Thanks for the thoughtful response. When I refer to EA-aligned here—I am mostly referring to jobs posted on the EA Job Board, 80k Hours Job Board and the Probably Good job board.
I agree it’s possible that part of the issue is how EA-aligned career paths are defined, signaled, and encouraged. That said, I’d be genuinely interested to see concrete examples of high-impact roles that are both neglected and currently unfilled, particularly in areas like animal welfare. My understanding is that the major EA job boards do not discriminate against animal welfare projects or roles outside explicitly EA-branded organizations, as long as the impact case is strong.
Where I’m more skeptical is the idea that lack of success for many candidates is primarily driven by individual shortcomings (e.g. qualifications, interview skills, or application quality). What I’ve observed instead looks like a fairly classic supply-and-demand imbalance: a large pool of highly motivated, qualified applicants competing for a very small number of roles. Positions on the 80,000 Hours job board routinely receive hundreds or thousands of applications for a single opening, which mirrors broader trends in the general job market.
Given that dynamic, it seems likely that many capable candidates will fail to land roles simply due to competition and limited hiring capacity, rather than because they are not a good fit in absolute terms. That’s why I’m interested in whether ecosystem-level interventions—beyond individual career advice—could help better absorb and deploy this surplus of motivated talent.
Thanks for the thoughtful response. When I refer to EA-aligned here—I am mostly referring to jobs posted on the EA Job Board, 80k Hours Job Board and the Probably Good job board.
I agree it’s possible that part of the issue is how EA-aligned career paths are defined, signaled, and encouraged. That said, I’d be genuinely interested to see concrete examples of high-impact roles that are both neglected and currently unfilled, particularly in areas like animal welfare. My understanding is that the major EA job boards do not discriminate against animal welfare projects or roles outside explicitly EA-branded organizations, as long as the impact case is strong.
Where I’m more skeptical is the idea that lack of success for many candidates is primarily driven by individual shortcomings (e.g. qualifications, interview skills, or application quality). What I’ve observed instead looks like a fairly classic supply-and-demand imbalance: a large pool of highly motivated, qualified applicants competing for a very small number of roles. Positions on the 80,000 Hours job board routinely receive hundreds or thousands of applications for a single opening, which mirrors broader trends in the general job market.
Given that dynamic, it seems likely that many capable candidates will fail to land roles simply due to competition and limited hiring capacity, rather than because they are not a good fit in absolute terms. That’s why I’m interested in whether ecosystem-level interventions—beyond individual career advice—could help better absorb and deploy this surplus of motivated talent.