Aspiring EA from Netherlands (Indian by birth)
agent18
Karma: 162
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.
@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?
There are many organizations doing research work on different projects, such as GiveWell, OPP, CE, ACE, 80k etc… Why not stand on their shoulders? Instead of doing more research? Or fund researchers specially to work in these organizations (as they already have the way of work sorted)?
I would think this somehow led to or was a “prime factor” in getting an EA job.
Thanks for the wonderful article. I assume many of the claims in the article (e.g., ‘actions suggested in getting a degree in EA, helping to get into CE’) are based on some hiring round that you did some data analysis on and concluded. Do you have a link to such an analysis? Or is it just based on the 15 people who joined the incubation program the last time? (in which case I would think you wrote from your experience what these 15 people had done to get into CE)
You suggest in “possible actions section” that doing courses like the ones by J-PAL could be very useful. I was considering doing them, but when I did a quick check on LinkedIn I didn’t quite find anyone who has done these courses currently in your incubation program. Can you please let me know based on what you are suggesting these particular courses as a good initiative to get into CE?
In CE we give people a lot of points for listing an online course on their applications.
Does this apply to any online course (e.g., Data Science Specialization by Coursera) ? How many points are we talking about (5%, 20%, or...)
Is this only about getting as far as the interview?
For instance, both an advising programme aimed at undergraduates
Small Clarification: It doesn’t seem to look like it is aimed at undergraduates (alone) (as shown below). I acknowledge you didn’t say “alone”, but it feels like it when I read it.
We now offer career mentoring to recent graduates and students at a variety of university groups… --- EASCM ‘About’
Can you please let us now when the latest survey coming out?
P.S
Very much appreciate the effort to give examples for many of your claims. Thanks. For example (in the spirit of the game of concrete thinking)
Many of our interviews are also exploratory or of general interest (e.g. Bryan Caplan on the value of education, or David Chalmers on philosophy of mind).
May I ask why you think these are good? Do you know anyone who did it and got “ahead” in their career or?
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.