AMA: Ask Career Advisors Anything

Thanks for the question! I agree with what Tom Rowlands wrote in his response, and just want to add a couple things. The world is full of neglected problems that cause a lot of harm, and people working in the information economy don't have a monopoly on identifying or solving them. For example, your question reminded me of Jesse Smith's article in Asterisk Magazine about HVAC, indoor air quality, and pandemic prevention. Jesse is an HVAC technician that has been following the EA community and its ideas for years, and I think he thoughtfully applied the framework to his area of expertise. I'd imagine that firsthand arguments like this could help policymakers improve indoor air quality, such as Alex Bores' bill in New York State.

So applying rare and valuable skills to a pressing problem can take many forms. I'm not sure what your version of this is, but I bet there is something. We're lucky that for all its flaws, the internet helps us "work in public" to make our skills legible and apply them to real problems. 

One obvious answer here that hasn't come up yet -- they can take the 10% pledge! And, of course, hustle at their current job, work their way up, and earn-to-give or build management skills that can later be useful for jobs at direct work organizations

Hi RobotDeChair. Thanks for the question - I always appreciate the chance to engage with people who don't think they're represented enough in EA.

As you say, it can be hard to give very broad advice here, but I think the first thing to say is that there are loads of ways you can have impact without formal education/qualifications. For starters, you can filter for jobs without formal education requirement on the PG jobs board, and as someone who has worked in and around recruiting in EA for a few years now, I do think hiring managers in this community put less stock in credentials than hiring managers in large swathes of the corporate world. Applying to some of these roles and doing work tests and interviews is unlikely to be wasted effort.

Of course 'EA jobs' are not the only way to have impact. Building demonstrable skills, experience, and connections is going to be useful in whatever sector you work in, and if you develop good career capital, there's every chance you're able to put that to good use in the longer term. It's hard to be more specific without knowing more of your background, but I'd be excited to discuss that if you want to DM me, or apply for our 1:1 advising.

It's not exactly what you were asking, but I also think it's hard to say how a future with increasingly powerful AI will change the market for educational qualifications. My guess is that the value of some credentials will really drop, while others will increase, but I defer to Ben Todd's excellent article on which those are.

Thanks again for the question!

I expect it'd be possible to build some good ops experience in blue collar roles.

There are some great replies here from career advisors -- I'm not one, but I want to mention that I got into software engineering without a university degree. I'm hesitant to recommend software engineering as the safe and well-paying career it once was, but I think learning how to code is still a great way to quickly develop useful skills without requiring a four-year degree!

Hi, thanks for your question. 

A good way to start might be to think about the transferrable skills that you are applying in your current job, as well as those that motivate you (motivational skills) and that you are curious and excited to learn. Having no further context on the type of blue-collar work, I try to give some inspiration:

1. An electronics specialist working in an electronics factory, motivated to learn more about how to make AI-hardware safe; eventually transitioning into an organization that builds safe AI hardware
2. A mechanic who became passionate about climate change mitigation, using existing skills in engineering and upskilling more in the direction of clean energy technology; then landing a job in an organization that builds a more efficient type of heat exchanger

Maybe a next step could be to find people with similar specialisations in organizations that inspire you, and connect with them. The larger your network, the more likely you are to find your next opportunity through a friendly referral.

Hi Mokhantso, thanks for the question. I think some of the advice I gave in this other comment might apply: it can be hard to find opportunities in some situations, but no one has a monopoly on applying these principles to effectively reduce suffering and save lives. One option might be to look at Charity Entrepreneurship's charity incubation program to start a health charity of your own inspired by these principles. If you are able to join the civil service, you might implement effective programs and build state capacity- for example I know Lead Elimination Project has worked closely with government officials in various countries to help implement their program. In the future I'd also encourage you to look out for regional EAGx conferences that you might attend to learn more and network with high impact health professionals, such as the EAGx Nigeria conference that just happened. And I'd definitely keep an eye on ProbablyGood's job board and resources.

