This is a fantastic career plan! And thank you very much for your article on being an expert in hardware, that seemed like a really useful synthesis, and I imagine will be really valuable for others considering working in this area.
I don’t have much to add because it seems like you’re thinking all this through really carefully and have done a lot of research. A few thoughts:
Application processes seem to me to have a lot of noise in them. So I wouldn’t take a single rejection from AAAS as much evidence at all about you not being suited for policy.
There are a range of other policy options you might consider for testing this route, such as the Mirzayan Fellowship, which has the benefit of being just 12 weeks. Lots more eg Tech Congress and PMF described in this document.
My impression is that it’s easier to move from more to less technical roles than the reverse, which may point in favour of working for a year or two in industry before doing years in policy (although as a counter to that, some things like PMF are only an option up to ~2 years out of your degree)
AI Impacts might be another organisation to have on your radar for maybe doing a short project with to test non-technical work.
This is a fantastic career plan! And thank you very much for your article on being an expert in hardware, that seemed like a really useful synthesis, and I imagine will be really valuable for others considering working in this area.
I don’t have much to add because it seems like you’re thinking all this through really carefully and have done a lot of research. A few thoughts:
Application processes seem to me to have a lot of noise in them. So I wouldn’t take a single rejection from AAAS as much evidence at all about you not being suited for policy.
There are a range of other policy options you might consider for testing this route, such as the Mirzayan Fellowship, which has the benefit of being just 12 weeks. Lots more eg Tech Congress and PMF described in this document.
My impression is that it’s easier to move from more to less technical roles than the reverse, which may point in favour of working for a year or two in industry before doing years in policy (although as a counter to that, some things like PMF are only an option up to ~2 years out of your degree)
AI Impacts might be another organisation to have on your radar for maybe doing a short project with to test non-technical work.