
I currently think that I have a ~15% chance of being able to secure enough funding for myself for EA Philippines for a year if we’re not given a CB grant renewal. And I think I have a ~30% chance of getting into a job or contractual work that pays well enough (i.e. pays as much as my current CB grant) in an EA-aligned organization within 4 months of the end of my CB grant. I actually got accepted for a part-time job at an EA-aligned organization in December 2020, but I declined the offer, mostly because I wanted to try doing EA Philippines work full-time first.
So basically, I think there’s only a ~16.5% chance that I won’t be able to do direct EA work after this CB grant ends. (16.5% = 30% chance of not being renewed x 55% chance of not finding an EA job or funding). I think 16.5% is rather low, and I don’t really see the need for myself to think a lot about backup plans outside of direct EA work. And I can see myself still going back to doing for-profit work in product design or product management (or generalist work at a startup).
Going back to your question on the career capital I gain from working on EA Philippines though, I think the bulk of the career capital I gain is applicable and marketable mainly to EA organizations. But I could also imagine being able to transfer ~40% of this career capital to other non-EA work, both for non-profits and for-profits. Here’s some of the career capital I think I gain from this job:
Experience in:
Leadership and strategy (especially non-profit leadership and strategy)
Community building
Management / volunteer management
Project management / event organizing
Public speaking
All of the above can be transferrable to non-profit or for-profit jobs outside of the EA space. And here’s other EA-specific career capital that I think I could gain from my time in EA Philippines. I would gain an increased familiarity in some or all of the following:
Charity / cost-effectiveness analysis
Local health and development, local animal welfare, local mental health, and other important local problems or promising interventions
I love that you decided to take a well-thought-out career risk to work on something more meaningful and impactful. Thanks for doing that, and thanks for sharing it in detail!
I may have missed it, but I’m curious about how you view the career capital you gain from working on EA Philippines. Do you think that this might allow you to have additional Plan Bs outside of direct EA work?
Thanks Edo! Yeah I don’t think I included in the article above how I view the career capital I gain from working on EA Philippines. I’ll talk about this more here now. Sorry if this reply is rather long, but I wanted to quantify and clarify my views on this too.
Since starting the CB grant in October 2020, I’ve been enjoying being able to focus more on EA-aligned work. My goal and vision now is to do direct EA-aligned work for many years, possibly my whole working life, unless earning-to-give becomes possible and attractive to me later on.
My current forecast for how likely it is for EA Philippines to be renewed for a CB grant if we apply again is 70%, which is a pretty decent chance. I can talk more about what this forecast’s basis is privately.
So if my forecast is right, in the ~30% chance that EA Philippines doesn’t get renewed for a grant, I would likely try to look for a different job or contractual/part-time work in the EA space. I may also apply for funding for EA Philippines or a different EA-aligned project from one or more of the EA Funds. I could also explore other funding sources for EA Philippines, but I’m not too optimistic on that, especially as a long-term thing.
I currently think that I have a ~15% chance of being able to secure enough funding for myself for EA Philippines for a year if we’re not given a CB grant renewal. And I think I have a ~30% chance of getting into a job or contractual work that pays well enough (i.e. pays as much as my current CB grant) in an EA-aligned organization within 4 months of the end of my CB grant. I actually got accepted for a part-time job at an EA-aligned organization in December 2020, but I declined the offer, mostly because I wanted to try doing EA Philippines work full-time first.
So basically, I think there’s only a ~16.5% chance that I won’t be able to do direct EA work after this CB grant ends. (16.5% = 30% chance of not being renewed x 55% chance of not finding an EA job or funding). I think 16.5% is rather low, and I don’t really see the need for myself to think a lot about backup plans outside of direct EA work. And I can see myself still going back to doing for-profit work in product design or product management (or generalist work at a startup).
Going back to your question on the career capital I gain from working on EA Philippines though, I think the bulk of the career capital I gain is applicable and marketable mainly to EA organizations. But I could also imagine being able to transfer ~40% of this career capital to other non-EA work, both for non-profits and for-profits. Here’s some of the career capital I think I gain from this job:
Experience in:
Leadership and strategy (especially non-profit leadership and strategy)
Community building
Management / volunteer management
Project management / event organizing
Public speaking
All of the above can be transferrable to non-profit or for-profit jobs outside of the EA space. And here’s other EA-specific career capital that I think I could gain from my time in EA Philippines. I would gain an increased familiarity in some or all of the following:
Charity / cost-effectiveness analysis
Local health and development, local animal welfare, local mental health, and other important local problems or promising interventions
Other EA causes
Discussion group facilitation
Producing content about EA
I hope this answer helps!