Dispatches from the job hunt

Hello! Since it’s Career Conversations Week, I thought I’d share how things have been going in case anyone has any advice/feedback on my LinkedIn, etc.

Context

I’ve been actively searching since January, having left my last role at Sentience Politics (Swiss animal advocacy org, funded by EA Animal Welfare Fund et al) in April. I was there for a few years (minus maternity leave) and helped raise six figures whilst being the only remote, non-German speaking member of the team. My former manager left a recommendation on my LinkedIn and I was made redundant as they decided to focus on domestic, Swiss funders instead of international as had been my domain. I loved my time there and wished I lived in Zürich! Alas, I’m over the mountains in Innsbruck and am therefore constrained to remote-only roles. 

Attempts

Here’s a list of all the EA roles I’ve applied for since January (not in chrono order):

1. Strategic Partnerships Officer, Future Matters: interview.
2. Growth Manager, Global Shield: interviewed + work test.
3. Head of Growth, Innovate Animal Ag: interview. 
4. Strategy Lead (University Groups), CEA: interview.
5. Media Specialist, CEA: work test.
6. Director of Development, ACE (I’ve worked at ACE previously): work test.
7. Head of Strategic Partnerships, FarmKind: met  at EAG Global, work test, async interview, final interview.
8. Founding Associate, Notify Health: met at EA Global. I really admire their work, but unfortunately the compensation on offer was too low.
9. Director of Communications, Forecasting Research Institute: initial interview with the ED.
10. Global Head of Development, ProVeg: encouraged to apply by a staff member at EAG Global, didn’t hear back so assumed unsuccessful.
11. Founding Generalist, Kairos: work test.

All of the others were straight up rejections or no response:

12. Head of EAGx, CEA
13. Head of EA Funds, CEA
14. Farmed Animal Welfare Assistant, OpenPhil
15. Partnerships Manager, GCR, OpenPhil
16. Recruitment Manager, Palisade Research
17. Team Member, EAGx Berlin
18. Podcast Host, 80,000 Hours
19. Operations Manager, Macroscopic Ventures
20. Strategy Fellow, OpenPhil
21. Campaigns Coordinator, Campaigns Lab
22. Project Coordinator, Global PRG

In addition, I applied for funding/programs to start my own projects from the following:

Kickstarting 4 Good, Proveg: finalist
AIM Founding to Give
Mobius
EA Animal Welfare Fund
Cosmos Institute
Career Transition funding, OpenPhil

…

I should also add that I did get one offer, made informally by someone who is very supportive and whom I deeply respect, but unfortunately it was a scrape above minimum wage. This is unworkable for me as someone with a mortgage and two dependents. I was also invited to a closed hiring round for an ED role, but again, the compensation wasn’t workable. To lift the veil on that (why not at this point), my last role was as a contractor at a FTE salary of ~65k CHF (81k USD). I need a salary of at least 60k EUR (70k USD) to make it work for our family.

Please help 

I’m offering this as an unusually transparent data point of what’s going on in the EA job market right now. If you were also in the running for any of these roles, or even landed one of them (tips hat), feel free to say hi in the comments! And again, I’m open to feedback on how I can get over the line. Besides applying, I’ve networked like crazy (especially at EAG London, which CEA generously funded me to attend), done a few courses (BlueDot Impact, HIP’s CIT, Section) and volunteered briefly for AI Policy Bulletin. I’ve a master’s degree, a handful of strong recommendations, a TEDx talk… tell me my blind spot? 

On another note, I’ve applied for one non-EA role, been interviewed, and I’ll find out by the end of this week. Wish me luck!