Hi there. I’m a marketing strategist based in Australia with some career capital built from working with the US teams for tech clients like Google, Cisco and LinkedIn. I’m now considering a career change to work more in policy or research, either with regard to emerging technologies or security and international relations. A couple of questions I’ve been wrestling with:
a) At 31 years old, would I be better off focusing on working at an impactful organisation using the marketing/outreach skills I have rather than going into policy/research? What is the EA community’s definition of mid or late career, and how does this affect advice around career change?
b) To progress down this path I will need to earn a postgraduate degree at some point. Would it be better to go study now? Or to attempt to work in the field using my existing skills first, and then study to transfer into policy/research later?
a) 31 still seems pretty early in your career to me—presumably you expect to work 30 or 40 more years. So making sure you’re in a role you feel happy in sounds worth it even if it means some transition costs. I’d also expect you to have built up skills which are transferable to policy and even research: To do impactful research it seems important to keep in mind who will actually end up using the research and how. So transitioning at this point sounds fine to me. Having said that, working in marketing/outreach at impactful organisations also sounds like a great option if you feel good about it.
b) Doing a degree seems fairly expensive in both time and money, so I could imagine it being better to try to do some work in the field before committing to a degree. That way you can find out whether you actually do enjoy working in the area, and what direction you might want to go in (hence what degree would make most sense for you). Either sound like reasonable options though. There are a few more considerations about when to do grad school in this article.
On a) I think it depends on how well suited you are to the role and on b) Have you tried applying for roles in emerging technologies or security? This could be a cheap test to see if you might like working there, and whether you’d actually need to do further study.
I am also a marketing strategist, in Sydney and have spent a bit of time thinking about how to make my career more ‘effective’ (I had 80k coaching, Effective Animal Advocacy coaching, plenty more 1:1 chats/brainstorms). Anyway, I’m happy to have a chat if you like—HMU @ yannikyriacos@gmail.com
Hi there. I’m a marketing strategist based in Australia with some career capital built from working with the US teams for tech clients like Google, Cisco and LinkedIn. I’m now considering a career change to work more in policy or research, either with regard to emerging technologies or security and international relations. A couple of questions I’ve been wrestling with:
a) At 31 years old, would I be better off focusing on working at an impactful organisation using the marketing/outreach skills I have rather than going into policy/research? What is the EA community’s definition of mid or late career, and how does this affect advice around career change?
b) To progress down this path I will need to earn a postgraduate degree at some point. Would it be better to go study now? Or to attempt to work in the field using my existing skills first, and then study to transfer into policy/research later?
Hey Nick!
a) 31 still seems pretty early in your career to me—presumably you expect to work 30 or 40 more years. So making sure you’re in a role you feel happy in sounds worth it even if it means some transition costs. I’d also expect you to have built up skills which are transferable to policy and even research: To do impactful research it seems important to keep in mind who will actually end up using the research and how. So transitioning at this point sounds fine to me. Having said that, working in marketing/outreach at impactful organisations also sounds like a great option if you feel good about it.
b) Doing a degree seems fairly expensive in both time and money, so I could imagine it being better to try to do some work in the field before committing to a degree. That way you can find out whether you actually do enjoy working in the area, and what direction you might want to go in (hence what degree would make most sense for you). Either sound like reasonable options though. There are a few more considerations about when to do grad school in this article.
On a) I think it depends on how well suited you are to the role and on b) Have you tried applying for roles in emerging technologies or security? This could be a cheap test to see if you might like working there, and whether you’d actually need to do further study.
Hi Nick,
I am also a marketing strategist, in Sydney and have spent a bit of time thinking about how to make my career more ‘effective’ (I had 80k coaching, Effective Animal Advocacy coaching, plenty more 1:1 chats/brainstorms). Anyway, I’m happy to have a chat if you like—HMU @ yannikyriacos@gmail.com
Cheers,
Yanni