A lot of what you have written resonates with me. I think it is amazing that you have thought so deeply about this decision and spoken with many people. In that sense, it looks like a great decision, and I hope that the outcome will be fulfilling to you.
After I’ve finished my PhD, I was torn between doing something entrepreneurial and altruistic, or accepting a “normal” well-paid job. In the end, I decided to accept an offer from Google for reasons similar to yours. It fit well with the growing relationship to my now-wife, and the geographic location was perfect.
I stayed at Google for three years and learned a lot during this time, both about software engineering and about effective altruism. After these three years, I felt ready for a job where I could have a more direct positive impact on the lives of people. I think I was also much better equipped for it; not only in terms of software engineering techniques… Google is also a great place to learn about collaboration across teams, best practices in almost any area, HR processes, communication, etc. One aspect that was absolutely fantastic: I had no pressure at all to leave Google. It was a good job that I could remain in for as long as I wanted, until the perfect opportunity came along.
I could imagine that a few years from now, you might similarly be in a good position to re-evaluate your decision. You will probably be much more stable financially, have a lot more negotiation power, and a lot less time pressure. Plus, I’m sure you’ll be so good then that IBM/Google/Amazon can no longer ignore you ;-)
Hey Sjlver!
Thanks for your comments and experience. That’s my assessment too, I will try. I have also been considering how to create an EA community in the startup. Any pointers?
Thanks
At Google, most employees who came in touch with EA-related ideas did so thanks to Google’s donation matching program. Essentially, Google has a system where people can report their donations, and then the company will donate the same amount to the same charity (there’s an annual cap, but it’s fairly high, like US$ 10k or so).
There is a yearly fundraising event called “giving week” to increase awareness of the donation matching. On multiple occasions during this week, we had people from the EA community come and give talks.
When considering starting an EA community, I might look for similar ideas to the ones mentioned above, in order to try making this part of company culture. There are selfish reasons for companies to do this sort of things (employee satisfaction, tax “optimization”). Also, there might be an existing culture of “tech talks” that you can leverage to bring up EA topics.
Oh… and for some companies, all you need to do to start a community is get some EA-related stickers that people can put on their laptops ;-)
(It’s a bit tongue-in-cheek, but I’m only half joking… most companies have things like this. At Google, laptop stickers were trendy, fashionable, and in high demand. I’m sure that after being at Xanadu for a while, you’ll find an idea that works well for this particular company)
A lot of what you have written resonates with me. I think it is amazing that you have thought so deeply about this decision and spoken with many people. In that sense, it looks like a great decision, and I hope that the outcome will be fulfilling to you.
After I’ve finished my PhD, I was torn between doing something entrepreneurial and altruistic, or accepting a “normal” well-paid job. In the end, I decided to accept an offer from Google for reasons similar to yours. It fit well with the growing relationship to my now-wife, and the geographic location was perfect.
I stayed at Google for three years and learned a lot during this time, both about software engineering and about effective altruism. After these three years, I felt ready for a job where I could have a more direct positive impact on the lives of people. I think I was also much better equipped for it; not only in terms of software engineering techniques… Google is also a great place to learn about collaboration across teams, best practices in almost any area, HR processes, communication, etc. One aspect that was absolutely fantastic: I had no pressure at all to leave Google. It was a good job that I could remain in for as long as I wanted, until the perfect opportunity came along.
I could imagine that a few years from now, you might similarly be in a good position to re-evaluate your decision. You will probably be much more stable financially, have a lot more negotiation power, and a lot less time pressure. Plus, I’m sure you’ll be so good then that IBM/Google/Amazon can no longer ignore you ;-)
Hey Sjlver! Thanks for your comments and experience. That’s my assessment too, I will try. I have also been considering how to create an EA community in the startup. Any pointers? Thanks
At Google, most employees who came in touch with EA-related ideas did so thanks to Google’s donation matching program. Essentially, Google has a system where people can report their donations, and then the company will donate the same amount to the same charity (there’s an annual cap, but it’s fairly high, like US$ 10k or so).
There is a yearly fundraising event called “giving week” to increase awareness of the donation matching. On multiple occasions during this week, we had people from the EA community come and give talks.
When considering starting an EA community, I might look for similar ideas to the ones mentioned above, in order to try making this part of company culture. There are selfish reasons for companies to do this sort of things (employee satisfaction, tax “optimization”). Also, there might be an existing culture of “tech talks” that you can leverage to bring up EA topics.
Thanks!
Oh… and for some companies, all you need to do to start a community is get some EA-related stickers that people can put on their laptops ;-)
(It’s a bit tongue-in-cheek, but I’m only half joking… most companies have things like this. At Google, laptop stickers were trendy, fashionable, and in high demand. I’m sure that after being at Xanadu for a while, you’ll find an idea that works well for this particular company)
Thanks!