Earn To Give $1M/​year or Work Directly?

TL;DR: Many people aren’t sure if it would be more impactful for them to earn to give or to work at an EA aligned org. I suggest a solution to solve this problem quickly: Ask the org.

What to ask?

“Would you prefer to hire me, or to hire your next best candidate and have me donate [as much as you’d donate]?”

My prior on their answer

I think big longtermism/​meta orgs will definitely prefer to hire you if you’re their top candidate.

Not sure about other orgs.

Ask!

I asked Ben West from the Centre for Effective Altruism

Ben:

  1. I personally previously averaged ~$2M/​year EtGing but think my labor at CEA is more valuable.

  2. I can’t think of an instance where I thought someone shouldn’t have applied to CEA because EtG was so obviously better.

  3. I can think of two instances where I thought applicants should plausibly do EtG despite me wanting to hire them; both were making ~$10M/​year.

    1. [I’m still glad they applied though]

  4. I can’t think of an instance where I thought that someone referred to me for advice from 80K should EtG if they had a direct work offer (these people are usually making $500k-1M/​yr).

  5. If you are making $750k-$20M/​yr and think EtG is so obviously better than direct work that it’s not worth applying, I’m happy to have a call with you and find an easy way for employers to consider you without taking much of your time.

  6. [Note that I am just recommending that people apply, I’m not guaranteeing that they will be hired. I’m also not saying that EtG is always wrong, just that it’s rarely so clearly right that you shouldn’t even bother to apply to direct jobs.]

IanDavidMoss from Effective Institutions replied

Here.

Jack Lewars from One For The World replied

Here.

Would you like to add your own org’s answer?

Comment below or contact me.

Am I saying that people who don’t make $1M/​year shouldn’t apply?

No! Totally apply.

This post is meant for people who are making a lot of money (however much that might be) and so assume that working directly is definitely not for them, or that it’s very hard to check.

Did this help?

Let me know, even anonymously.