Thanks for this post Akash, I found it really interesting to read. I definitely agree with your point about how friendly EAs can be when you reach out to them. I think this is something I’ve been aware of for a while, but it still takes me time to internalise and make myself more willing to reach out to people. But it’s definitely something I want to push myself to do more, and encourage other people to do. No one is going to be unhappy about someone showing an interest in their work and ideas!
Anecdotally, a lot of student EAs felt like they don’t really know what to do, and they’re not fully satisfied with the career options that are out there. People who aren’t interested in the “hot” EA topics (e.g., AI safety, longtermism) seemed especially unsure about what to do, or even if they “could” pursue a career within EA.
We (the Local Career Advice Network) noticed this phenomenon when research career advice bottlenecks in EA community, and have termed it “Personal Uncertainty” (see here)
I think definitely applies to non-student EAs as well (also anecdotally!) and could be caused by a lot of different factors including different cause area interests, a lack of freedom of movement to the US/UK and lack of flexible career capital.
Anyone: What do you think of the points I raised? Do you disagree with anything? Do you think I should have explained anything more clearly?
Thanks for this post Akash, I found it really interesting to read. I definitely agree with your point about how friendly EAs can be when you reach out to them. I think this is something I’ve been aware of for a while, but it still takes me time to internalise and make myself more willing to reach out to people. But it’s definitely something I want to push myself to do more, and encourage other people to do. No one is going to be unhappy about someone showing an interest in their work and ideas!
We (the Local Career Advice Network) noticed this phenomenon when research career advice bottlenecks in EA community, and have termed it “Personal Uncertainty” (see here)
I think definitely applies to non-student EAs as well (also anecdotally!) and could be caused by a lot of different factors including different cause area interests, a lack of freedom of movement to the US/UK and lack of flexible career capital.