Hello and thanks for taking time to host this AMA. Growing Grants Administration, People Operations, Talent Acquisition, Technology, and both the office of the CEO and COO at once is an exciting and major undertaking. Every role listed in this hiring round includes improving processes and systems in its description. Of the seven functions Operations covers, which one do you expect will need to change the most to support GiveWell as it scales and why?
Hi Renee. I think every function within Ops is adapting to the pace and scale of change at GiveWell. Some functions are building infrastructure from scratch. For example, People Ops has always been quite manual, and that was okay when we were onboarding a dozen or so people a year. But at our current and expected growth rate, we can't just throw more people at the same manual processes; we need the team to build a good systems foundation and automate what they can, then use our human capacity to provide better service when it really matters. Other functions, like Grants Administration have good processes to start with, but need to figure out how to update those processes to accommodate different styles of grantmaking and dramatically higher grant volumes.
Across the board what I'd like to do is build for increased resilience and flexibility for the future. We need to learn to expect even more change, and build systems and processes that can accommodate that by design.
I know I didn't answer your exact question, so let me know if you have any follow-ups.
Hi Sai, thank you for taking the time to respond to questions. I'm an undergrad (econ and philosophy at U of Melbourne) very interested in working at GiveWell in two to three years. I'm wondering if there are any things that you would suggest people like me do during study to increase our chances of working with a company like GiveWell?
Hi Adam, thanks for your question! Something you can do now (and ongoing) is to be curious about and engage with our work. That could mean keeping up with our blog or podcast, or digging in to our research write-ups (such as specific grant pages). When candidates apply to jobs at GiveWell, we are always happy to see genuine engagement with our mission, methods, and programs. (Note: you do not need to be a GiveWell donor to be considered or qualified for a role.)
I'll also say that, although we do have roles that are open to recent graduates, we generally find that candidates are more successful in our hiring process if they've already begun developing their professional skills -- clear writing, analytical skills, interpersonal skills, and higher-context thinking -- before coming to GiveWell. So if you're not successful in our hiring process right off the bat, I hope you will consider coming back and trying again after you've built professional experience and relevant skills at other organizations.
I hope this helps!
GiveWell’s Operations department is growing! We have roles open across multiple Ops functions: Grants Administration, People Operations, Talent Acquisition, Technology, and the offices of the CEO and COO. We hope to make multiple hires for many of these roles.
We’re hosting an Ask Me Anything session with our COO, Sai Jahann, to answer questions from the Forum community about what it’s like to work at GiveWell, our Operations functions, this hiring round, and impactful Operations careers at GiveWell.
We plan to keep this AMA open through the next week. You can start sharing your questions on this post now, and Sai will plan to respond beginning Friday. We’ll prioritize the most upvoted questions if we can’t get to everything.
A few things we won't be able to cover: commentary on any active or past applications, individualized feedback on application materials, or insight into specific grantmaking decisions made by our Research team. If we’re unable to answer a question, we'll say so rather than skipping it.
This hiring round is a big event for us. If you’ve ever considered working at GiveWell in an Operations role, we are excited to take your questions and hope you’ll consider applying!
Great to see GiveWell expanding its Ops team and hosting this AMA! Solid operations are essential for scaling high-impact work, so getting direct insight from Sai on these roles is invaluable for prospective applicants. Thanks to the team for taking the time to engage with the community!
thank you mattross!