EA Forum Bot Site
EA Forum

by EAlly
2 min read 1

5

Career choiceCareer advisingHiringPersonal developmentWorking at EA vs. non-EA orgs
Frontpage
Show all topics

I apologize if there are posts on the subject elsewhere, I was having some difficulty finding posts using the search function. This comes after reading the 80,000 Hours Career Review on Information Security and Advice I Give to People Who Don't Currently Have an EA Job. 

Are there any EA’s here who currently work in IT (Information Technology)? What kinds of places are you working at? Are they actual EA organizations?

Essentially, I am contemplating a switch into the field but have not seen much written on the actual field of IT within EA except as a stepping stone to something else, e.g. AI/machine learning, software development or information security. This is fine, I think I would like to eventually transition into information security myself. That being said, as someone who is: (1) a career transitioner; and (2) not currently at an EA company; I don't believe myself at present to be the kind of person for whom a lot of those posts are written. 

For context: I have recent experience in operations working closely with our IT department along with some previous experience in communications, policy and database administration. But outside of general software experience (Javascript, HTML/CSS, R, SQL, Tableau, things like that) and always becoming the de facto “IT-person” in my workgroups, nothing more explicit. Generally speaking, my background is emergency response, biosecurity related. While I consider myself EA-oriented, I have never worked at a company that is underneath the EA umbrella.

Is this (meaning, IT) a worthwhile pursuit for someone looking to also switch into more EA-aligned organizations? Any suggestions on places I should apply/are hiring? And more importantly: What can I do to bolster my application? A lot of places seem to either be super big fancy startups that will most likely throw out my application or are hiring only college interns for these roles. As someone who is skeptical on my chances at these places and has done my fair share of internships in the past- being several years removed from college, these are not practical options for me.

Should I delay until I can show more obvious IT-related certificates and things like that? I was thinking about doing the CompTIA Security+ but don’t want to get stuck spending time on something that might prove to be unnecessary. On the other hand, based on previous posts in the forum, there's a good chance that I could 100% be overthinking this. But on the other, other hand, a lot of posts that I see encouraging people to join the technology side of EA are looking for people with ridiculous resumes and fancy skills from the jump whereas I have none of that.

In addition, at what point do I need to consider location? While I frequently travel to Seattle, I am mostly based in Boston. Both are expensive locations in their own right but I find the Bay Area (where the bulk of EA companies are seemingly situated) to be outright unaffordable. Notable because I am currently unable to fully relocate and a lot of IT positions within the United States seem to require on-site employment unlike positions I've seen advertised in the U.K.

 

Basically, I'm trying to avoid becoming bycatch and am generally looking for and would appreciate any advice. 

5

0
0

Reactions

0
0

More posts like this

Comments1


Sorted by
New & upvoted
Click to highlight new comments since:
Quinn McHugh (he/him)3
0
0

Hi EAlly,

It seems like there are numerous questions to unpack here. If I'm understanding you correctly, it seems like you're generally curious about how others have sought to increase their impact through an EA lense, given a background in IT. Is that right?

If so, I think your questions might be better answered by searching for, reaching out to, and scheduling informational interviews with people working at the intersection of EA and IT. I previously came across a helpful framework for doing this sort of thing here: [Webinar] The 2-Hour Job Search - YouTube

From one generalist IT person to another, would it be helpful to hop on a call to discuss your uncertainties? https://calend.ly/quinnpmchugh/meet

While I may not have a lot to offer in terms of career guidance, I can certainly relate to your position. My background is in mechanical engineering, but I currently do a mix of IT, operations, project management, and software engineering work. Professionally, I am interested in moving into project management full-time, but am also very interested in leveraging my IT skills to improve the movement's overall coordination and intellectual diversity through projects like EA Explorer.