I'm not sure if this is a full answer to your question, though. I feel for your situation and admire that you want to use your career to reduce suffering and have a positive impact.

Hi Heather - thanks for messaging, and for all you're doing.

Firstly, I'm really pro earning to give, and if that's the path that best balances you having impact, using your skills, and having a lifestyle that isn't burnout-inducing, that might be the best thing. Sounds to me like you're crushing it! One fairly obvious way of having more impact would just be to share what you're doing with other vets, and try to gently nudge them to consider some of the same things.

To actually tackle the question, it's hard to put a fixed number on it, and I suspect you'd get different answers from different organisations as to whether they'd value your skills or your money higher (and the answers would likely change over time).^[1]That said, if you were to found an effective organisation tackling factory farming, I'd bet that would be more valuable than your donations, perhaps significantly so. It would be more full-on and likely more stressful, but I'd consider applying for the Charity Entrepreneurship incubation programme in future if you're more interested in founding something than being an employee (and assuming you could make time for the 2-month programme).

A less drastic move might be to explore serving on boards of some organisations in this space. I spotted a couple of opportunities from a quick scan here, and without knowing the ins and outs of the requirements, I'd bet there are a bunch of organisations that would benefit from your experience and expertise. The Hive community is also a great place for you to learn more about what's going on in the space, connect with other likeminded people, and perhaps offer mentorship to those earlier in their careers.

I'd be happy to chat about this more if you'd find it valuable (our 1:1 advising page is here), and selfishly I'd also love to learn more about your journey. Thanks again!

1. ^{^}

   You could try asking e.g. some of the organisations on the AAC jobs board, but I'm not sure you'd get answers, or how confident and accurate they'd be.

Hi Heather, thank you for everything that you do. I would say that there isn’t a “magic number” at which extra money stops being valuable and you should directly switch to direct work. 

First of all, unfortunately the movement is still seriously under‑funded. The entire farmed‑animal‑advocacy sector spent only about US $200 million in 2020 (https://faunalytics.org/funding-dynamics-in-farmed-animal-advocacy/) That is orders of magnitude less than is spent on companion‑animal charities. Until that budget rises dramatically, every additional highly targeted dollar remains important.

Second of all, in general the best charities still produce large welfare gains per dollar. A recent synthesis of Animal Charity Evaluators’ data on cage‑free corporate campaigns estimated that each U.S. dollar affects 9 – 120 chicken‑years of life (https://animalcharityevaluators.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/what-is-the-effect-of-cage-free-corporate-outreach-on-egg-laying-hens-welfare.pdf) On such numbers, your current US $40 000 annual giving could be improving conditions for hundreds of thousands (and up to a few million) animals each year. 

Overall, I would say that earning‑to‑give is recommended so long as you 1) can earn unusually well and 2) do not have an alternative where your skills are clearly harder to replace.  

Considering the above  points, the “enough” threshold is not a money total, but rather the point where the next hour of consulting or the next dollar you donate does less good than an hour of direct work you that could sustainably perform. 

I think that continuing to donate would be a good route for you that has likely already done a lot of good for farmed animals already. However, consider that board‑certified veterinarians are not easy to find and are generally scarce on farm‑animal welfare standard committees. If you were to join such a body, one hour of your time could unlock significant improvements; plus, you could still be donating as you’ve done in the past.

Hi Warren, thanks for this comment. I feel for your situation- in my undergrad I jumped between majors and wasn't sure what skills I wanted to develop, and I was worried that coming from a non-prestigious public college in Canada that there wouldn't be a place for me in these more competitive roles. This sounds like a cliche, but it was helpful for me at the time: relentlessly focus on what you can control. We don't choose the cards we're dealt to start out in life, but you have a remarkable amount of freedom in college to try out projects, explore different options, and get really good at something. College can be your 'training montage.' 

As you identified with the GED, there's no speed limit. Once you've identified a rare and valuable skill that helps solve a pressing problem, you should try to obsessively improve at it. If you haven't identified that yet, test your fit with small projects that let you try out different skills and interests efficiently, like taking a range of courses, writing something for a personal site, trying a weekend coding project, etc. You'll want to balance explore/exploit strategies.

