Aspiring EA from Netherlands (Indian by birth)
agent18
Thanks Khorton. I agree that we should not just look at orgs identifying as EA.
Thanks for the suggestions.
most of the most valuable roles (certainly in my ‘field’ but I suspect in many others, especially the more applied/concrete) will not be at ‘avowedly EA organisations’
do you have an example?
it seems wise to have a career plan which does not rely on securing such a role (or at least have a backup).
Agreed that I should have a backup. But why does it seem unwise? Based on what? Have you looked at the possible impact based on replaceability and displacement chains?
What else is there to do I don’t know, other than working in some form (researcher, program manager) in “orgs that do good”? I think I can ETG (in the US) but owing to my lack of citizenship there is a 50% chance (H1B and RFE issues) that I make it just considering just random factors. This is still my back up.
Although there’s a sense of ways one can build ‘EA street cred’ (or whatever), it’s not clear these forms of ‘EA career capital’ are best even for employment at avowedly EA organisations.
I am never going to be able to find what the best way to “EA CC” for EA orgs. Alternate being I look at examples. What do you suggest to do then and why?
I would appreciate an explanation, when you downvote something. Thanks. :)
Thanks for the detailed response and taking the time once again.
You keep suggesting that “you had a feeling” about the impact. What does this mean? I guess it’s more than just a feeling like seeing how much money or lives or DALY’s what your doing counterfactualy adds.
Thank You for the detailed answer.
In general, I think that everyone’s situation is different and you shouldn’t base
actions on stuff like this too much.Then, I do not know what else to base my actions on. I also don’t understand what you mean by “too much”. Do you have an example in mind?
I am trying to look for “similar” (big quotes) people and see how they did it. And copying actions and testing it out seems to be the “better” options I have. It might work, it might not work out in the end to a variety of reasons. But atleast there is one example instead of empty claims about how to get an EA job. Your example, Peters example and MSJs example tell me one thing, it requires persistence and a lot of time (2-5 years), hardwork, long time EA engagement, writing/researching, applying, criticizing, learning about EA etc… I now have an understanding that it would take 2-5 years (and that I need to be ready to accept this). This never hit home to me before today. So BIG THANK YOU for that.
And one more question:
Why were you so bent on getting an EA job? Why not ETG. You are a software engineer I see from your Linkedin.
P.S I am asking you these as I am struggling myself with such questions.
Well said Peter. I needed this. thanks!
Thanks a ton Sauliu. May I ask you a few more questions:
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Are there other internships/jobs you got rejected to? (and where in your timeline were those rejects)
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Can you please tell me more about what all you did in that gap year other than write those two articles to “boost your chances”? Did you take a break from normal FT work during that gap year?
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So the articles drew the attention to a hirer at RP? Not your connections.
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How did you get the EA community building internship? Why was it “unrelated”
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Thank You StJules. Appreciate it. This is actually great. Thanks for the details. Ultimately it is about getting a job in EA. But Interships also sounds good.
And congratulations on the Internship.
[Question] Examples of people who didn’t get into EA in the past but made it after a few years
@Peter_Hurford
To look at this in depth, we turn to data from the 2017 and 2018 EA Surveys.
Link doesn’t work.
This is the link: https://80000hours.org/articles/longtermist-policy-ideas/ that is broken. It doens’t look updated. I do not know what is the correct link. It takes me to a Page not found when I click. I am not sure it is fixed.
Hi thank you for this. Very much appreciate the effort. Is it possible to answer these questions?
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Of the 82, how many people were of the “level” where you would want to hire them? But couldn’t due to “lack of funding”, “wanting to grow slowly”, “don’t want to overwhelm the management” (how good was the talent pool)
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Why are you not able to hire more than 2 people? (Are you low on funding or wanting to grow slowly, don’t want to overwhelm the management etc...)
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Did you get the type of candidates you set out to hire? Or did you have to settle for someone with “lesser experience” than you wanted?
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This month, 80,000 Hours put out their list of policy and research ideas to reduce existential risk > from Dr. Toby
Link broken: https://80000hours.org/articles/longtermist-policy-ideas/
Would it be possible to make 2-grams and 3-grams as well. Maybe that provides more insight.
P.S It takes more time to generate it and more ram. It does not scale linearly with the n-grams.
Thanks a lot. :)
Clarification
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Are the tests and weekly assignments peer “graded”?
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Ah so I will also be able to start courses in September. This way I could do 2 courses over a semester (6 months). One from June and one from Sept. I think this is what you mean. Correct?
Replies
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Unable to access the archived course. Takes me to enroll into the latest.
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So 12-14h/week per course (over 3 months) would be needed. Got it!
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Ok. I will also try doing 2 for now at the same time.
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Hi, I just read their entire FAQ. Can you confirm the following:
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The course can only be take at specific times: (e.g., Jun or September) and you must follow it for 3 months (like in a regular school but online). And you have no choice but to follow the schedule? I mean you can’t finish the course in your own time (say in 6 months time).
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While auditing you are able to take tests, submit weekly assignments (except the proctored exam), correct?
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The FAQ says I would need 12-14 hours for the program (does this mean for each course or the whole program (i.e., 3 courses + 2 electives)?
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How many courses did you take at a time? in addition to your job or Study?
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I don’t understand the difference between the following in “Notes on leveraging and funging”. Is that a typo? They look the same to me.
Comparison 1: Counterfactual world (A): A doesn’t act, B and C act as they would have done if A had not acted.
“B and C act as they would have done if A had not acted.”
Comparison 2: Counterfactual world (A): A doesn’t act, B and C act as they did in the actual world.
“B and C act as they did in the actual world”
I don’t see Joey’s article cited anywhere. Can someone help pointing to that article?
All numbers seem to not be in the same format across the entire post. Here is one example.