Reply
More from EAlly
View more
Curated and popular this week
 ·  · 22m read
 · 
The cause prioritization landscape in EA is changing. Prominent groups have shut down, others have been founded, and everyone’s trying to figure out how to prepare for AI. This is the third in a series of posts critically examining the state of cause prioritization and strategies for moving forward. Executive Summary * An increasingly common argument is that we should prioritize work in AI over work in other cause areas (e.g. farmed animal welfare, reducing nuclear risks) because the impending AI revolution undermines the value of working in those other areas. * We consider three versions of the argument: * Aligned superintelligent AI will solve many of the problems that we currently face in other cause areas. * Misaligned AI will be so disastrous that none of the existing problems will matter because we’ll all be dead or worse. * AI will be so disruptive that our current theories of change will all be obsolete, so the best thing to do is wait, build resources, and reformulate plans until after the AI revolution. * We identify some key cruxes of these arguments, and present reasons to be skeptical of them. A more direct case needs to be made for these cruxes before we rely on them in making important cause prioritization decisions. * Even on short timelines, the AI transition may be a protracted and patchy process, leaving many opportunities to act on longer timelines. * Work in other cause areas will often make essential contributions to the AI transition going well. * Projects that require cultural, social, and legal changes for success, and projects where opposing sides will both benefit from AI, will be more resistant to being solved by AI. * Many of the reasons why AI might undermine projects in other cause areas (e.g. its unpredictable and destabilizing effects) would seem to undermine lots of work on AI as well. * While an impending AI revolution should affect how we approach and prioritize non-AI (and AI) projects, doing this wisel
 ·  · 4m read
 · 
TLDR When we look across all jobs globally, many of us in the EA community occupy positions that would rank in the 99.9th percentile or higher by our own preferences within jobs that we could plausibly get.[1] Whether you work at an EA-aligned organization, hold a high-impact role elsewhere, or have a well-compensated position which allows you to make significant high effectiveness donations, your job situation is likely extraordinarily fortunate and high impact by global standards. This career conversations week, it's worth reflecting on this and considering how we can make the most of these opportunities. Intro I think job choice is one of the great advantages of development. Before the industrial revolution, nearly everyone had to be a hunter-gatherer or a farmer, and they typically didn’t get a choice between those. Now there is typically some choice in low income countries, and typically a lot of choice in high income countries. This already suggests that having a job in your preferred field puts you in a high percentile of job choice. But for many in the EA community, the situation is even more fortunate. The Mathematics of Job Preference If you work at an EA-aligned organization and that is your top preference, you occupy an extraordinarily rare position. There are perhaps a few thousand such positions globally, out of the world's several billion jobs. Simple division suggests this puts you in roughly the 99.9999th percentile of job preference. Even if you don't work directly for an EA organization but have secured: * A job allowing significant donations * A position with direct positive impact aligned with your values * Work that combines your skills, interests, and preferred location You likely still occupy a position in the 99.9th percentile or higher of global job preference matching. Even without the impact perspective, if you are working in your preferred field and preferred country, that may put you in the 99.9th percentile of job preference
 ·  · 6m read
 · 
I am writing this to reflect on my experience interning with the Fish Welfare Initiative, and to provide my thoughts on why more students looking to build EA experience should do something similar.  Back in October, I cold-emailed the Fish Welfare Initiative (FWI) with my resume and a short cover letter expressing interest in an unpaid in-person internship in the summer of 2025. I figured I had a better chance of getting an internship by building my own door than competing with hundreds of others to squeeze through an existing door, and the opportunity to travel to India carried strong appeal. Haven, the Executive Director of FWI, set up a call with me that mostly consisted of him listing all the challenges of living in rural India — 110° F temperatures, electricity outages, lack of entertainment… When I didn’t seem deterred, he offered me an internship.  I stayed with FWI for one month. By rotating through the different teams, I completed a wide range of tasks:  * Made ~20 visits to fish farms * Wrote a recommendation on next steps for FWI’s stunning project * Conducted data analysis in Python on the efficacy of the Alliance for Responsible Aquaculture’s corrective actions * Received training in water quality testing methods * Created charts in Tableau for a webinar presentation * Brainstormed and implemented office improvements  I wasn’t able to drive myself around in India, so I rode on the back of a coworker’s motorbike to commute. FWI provided me with my own bedroom in a company-owned flat. Sometimes Haven and I would cook together at the residence, talking for hours over a chopping board and our metal plates about war, family, or effective altruism. Other times I would eat at restaurants or street food booths with my Indian coworkers. Excluding flights, I spent less than $100 USD in total. I covered all costs, including international transportation, through the Summer in South Asia Fellowship, which provides funding for University of Michigan under
Recent opportunities in Career choice
101
AIM is Seeking a New CEO
Ambitious Impact, Joey🔸
· · 5m read
1
1
46
Introducing the Pathfinder Fellowship: Funding and Mentorship for AI Safety Group Organizers
Agustín Covarrubias 🔸, Topaz
· · 3m read
0
0
19
Who's hiring?
Q
Career Week
DPiepgrass
· · 1m read
1
1
View more