The claim that “biosecurity often selects for people who already have a wealth of experience in their respective fields” doesn’t seem that obvious to me. Looking at the number of biosecurity roles we’ve posted on the 80,000 Hours job board in 2025, broken down by experience tag, I see:
Entry-level: 32
Entry-level + Junior (1-4 yrs): 12
Junior (1-4 yrs): 69
Junior (1-4 yrs) + Mid (5-9 yrs): 31
Mid (5-9 yrs): 73
Mid (5-9 yrs) + Senior (10+ yrs): 20
Senior (10+ yrs): 40
Multiple experience levels: 10
I agree with you that there aren’t a ton of opportunities for junior people, but I think the above data indicates it isn’t because of orgs focusing more on people with more experience. This seems like an important part of your claims, though I think some of your recommendations are robustly good (specializing can be the right call, building career capital elsewhere can be the right call).
Obvious caveats apply: We aren’t perfect at finding every biosecurity opportunity on the 80,000 Hours org, what we post is shaped by our own values.
Seems important to check whether the people hired actually fit into those experience requirements or have more experience. If the roles are very competitive then it could be much higher.
Hi Conor, thanks for your comment! Appreciate all the work you do on the 80k job board.
I will caveat by saying 1) my perspective is based on a job search in the US/Western biosecurity landscape, not a global one and 2) I drew on my own personal experiences and that of my friends’ in attempting to find a credible full-time position (e.g. summer internship) in biosecurity.
During this job search, many of the entry-level and junior opportunities I scouted on biosecurity job boards tended to (and still do) fall into one of two categories:
Part-time projects/ ‘test your fit’/Expression of Interest (EOI) forms; or
Full-time roles that are tagged as open to Junior (1-4 yrs) professionals, but are also open to senior-level candidates, and/or state a PhD or master’s degree requirement.
Obviously, there are some exceptions and I would love to see someone do an analysis of entry-level biosecurity job postings over time. However, I would point out that it is still difficult to find jobs when moving from category #1 to #2, and if you go down the list of entry level positions today, it would be hard to find more than 5-10 positions that a young person without a PhD could be competitive for. I also think EA jobs are often competitive and agree with Peter’s comment that this higher competitiveness lends itself to selecting more senior, experienced candidates (even when a junior position is available). I would love to see both more orgs (both established and new) run more summer internship/RA/entry-level positions and advertise them here more.
The claim that “biosecurity often selects for people who already have a wealth of experience in their respective fields” doesn’t seem that obvious to me. Looking at the number of biosecurity roles we’ve posted on the 80,000 Hours job board in 2025, broken down by experience tag, I see:
Entry-level: 32
Entry-level + Junior (1-4 yrs): 12
Junior (1-4 yrs): 69
Junior (1-4 yrs) + Mid (5-9 yrs): 31
Mid (5-9 yrs): 73
Mid (5-9 yrs) + Senior (10+ yrs): 20
Senior (10+ yrs): 40
Multiple experience levels: 10
I agree with you that there aren’t a ton of opportunities for junior people, but I think the above data indicates it isn’t because of orgs focusing more on people with more experience. This seems like an important part of your claims, though I think some of your recommendations are robustly good (specializing can be the right call, building career capital elsewhere can be the right call).
Obvious caveats apply: We aren’t perfect at finding every biosecurity opportunity on the 80,000 Hours org, what we post is shaped by our own values.
Seems important to check whether the people hired actually fit into those experience requirements or have more experience. If the roles are very competitive then it could be much higher.
Hi Conor, thanks for your comment! Appreciate all the work you do on the 80k job board.
I will caveat by saying 1) my perspective is based on a job search in the US/Western biosecurity landscape, not a global one and 2) I drew on my own personal experiences and that of my friends’ in attempting to find a credible full-time position (e.g. summer internship) in biosecurity.
During this job search, many of the entry-level and junior opportunities I scouted on biosecurity job boards tended to (and still do) fall into one of two categories:
Part-time projects/ ‘test your fit’/Expression of Interest (EOI) forms; or
Full-time roles that are tagged as open to Junior (1-4 yrs) professionals, but are also open to senior-level candidates, and/or state a PhD or master’s degree requirement.
Obviously, there are some exceptions and I would love to see someone do an analysis of entry-level biosecurity job postings over time. However, I would point out that it is still difficult to find jobs when moving from category #1 to #2, and if you go down the list of entry level positions today, it would be hard to find more than 5-10 positions that a young person without a PhD could be competitive for. I also think EA jobs are often competitive and agree with Peter’s comment that this higher competitiveness lends itself to selecting more senior, experienced candidates (even when a junior position is available). I would love to see both more orgs (both established and new) run more summer internship/RA/entry-level positions and advertise them here more.
Great points. I would love to see more of this too!