Thank you for sharing, Christen. Trying to break into a space that seems to require the very experience you’re seeking is tricky. Actually, your comment prompted me to realize some biases I’m likely operating under, which I’ve now included in the section ‘What this List is Not’.
I’d think about “high-impact experience” in a CV differently. It doesn’t have to come in the form of formal job titles. What hiring managers could find equally valuable is evidence that you understand the space and can contribute meaningfully which can be demonstrated in several ways.
In my own CV, I didn’t have traditional AI governance experience either (I had “school principal” and “consultant”). After several months of ‘journeying’, though, I included:
X# of conversations in the space
Y# of volunteering/pro bono consulting projects (here is the doc I’d hyperlink, which of course started with only one project)
Z# of high-impact events attended
All relevant courses I’d completed
(To see an example, visit my LinkedIn --> Experience --> Career transition)
This approach essentially “substituted” formal experience with what I call “acquiring context”.
Regarding those 170 actions—let me break that down because it’s less daunting than it sounds! Over one year, that’s roughly 3 actions per week, or one every couple of days. I acknowledge that available time greatly affects this, especially while holding down a full-time job.
I was never good at keeping a diary, but I found tracking actions helpful as a project management tool (I used RAG colors—red for rejected/door closed, amber for pending, green for accepted/success), with hyperlinks to easily retrieve previous applications or contacts, and finally as a way to motivate myself with small sense of progress (it’s a game mechanic that works for me).
As for a more direct path—while there isn’t really a “streamlined” route, there are definitely “conveyor belts” or “nodes” with high traffic under those three prongs: networking, small projects/pro bono consulting, and upskilling:
EAGs—I attended 2 during the year and found them (extremely) helpful for developing context and walking away with warm networks (I prefer the term ‘relationships’), volunteering opportunities, etc. Not sure where you are in the world or what your capacity is, but the next couple months is EAG season.
Upskilling courses like BlueDot Impact (apart from the content) are positive market signals and connections to networks. The capstone projects were an opportunity for me to work on something directly in the space (e.g. milestone #10, #12, #14).
Other conveyer belts (alternatively: on-ramps?) include direct career transition support, such as 80k Hours (one-off career advising), Successif (long-term, relationship-focused career advising specifically in AI risk mitigation for professionals with any 5+ years experience), and the Impact Accelerator Program (6 week structured program within a cohort). AI Safety Collab (8 week course) and fellowships (e.g. GovAI; Arcadia Impact) are likely conveyer belts, although I did not do these myself.
The whole point of my post is to show that you won’t find a streamlined path, but to invite you to create your own path and take full advantage of your circle of control. And perhaps to sound less cliche—whatever time you’re spending on career transition, consider redistributing to ~40% applications, ~20% deep networking, ~20% upskilling, ~20% small projects/volunteering/pro bono consulting. (i.e. a portfolio approach!). Then again, increasingly conscious of my stated biases.
Thanks so much for your thoughtful reply, Moneer. I really appreciate the detail you shared, it made me realize I’d been approaching this in a pretty naive way. I’ve started logging my own actions now, and it’s already helping me see that I’ll need to apply to many more programs and opportunities than I initially thought. I’m grateful for the time you took to break things down, and I’ll be using your experience as a guide while I continue to track my own journey.
Thank you for sharing, Christen. Trying to break into a space that seems to require the very experience you’re seeking is tricky. Actually, your comment prompted me to realize some biases I’m likely operating under, which I’ve now included in the section ‘What this List is Not’.
I’d think about “high-impact experience” in a CV differently. It doesn’t have to come in the form of formal job titles. What hiring managers could find equally valuable is evidence that you understand the space and can contribute meaningfully which can be demonstrated in several ways.
In my own CV, I didn’t have traditional AI governance experience either (I had “school principal” and “consultant”). After several months of ‘journeying’, though, I included:
X# of conversations in the space
Y# of volunteering/pro bono consulting projects (here is the doc I’d hyperlink, which of course started with only one project)
Z# of high-impact events attended
All relevant courses I’d completed
(To see an example, visit my LinkedIn --> Experience --> Career transition)
This approach essentially “substituted” formal experience with what I call “acquiring context”.
Regarding those 170 actions—let me break that down because it’s less daunting than it sounds! Over one year, that’s roughly 3 actions per week, or one every couple of days. I acknowledge that available time greatly affects this, especially while holding down a full-time job.
I was never good at keeping a diary, but I found tracking actions helpful as a project management tool (I used RAG colors—red for rejected/door closed, amber for pending, green for accepted/success), with hyperlinks to easily retrieve previous applications or contacts, and finally as a way to motivate myself with small sense of progress (it’s a game mechanic that works for me).
As for a more direct path—while there isn’t really a “streamlined” route, there are definitely “conveyor belts” or “nodes” with high traffic under those three prongs: networking, small projects/pro bono consulting, and upskilling:
EAGs—I attended 2 during the year and found them (extremely) helpful for developing context and walking away with warm networks (I prefer the term ‘relationships’), volunteering opportunities, etc. Not sure where you are in the world or what your capacity is, but the next couple months is EAG season.
Upskilling courses like BlueDot Impact (apart from the content) are positive market signals and connections to networks. The capstone projects were an opportunity for me to work on something directly in the space (e.g. milestone #10, #12, #14).
Other conveyer belts (alternatively: on-ramps?) include direct career transition support, such as 80k Hours (one-off career advising), Successif (long-term, relationship-focused career advising specifically in AI risk mitigation for professionals with any 5+ years experience), and the Impact Accelerator Program (6 week structured program within a cohort). AI Safety Collab (8 week course) and fellowships (e.g. GovAI; Arcadia Impact) are likely conveyer belts, although I did not do these myself.
The whole point of my post is to show that you won’t find a streamlined path, but to invite you to create your own path and take full advantage of your circle of control. And perhaps to sound less cliche—whatever time you’re spending on career transition, consider redistributing to ~40% applications, ~20% deep networking, ~20% upskilling, ~20% small projects/volunteering/pro bono consulting. (i.e. a portfolio approach!). Then again, increasingly conscious of my stated biases.
Thanks so much for your thoughtful reply, Moneer. I really appreciate the detail you shared, it made me realize I’d been approaching this in a pretty naive way. I’ve started logging my own actions now, and it’s already helping me see that I’ll need to apply to many more programs and opportunities than I initially thought. I’m grateful for the time you took to break things down, and I’ll be using your experience as a guide while I continue to track my own journey.