The specifics will really depend on your situation. One way to look for your advantage is to ask yourself "which things feel like work for other people, but energize me?" For myself it started with a political philosophy course that I loved (and which introduced me to Peter Singer), but maybe you just haven't found that spark yet. I'd encourage you not to compare yourself to others who got luckier or are farther along, but to compare to where you've been and where you might have been if you didn't step up. You should be proud of getting your GED and being where you are now.

Also, I don't think your writing was messy. It seems like you've identified a feeling a lot of people have.

Hi Kamil, this sounds like a great approach so far. I don't have a complete answer, but wanted to flag a couple ideas. For freelance, fractional, or volunteer gigs, networking and building relationships can often really help. This might mean going to EAGx Berlin in October, doing outreach to organizations whose work you respect, or continuing to 'work in public' by putting yourself out there on the forum/twitter/substack/whatever. The EA Opportunities Board sometimes has cool projects as well.

You mention hoping to land a role in Global Health and Development. I try to flag to advisees that this is unfortunately a really difficult time to be job searching in that field- the USAID and broader funding cuts have led to thousands of people job searching all at once, and many orgs have had to cut back on hiring. You might've already known that, but I don't want you to feel discouraged if you're not finding traction at the moment. Keep focusing on core skills and getting 'so good they can't ignore you.' I really like this post on what skills you need to be successful in operations, and how to identify and develop them.

Lastly, I'd also recommend Consultants for Impact, who have career advice tailored to consultants trying to use their specific skillset for good. 

Hi Christoph, thank you for such an honest reflection. Your self-awareness about what energizes versus drains you is actually a significant strength that will serve you well in finding the right path. I suspect many others will resonate with your question too.

II think you're right - many high-impact activities do require significant social interaction and can bias toward extroverted working styles.

However, the landscape is more nuanced. Some organizations actively consider inclusion across 'diversity dimensions', designing cultures that attempt to meet diverse needs. At Successif, for example, we're working to identify and mitigate opportunities and barriers across gender, race, neurodiversity, and nationality - both for our team and advisees alike.

While general EA culture may seem extroverted, remember it's not homogeneous - there are sub-cultures and streams with different working styles.

Areas where introverted engineers may thrive:

• Technical AI Safety Research: Deep focus work, coding, mathematical analysis with collaboration primarily through written work
• Data Science for Impact: Dataset analysis, modeling, insights generation for global health/policy organizations
• Backend Infrastructure: Building robust technical systems for impact organizations
• AI Governance (Technical Track): Writing reports, analyzing policy implications, building tools

A key suggestion here would be to treat organizational culture as a selection criterion. Use the application process (i.e. job requirements, work tests, interviews) to assess remote work policies, team structures, and communication norms - to actively weed out options that couldn't be sustainable for you.

Questions to consider:

• What aspects of your current technical work energize you most?
• Have you explored applying your skills to any cause areas, even in small ways?
• Would it be valuable to connect with other introverted engineers who've made this transition, or put out a call to find others navigating similar considerations? (Perhaps someone reading this will reach out!?)

On earning-to-give: Absolutely legitimate and impactful with your background. Consider starting small to explore direct applications - open-source contributions to EA projects, small freelance work, or informational interviews.

Finally, rather than seeing this as an either/or choice, consider starting small: What are some cheap tests/low hanging actions you could take on this week/month?

All the best,
Moneer (Career Advisor at Successif)

Your experience socializing is relatable. I am a former software developer and found socializing too complex. Are there people, groups and settings at work where socializing is easier? I am curious to hear more. DM me if you prefer. (I am not an advisor)

Hi İrem,

Thank you for your questions. The key question to ask yourself is in how far a for-profit role can best set you up for any future roles that you listed? Although for-profit can support you with building more financial stability, it could be that there is a more direct way to build the career capital for your desired role. 

