Hey Tristan, thanks for this! Glad you’ve found the posts useful:)
To your point about references: ideally references should be just a tick box exercise of fact checking and should testify to your character and ability to do great work. Which means that all your good references should do for all future jobs (keep in mind that most employers want two most recent places of work). Some organisations still ask questions about your ability to do that particular job which I don’t agree with as all jobs are different. To help with that I’d advise to cultivate references who believe in you and will testify to your ability to do completely new tasks. This is easier if you demonstrate in the job that you can handle new things and be good at them quickly. I personally really struggled with going from management to leadership, and if not for people who believed in me, encouraged me and saw my potential, I’d probably still be in my old role.
I think that while EA jobs and adjacent roles are preferable, remember that they are not the only options. My first three roles weren’t EA—very entry level work, but without it I’d never have gotten my subsequent animal roles. Id certainly continue job hunting in EA if I were you but I’d also be open to non EA roles simply to get experience. In the end EA roles are mostly usual roles like HR, Ops, Strategy etc, all these skills you can get outside and then come back when a role comes up. The movement is very competitive, not going to lie, but it’s definitely possible to get a role, especially if you spend time building your network from now on, and maybe have a volunteer side project.
Let me know if you have any more questions, I feel like I should try and write a more suitable post for entry level folks:)
Thank you, that’s a pretty helpful framing that I think I’ve probably heard before but haven’t internalized quite this way until now. In sum, references are generally a testament to character and general skills, not specific aptitudes for given work.
I do have question in response, but perhaps I’ll instead just speak in favor of making a post geared towards what you think entry level EA aligned people should do for work. Or perhaps a “things I wish I’d known starting out” or “if I could do it all again this is what I’d do” sort of deal. Your content has been great so far, and don’t feel like you need to rewrite anything with just a slightly changed veneer to be adaptable, but if you do feel like there’s enough you might want to say along these lines, I’d love to read a post from you on it! :)
Hey Tristan, thanks for this! Glad you’ve found the posts useful:)
To your point about references: ideally references should be just a tick box exercise of fact checking and should testify to your character and ability to do great work. Which means that all your good references should do for all future jobs (keep in mind that most employers want two most recent places of work). Some organisations still ask questions about your ability to do that particular job which I don’t agree with as all jobs are different. To help with that I’d advise to cultivate references who believe in you and will testify to your ability to do completely new tasks. This is easier if you demonstrate in the job that you can handle new things and be good at them quickly. I personally really struggled with going from management to leadership, and if not for people who believed in me, encouraged me and saw my potential, I’d probably still be in my old role.
I think that while EA jobs and adjacent roles are preferable, remember that they are not the only options. My first three roles weren’t EA—very entry level work, but without it I’d never have gotten my subsequent animal roles. Id certainly continue job hunting in EA if I were you but I’d also be open to non EA roles simply to get experience. In the end EA roles are mostly usual roles like HR, Ops, Strategy etc, all these skills you can get outside and then come back when a role comes up. The movement is very competitive, not going to lie, but it’s definitely possible to get a role, especially if you spend time building your network from now on, and maybe have a volunteer side project. Let me know if you have any more questions, I feel like I should try and write a more suitable post for entry level folks:)
Thank you, that’s a pretty helpful framing that I think I’ve probably heard before but haven’t internalized quite this way until now. In sum, references are generally a testament to character and general skills, not specific aptitudes for given work.
I do have question in response, but perhaps I’ll instead just speak in favor of making a post geared towards what you think entry level EA aligned people should do for work. Or perhaps a “things I wish I’d known starting out” or “if I could do it all again this is what I’d do” sort of deal. Your content has been great so far, and don’t feel like you need to rewrite anything with just a slightly changed veneer to be adaptable, but if you do feel like there’s enough you might want to say along these lines, I’d love to read a post from you on it! :)