Thanks for your questions! I run the advising team at 80,000 Hours, and I’m glad for the opportunity to clarify.
On question 1, I think there’s no definitive answer here, but this information might help you decide:
We still plan to talk to people considering work on any of our top problems (which includes animal welfare), and I believe we still have a lot of useful advice on how to pursue careers in these areas.
However, we will be applying a higher bar to applicants that aren’t primarily interested in working on AI.
The application only asks two substantive questions. It asks for the problem areas the applicant thinks are most pressing and for a sketch of career options they’re considering. I think that answering these questions is a worthwhile activity for anyone trying to plan an impactful career, regardless of whether or not they’re accepted.
That said, I know that there are costs to being rejected. I was rejected from 80k advising back when I was organising my university group! In general, I struggled a lot with rejection when I was trying to find impactful work. Some of these rejections sapped all the momentum from job searches, and I suspect slowed down my trajectory substantially. (I’d also love to plug Luisa’s excellent article on coping with career rejection!)
Ultimately, if I were in your shoes, I would encourage and support people in answering for themselves which problems they find most pressing, and what that implies about which careers they should consider.
Having answered those, and provided they’re interested in the top problems we list, the application for 80k advising will be very quick. If rejection isn’t too worrying, then they should definitely spend the 10 minutes needed to apply in my opinion
Thanks for your questions! I run the advising team at 80,000 Hours, and I’m glad for the opportunity to clarify.
On question 1, I think there’s no definitive answer here, but this information might help you decide:
We still plan to talk to people considering work on any of our top problems (which includes animal welfare), and I believe we still have a lot of useful advice on how to pursue careers in these areas.
However, we will be applying a higher bar to applicants that aren’t primarily interested in working on AI.
The application only asks two substantive questions. It asks for the problem areas the applicant thinks are most pressing and for a sketch of career options they’re considering. I think that answering these questions is a worthwhile activity for anyone trying to plan an impactful career, regardless of whether or not they’re accepted.
That said, I know that there are costs to being rejected. I was rejected from 80k advising back when I was organising my university group! In general, I struggled a lot with rejection when I was trying to find impactful work. Some of these rejections sapped all the momentum from job searches, and I suspect slowed down my trajectory substantially. (I’d also love to plug Luisa’s excellent article on coping with career rejection!)
Ultimately, if I were in your shoes, I would encourage and support people in answering for themselves which problems they find most pressing, and what that implies about which careers they should consider.
Having answered those, and provided they’re interested in the top problems we list, the application for 80k advising will be very quick. If rejection isn’t too worrying, then they should definitely spend the 10 minutes needed to apply in my opinion
On question 3, that sounds right to me!