I’m currently an early career, high income earner (tech company, non-engineering role) with a lot of interest in EA / long-termism and policy in general (my first job was in financial stability policy at a central bank). Currently my involvement in EA has been just through earning to give / evangelism to others within the companies I’ve worked for.
I’m trying to figure out next steps in my career, and in particular looking for ways to try out career avenues that do good more directly (through volunteering or—if I were to make a bigger leap—something like the RSP at FHI).
Relevant background info: Masters (with Distinction) in Economics from Oxford. General skillset: data analysis, policy, statistics, finance. Canadian citizenship, currently working in the US. Generally a people person / good at working in teams. Pretty frugal (saved ~70% of after-tax income before charitable giving despite HCL city rent) and interested in financial independence.
Other factors: General desire to move closer to family in the next 5 years (Seattle, Vancouver, Victoria area). Likely having kids in the next couple of years.
Possible career options:
Remain in tech / earning to give: enables donations of ~$250k - $1M over 10 years (spouses’ income is very spiky, my income growth uncertain)
Pros: I like my colleagues, work is fairly interesting, provides a good environment / stability for starting a family, highest potential for earning to give.
Cons: Work feels a bit meaningless and disconnected from my values. Likely a bit far from my family.
Move home / into provincial policy:
Pros: Likely more personally fulfilling, some opportunity for direct impact, good environment / stability, near family.
Cons: Lower ability to earn to give. Likely lower impact vs policy jobs in US or Canadian federal government.
Direct work in EA organization / Research scholars program at FHI:
Pros: Work most closely aligned with my values / opportunity to explore how I could directly have a high impact. Work more closely aligned to other career avenues I like (policy work).
Cons: Lower earning to give potential, likely to be further from family / support. In the case of RSP highly uncertain whether I could get in (though this is obviously not a reason not to apply).
As I mentioned above I’m interested both in ideas for what career I could pursue, but also ways to figure out whether / what EA route might make sense (though volunteering, projects, etc).
Paths I think I may be best suited to: EA community building, research about why people give / how to increase what people give, operations in an EA organization.
I basically agree with your assessment that provincial policy over the longterm doesn’t sound that impactful. On the other hand, it’s important to be in a role that seems sustainable for you. I would have expected that Seattle was a good place for earning to give in tech, which was one of the places you mentioned was near family—does that sound appealing in the longer term? It could be worth chatting to other EAs in finance about they’ve found earning to give over the longer term—whether their sense of its meaningfulness has increased/decreased over time for example, and how your feeling on it now compares to theirs.
Applying to a few things like RSP sounds like a good option for impact, though I’m not sure how many of these kinds of roles are likely to be able to be done remotely in the long run. Perhaps Rethink Priorities would be good option though—I think they’ve always been remote.
These are fairly high level thoughts—it might be useful for you to chat to our team in more detail.
I’m also a Canadian with a policy background, although I’ve never worked on policy IN Canada. If you end up seriously looking into that path please send me a message or post in the Canadian EA Facebook group—I’d be really interested to hear what you find out!
Overview:
I’m currently an early career, high income earner (tech company, non-engineering role) with a lot of interest in EA / long-termism and policy in general (my first job was in financial stability policy at a central bank). Currently my involvement in EA has been just through earning to give / evangelism to others within the companies I’ve worked for.
I’m trying to figure out next steps in my career, and in particular looking for ways to try out career avenues that do good more directly (through volunteering or—if I were to make a bigger leap—something like the RSP at FHI).
Relevant background info: Masters (with Distinction) in Economics from Oxford. General skillset: data analysis, policy, statistics, finance. Canadian citizenship, currently working in the US. Generally a people person / good at working in teams. Pretty frugal (saved ~70% of after-tax income before charitable giving despite HCL city rent) and interested in financial independence.
Other factors: General desire to move closer to family in the next 5 years (Seattle, Vancouver, Victoria area). Likely having kids in the next couple of years.
Possible career options:
Remain in tech / earning to give: enables donations of ~$250k - $1M over 10 years (spouses’ income is very spiky, my income growth uncertain)
Pros: I like my colleagues, work is fairly interesting, provides a good environment / stability for starting a family, highest potential for earning to give.
Cons: Work feels a bit meaningless and disconnected from my values. Likely a bit far from my family.
Move home / into provincial policy:
Pros: Likely more personally fulfilling, some opportunity for direct impact, good environment / stability, near family.
Cons: Lower ability to earn to give. Likely lower impact vs policy jobs in US or Canadian federal government.
Direct work in EA organization / Research scholars program at FHI:
Pros: Work most closely aligned with my values / opportunity to explore how I could directly have a high impact. Work more closely aligned to other career avenues I like (policy work).
Cons: Lower earning to give potential, likely to be further from family / support. In the case of RSP highly uncertain whether I could get in (though this is obviously not a reason not to apply).
As I mentioned above I’m interested both in ideas for what career I could pursue, but also ways to figure out whether / what EA route might make sense (though volunteering, projects, etc).
Paths I think I may be best suited to: EA community building, research about why people give / how to increase what people give, operations in an EA organization.
Ideas welcome!
It sounds like you have some great options.
I basically agree with your assessment that provincial policy over the longterm doesn’t sound that impactful. On the other hand, it’s important to be in a role that seems sustainable for you. I would have expected that Seattle was a good place for earning to give in tech, which was one of the places you mentioned was near family—does that sound appealing in the longer term? It could be worth chatting to other EAs in finance about they’ve found earning to give over the longer term—whether their sense of its meaningfulness has increased/decreased over time for example, and how your feeling on it now compares to theirs.
Applying to a few things like RSP sounds like a good option for impact, though I’m not sure how many of these kinds of roles are likely to be able to be done remotely in the long run. Perhaps Rethink Priorities would be good option though—I think they’ve always been remote.
These are fairly high level thoughts—it might be useful for you to chat to our team in more detail.
I’m also a Canadian with a policy background, although I’ve never worked on policy IN Canada. If you end up seriously looking into that path please send me a message or post in the Canadian EA Facebook group—I’d be really interested to hear what you find out!