in many employers’ eyes they would not look as value aligned as someone who did MATS, something which is part of a researcher’s career path anyway.
Yeah, I also found this sentence somewhat surprising. I likely care more about value alignment more than you, but I expect that the main way for people to signal this is by participating in multiple activities over time rather than by engaging in any particular program. I do agree with the OP’s larger point though: that it is easier for researchers to demonstrate value alignment given that there are more programs to participate in. I also acknowledge that there are circumstances where it might be valuable to be able to signal value alignment with relatively few words.
Yeah, I also found this sentence somewhat surprising. I likely care more about value alignment more than you, but I expect that the main way for people to signal this is by participating in multiple activities over time rather than by engaging in any particular program. I do agree with the OP’s larger point though: that it is easier for researchers to demonstrate value alignment given that there are more programs to participate in. I also acknowledge that there are circumstances where it might be valuable to be able to signal value alignment with relatively few words.