Have you looked at the 80k job board (https://jobs.80000hours.org/) and could you identify some roles that you find interesting? Try to also include non-profit roles at first and try to figure out in howfar they match your salary expectations. 

If it turns out that for-profit is the only route for you to go at the moment, you can look for consulting, project/product management, communications, operations jobs that overlap with safe/responsible AI development. On the for-profit side there is also a whole industry emerging around supporting organizations understand policy implications, and ensuring compliance with upcoming AI regulations.

If you feel you are still at the beginning of your ecosystem research, it might help you to look into most recent developments on the policy side (e.g. EU AI Act) or and other outputs from leading organizations (papers, etc.). Ask yourself: What sparks my interest here and where do I see myself fitting in?

Maybe this post from yesterday is also intersting for you: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/D6ECZQMFcskpiGP7Q/ten-ai-safety-proj

Hope some of that is helpful!

All the best,
Simon (Career Advisor @ Successif)

Hi Tania! Your ops/strategy background is relevant for impact organizations - many of the challenges you're describing (sectoral gaps, positioning transferable skills) are covered in our recent post "Challenges from Career Transitions".

Your leadership and user-centered design experience could be valuable in impact orgs, though the transition often requires deep networking and strategic upskilling alongside applications - all with a 'winning or learning' mindset.

I went through a similar journey myself, which I wrote about in "To the Bat Mobile!! My Mid-Career Transition into AI Safety" - found that connecting authentically with people already doing the work was more valuable than cause-area expertise initially - although developing 'context' later in my journey proved essential.

Operations/strategy roles do seem open to career switchers in my experience. As a rough heuristic, worth noting that smaller orgs may expect more cause-specific familiarity since ops roles wear multiple hats, while larger orgs tend to have more specialized roles requiring less cause-specific knowledge (although not a hard rule!). Also, "ops" varies widely between organizations - always check the actual role description to see if it's focused on finance, HR, compliance, etc or combines everything.

All the best,
Moneer (Career Advisor at Succesif)

I'm less familiar with the EU, but I can give my big picture overview of the "be in the room to shape decisions" theory of change versus "prepare great policy proposals to have ready on the shelf" theory of change. I think both are valuable and are sometimes two sides of the same coin. (In my experience) legislative staffers and key decision makers are busy, putting out five different fires at once and moving between various portfolios. They're really sharp generalists who pull from outside expertise- sometimes from think tanks with capacity to do the deeper research and find the policy levers. Both are important, but to assess the need you might ask yourself "do we have a dearth of excellent policy proposals in a well-communicated package? or do we have many of them, but they aren't breaking through to key decision makers?"

Also, a lot of this should come down to your personal fit: do you have more of a comparative advantage in generalist quick decision making, writing succinct action-relevant memos, acting as a 'node in a network' of other experts, using lots of social stamina, etc? If so, maybe working within established legislative/government role makes sense for you. Or do you think you'd be better at longer horizon research, deep wonky details, communicating technical insights to a broader audience, etc? Then maybe think tanks might be the right fit. I'd recommend looking at the job postings for roles in both areas and checking where your skills fit in.

I should note there can often be overlap and this is just a general picture - many civil servants are deep researchers, some legislative staffers' jobs are different from how I described, etc. I really like this "testing your fit for policy" guide from EmergingTechPolicy.org to assess where your skills might best fit.

Hi Tristan, thanks for writing in.

It's great to have a plan, and work through various projects. 

I think you correctly noted the need for "tight feedback loops", but at the same time I didn't see any work in a shape that you could actually get feedback on; perhaps you're optimising too hard for completing something to 100%, when instead you could be getting feedback sooner?

You mention you've already developed your own research tastes -- that's great! Taking on something so ambitious is commendable, but I wonder whether you are again falling prey to not getting feedback often enough. Have you run your research ideas by folks who have been thinking about AI safety for a while? Are there similarities between your research and any agendas being explored (and have you talked to those people)? Have you articulated why popular research agendas are unlikely to work, and what missing pieces your research might add? Taking such actions create surface areas for folks to challenge your thinking, and help you improve your understanding of the core questions and what needs to be done to solve them.

