I’d say it’s pretty common for people to switch from management consulting into work at EA orgs. Some recent examples: we recently hired Habiba Islam; GPI hired Sven Herrmann and Will Jefferson; and Joan Gas who became the Managing Director of CEA a year ago.
As you can see, the most common route is normally to work in management or operations, but it doesn’t need to be restricted to that.
If you want to pursue the EA orgs path, then as well as applying to jobs on the job board, follow our standard advice here (e.g. meet people, get more involved in the community).
Just bear in mind that there aren’t many positions per year, so even if you’re a good fit, it might take some time to find something.
For this reason, it’s probably best to pursue a couple of other good longer-term paths at the same time. Another common option for someone with your background would to do something in policy, or you could try to work in development.
With this strand in particular:
helping others think about their own giving and the financial side of maximizing donations / minimizing taxes
There is a need for this, and there’s a bit of a philanthropy advisory community building up in London around Founder’s Pledge, Veddis and Longview Philanthropy. I’m not sure there’s yet something like that in the States you could get involved in. You might be able to start your own thing, especially after working elsewhere in EA or philanthropy for 1-2 years. (Example plan: work at a foundation in SF → meet rich tech people → start freelance consulting for them / maybe joining up with another community member.)
Either way, I’d definitely encourage you to think hard about which impactful longer-term paths might be most promising, and what those would imply about the best next steps. You already have a lot of general career capital, and big corporate middle management experience is not that relevant to working at smaller non-profits, so I doubt continuing in the corporate sector will be the optimal one, unless you find something really outstanding.
I just wanted to reinforce the point Benjamin made above about getting involved in the EA community. For example, if you apply for a job at an EA organization, they may request references from the EA community in addition to the standard references from your last job. Do you already have strong references from credible people in the EA community? If not, it would be worthwhile to do more networking. You may also need to build up a track record of EA volunteer work, post on the EA forum, and so on to build up your own EA track record.
Here’s one way to think about this. Getting a job at an EA organization can be like getting a job in the film industry. You’re trying to break into a “glamorous” industry. That is, some people consider these jobs “dream jobs”—they have an extremely compelling “X factor” that has nothing to do with how much the job pays. (In EA, the ‘glamour’ factor is the ability to have a really high-impact career, which is the central life goal of many EAs.) So you may need to network, volunteer for a while, etc. in order to break in.
[This comment isn’t a reply to your main point, just about the ‘glamour factor’ that your film analogy is predicated on, sorry]
I think that the majority of people who believe working at an EA org is the highest impact thing they could do are probably wrong.
Consider: 1) if you work at an EA org you probably have skills that are very useful in a variety of other fields/industries. The ceiling on these impact opportunities is higher, as it uses more of your own creativity/initiative at a macro level (e.g. the level of deciding about where to work) 2) if 1) is not true, it’s probably because you specialise in meta/EA/movement related matters, that don’t transfer well outside. In this case you might be able to make more impact in EA orgs. But this is not the case for most people.
I think it’s different for people starting new EA orgs, or joining very early-stage ones—that does seem to have a high ceiling on potential impact and is worth a shot for anyone doing it.
I’m not the most risk-seeking, so I think I’ll need to reflect on the trade-off of taking a more indirect route in the hopes of landing an EA role while giving up the “capital” I’m told I have for my first role post-consulting. Will mull over what you’ve shared!
Hi Jeremy,
Glad to hear things have gone well!
I’d say it’s pretty common for people to switch from management consulting into work at EA orgs. Some recent examples: we recently hired Habiba Islam; GPI hired Sven Herrmann and Will Jefferson; and Joan Gas who became the Managing Director of CEA a year ago.
As you can see, the most common route is normally to work in management or operations, but it doesn’t need to be restricted to that.
If you want to pursue the EA orgs path, then as well as applying to jobs on the job board, follow our standard advice here (e.g. meet people, get more involved in the community).
Just bear in mind that there aren’t many positions per year, so even if you’re a good fit, it might take some time to find something.
For this reason, it’s probably best to pursue a couple of other good longer-term paths at the same time. Another common option for someone with your background would to do something in policy, or you could try to work in development.
With this strand in particular:
There is a need for this, and there’s a bit of a philanthropy advisory community building up in London around Founder’s Pledge, Veddis and Longview Philanthropy. I’m not sure there’s yet something like that in the States you could get involved in. You might be able to start your own thing, especially after working elsewhere in EA or philanthropy for 1-2 years. (Example plan: work at a foundation in SF → meet rich tech people → start freelance consulting for them / maybe joining up with another community member.)
Either way, I’d definitely encourage you to think hard about which impactful longer-term paths might be most promising, and what those would imply about the best next steps. You already have a lot of general career capital, and big corporate middle management experience is not that relevant to working at smaller non-profits, so I doubt continuing in the corporate sector will be the optimal one, unless you find something really outstanding.
I just wanted to reinforce the point Benjamin made above about getting involved in the EA community. For example, if you apply for a job at an EA organization, they may request references from the EA community in addition to the standard references from your last job. Do you already have strong references from credible people in the EA community? If not, it would be worthwhile to do more networking. You may also need to build up a track record of EA volunteer work, post on the EA forum, and so on to build up your own EA track record.
Here’s one way to think about this. Getting a job at an EA organization can be like getting a job in the film industry. You’re trying to break into a “glamorous” industry. That is, some people consider these jobs “dream jobs”—they have an extremely compelling “X factor” that has nothing to do with how much the job pays. (In EA, the ‘glamour’ factor is the ability to have a really high-impact career, which is the central life goal of many EAs.) So you may need to network, volunteer for a while, etc. in order to break in.
[This comment isn’t a reply to your main point, just about the ‘glamour factor’ that your film analogy is predicated on, sorry]
I think that the majority of people who believe working at an EA org is the highest impact thing they could do are probably wrong.
Consider:
1) if you work at an EA org you probably have skills that are very useful in a variety of other fields/industries. The ceiling on these impact opportunities is higher, as it uses more of your own creativity/initiative at a macro level (e.g. the level of deciding about where to work)
2) if 1) is not true, it’s probably because you specialise in meta/EA/movement related matters, that don’t transfer well outside. In this case you might be able to make more impact in EA orgs. But this is not the case for most people.
I think it’s different for people starting new EA orgs, or joining very early-stage ones—that does seem to have a high ceiling on potential impact and is worth a shot for anyone doing it.
This is very accurate but a little sad to me.
Thanks for the thoughtful and detailed reply Ben!
I’m not the most risk-seeking, so I think I’ll need to reflect on the trade-off of taking a more indirect route in the hopes of landing an EA role while giving up the “capital” I’m told I have for my first role post-consulting. Will mull over what you’ve shared!