There is lots of great advice about building the underlying tools/mindset/aptitudes/instincts needed for AI safety research, including on getting feedback; e.g. this piece by ARC/METR researcher Lawrence Chan states "touching reality requires receiving actual concrete feedback on your ideas." I think it would be helpful for you to build relationships with folks who can give you high quality input regularly. (This is a central kind of value that many budding Alignment researchers get out of moving to the SF Bay Area for a few weeks/months.)

I'll leave it at that for now; feel free to apply for an advising chat if you're like to talk some more!

Thanks so much for sharing your background and questions. It’s great to see someone with a strong technical foundation and leadership experience thinking seriously about contributing to alternative proteins.

I’ll offer a few thoughts based on general trends we’ve seen and conversations with professionals, but I strongly encourage you to speak directly with people working in alt proteins—especially engineers and scientists—who can offer deeper, field-specific insight.

Should you spend time in the conventional food industry?
This can be a valuable path if you’re strategic about it. Some people build strong technical skills (e.g. in process engineering or regulatory work) that are directly relevant to alt proteins. But many others learn these skills on the job within mission-aligned companies. Whether this makes sense for you might depend on which specific roles you’re excited by and how motivated you’d feel in a less impact-focused context. People already in the industry can often share which early-career experiences they found most formative—or wish they’d pursued.

Which subfields are most in need of engineers?
Hiring needs change quickly, so I’d recommend checking in with people on the ground to understand current and likely future bottlenecks. The alt protein industry is in a very different place today than it was five years ago—or than it will be five years from now. If you can, seek out professionals with a longitudinal view of the field who can speak to how skill-specific needs have shifted over time. They’ll have a more nuanced sense of which engineering capabilities are most scarce and which are likely to be in high demand as the sector scales.

What types of roles or orgs are best for early career capital?
There are meaningful tradeoffs here:

• Startups can offer broad responsibility and fast learning, but often come with less stability and mentorship.
• Larger companies may provide more structured training and help you build deeper technical expertise.
• Nonprofits aren’t typically engineering-heavy, but might be worth considering if you’re drawn to ecosystem-building, funding strategy, or policy.

In general, the best opportunities tend to be role-specific rather than org-type-specific. Talking to people who’ve taken different routes can be especially helpful in identifying which environments will set you up well for future impact.

Suggested next steps

• Browse job boards like AltProtein.Jobs by Tälist or the GFI career portal to reverse-engineer what skills are in demand.
• Reach out to 2–3 engineers working in different parts of the alt protein sector (e.g. fermentation, cultivated meat, plant-based) to get their take on emerging gaps and skill needs.
• Keep in mind that your technical skills—especially in modeling, optimization, and data analysis—could be valuable across other high-impact areas too. That’s not to pull you away from alt proteins, just to encourage long-term flexibility if your interests evolve.

Hi Micah!  Just wanted to share that I'm in EA Marketing & Communications as well. If you ever want to chat, feel free to message!  Cheers. 

- Danielle

I'm glad to hear you're excited about this! I made a list of technical AI safety upskilling resources for someone in your position. I highly recommend the "Shallow review..." article to get a broad overview of the field and see which research agendas excite you and match your potential skillset. Testing your fit with small projects on evenings/weekends can help you do this as well. There are a few "expert advice" articles in there that can speak to object level skills, though it will vary by sub-field and by research engineer vs research scientist roles, etc. 

In my opinion this is a great field for self-directed learners. There is so much out in the open on the internet (courses listed in the above link), so many arxiv.org papers to read, so much discussion happening out in the open on twitter or Alignment Forum or here on the EA Forum, etc. I'd recommend sharing your work in public once you have some cool results to throw on GitHub or in a post, even if you're just implementing a paper or exploring part of a research methodology. It'll be valuable to make your skills legible and get feedback as you develop them. Relatedly, networking can be really valuable for hearing what projects or research agendas others are excited about and getting more concrete feedback. Conferences can be one way to do this, but so can BlueDot courses, local university AI safety or EA groups, outreach to alumni or academics in your network, etc. Try to be succinct and specific when you do such outreach, engaging with their work in particular.

Hi Stormo,

Check out my earlier answer to Ronnie, who overlaps substantially with your situation!

"How deeply" is a hard question! A good process to practice (and get better at!) is "working backwards from a goal." So in addition to laying a bottom-up foundation (e.g. through this guide on research engineering) , think about the top-down shortest path between where you want to be and where you are. This requires (by definition!) having a clear picture of where you want to go, so sift through various roles, orgs, theories of change, worldviews, etc. and think through what kind research projects/skills/experiences lie on the critical path to your targets.

Being a "self-directed learner" is often about trying stuff and figuring out what works for you, but there's tons of high quality content on becoming better at this, e.g. this piece by a Google DeepMind AI safety researcher.

You can demonstrate your skills in many ways! Some ideas include: write a blog, post on youtube, do excellent projects on github, and work on open-source repos. This list I maintain has some more ideas, as well as some AI safety researchers' githubs for inspiration.

Hi Paul, 

I think it’s admirable that you want to apply your tech skills to help animals. In general, from my experience having now advised 138 people I can say that very few have strong IT backgrounds, although charities do need them. In fact, as AI, data, and online tools grow in importance, animal‑protection groups (especially those linked to Effective Altruism) are keen to hire people like you. I will answer your questions one at a time.

• Am I correct in this assessment, that it is harder to find roles in this sector as a software developer?

Yes, mostly because most animal advocacy non-profits run on tight budgets and keep their tech teams small. This in turn means that openings appear less often than in mainstream industry. This doesn’t mean however that these roles don’t exist. For example, The Good Food Institute employs full‑time engineers like Patrick Landy to maintain and extend its web properties (https://gfi.org/team/patrick-landy/). Also, there are entire charities built around IT skills and their use to help animals, such as  Vegan Hacktivists. So yes, the pipeline is narrower but not empty, and you simply have to monitor the right channels and be ready when vacancies surface.

• What recommendations would you have in terms of networking and potentially partnering with similarly ambitious people in this field, so that I get in contact with others that are using tech to improve animal welfare?

I would bring up Vegan Hacktivists and their community again: they connect many volunteer engineers and designers that build tools for the movement, and several paid hires have come through that route. I would suggest you have a look at the community run by The Good Food Institute, which hosts many scientists and technologists and runs monthly online meet‑ups.  Finally, follow careers pages at Berlin‑based organisations such as ProVeg International and the Albert‑Schweitzer‑Stiftung (I think they’re looking for someone with a background in IT right now); they advertise remote‑friendly digital roles when funding allows.

• What would be some recommendations in terms of how I should develop my skillset in tech, in order to best align with the needs of pro-animal companies/non-profits/projects?

I would say that non-profits most often seek developers who can run and secure cloud infrastructure (e.g. manage public sites and internal tools), build data dashboards and automation (to track progress and mobilise supporters), and handle privacy‑sensitive content (such as undercover footage, so familiarity with secure upload portals and basic infosec practices).

I think that if you sharpen those areas and contribute to an open‑source project at Vegan Hacktivists, you’ll automatically have movement‑specific code to show when a role in Berlin/Germany appears. Good luck!

Hi Jenny, thanks for writing in. 

First off, it's useful to gain context. Read through BlueDot's Future of AI course, and this post which points to helpful attitudes towards working in high-impact roles.

Consider demonstrating that you "get stuff done." Say "Yes!" to volunteer opportunities, and take ownership where you can. Read through these incredible pieces of advice that my colleague Laura put together.

Build networks from where to learn and find opportunities, and your own personal portfolio to make your skills legible. Both of these are also ways to get feedback on your own thinking/output, so invite/encourage folks to do so.

Apply to things! Yes, things are competitive, and usually one should expect that the most likely outcome is that you don't get a role, but it still makes sense to engage with application processes, for a number of reasons, e.g. (i) they can be cheap and deliver a huge return if you get any feedback at all; (ii) they can force you learn about orgs and their work, building context; (iii) they can potentially build network and get you on someone's radar for future opportunities, (iv) interviewing is a skill like any other, and requires practice.

As you make progress with the above actions, you'll get a better sense of what it is that you're excited to do, and where you'd be a good fit.

If you'd like to explore more strategies and options, read our career guide, or consider applying for advising! 

Hi Paolo,

Thanks for the question! There are plenty of places to look at (potential) impactful projects, e.g.:

• AI safety map
• Biosecurity map
• GiveWell top charities
• Grantees of Open Phil, SFF, LTFF

...and so on. Of course, do your homework/due diligence, but these are probably already vetted by various sources who are skilled at evaluating the (potential) impact of a project.

Hi Adam, so exciting that you want to use your skills for doing good. I'd go even further and say that "doing good" is its own goal to shoot for, and I want more folks thinking about "What are the best opportunities to do the most good?" first, and only then filtering by some subset of their relevant skills that might make them a good fit. 

This is described more in Part 4 our career guide, where we outline a framework -- Scale, Tractability, Neglectedness -- to identify global issues with some of the highest opportunities for positive impact. We've applied such an analysis in our work for many years, and have in-depth articles on what we believe to be some of the world's most pressing problems. 

We also host a job board to aggregate opportunities aimed at helping with these. If you're looking for more "goal-directed" next steps, perhaps scanning through those jobs can give you a sense of what the world needs right now, and how you can help. All the best!

@Sudhanshu Kasewa has enlisted me for this one!

I think earning to give is a really strong option and indeed the best option for many people.

Lack of supply is definitely an issue, though it can be helped by looking for impactful opportunities outside of "EA orgs" per se -- I don't know if this is your scenario, but this is often a problem. Knowing nothing about a person's situation and location, I'd prompt:

• Can you look for roles in government in order to work on impactful policy?
• Are there start-ups or other learning opportunities you could apply to in order to develop career capital?
• Is there a niche in the world you're suited to fill? Could you find a co-founder and start filling it?I say a bit more here.

Hi Cécile, thanks for the question!

A couple of quick plugs:

• Effective Thesis is set up to try to help people answer exactly that question
• This article from Horizon Institute has good ideas on how to test your fit for policy roles, which I think is a big factor in whether something like the World Bank would be an impactful route for you (the article's mainly about US government institutions, but a lot still applies)

Hi Joseph,

Thank you for explaining your situation. It sounds you could have an impact on the AI Safety space given your background and motivation. At Successif we support mid- and senior-career professionals to navigate such transitions. I encourage you to have a look at our website and see if this could be interesting for you. You can directly apply through the website.

Also we just released forum post, which gives more insights into common challenges faced by our advisees. Maybe you find some of your challenges reflected in there.

All the best,
Simon (Career Advisor @ Successif)

Hi bgotyal, thanks for engaging! I don't know how which EA orgs that do research you've already come across, so listing a few here in case there are any you weren't aware of:

1. Rethink Priorities - gets commissioned to answer questions like some of those on the list you linked

2. Open Philanthropy - does research for its own cause prioritization and funding decisions. Has an internship each year (the next one will be 2026, this was the last one) for people interested in doing this kind of research

3. Forethought - focused on impacts of AGI

4. The AIM research programme is closing, but will be replaced with a fellowship

5. Happier Lives Institute looks into some of the problems it seems you're interested in

6. Effective Thesis can help you decide on an area of research that would have impact

Research-adjacent areas you may want to consider too

1. Policy roles
2. Think tanks like CLTR or CLTR, GOV AI, RAND etc etc
3. Journalism
4. Research communication, or public intellectual type work

On location and impact

I would expect being in a research hub like Oxford would be valuable, everything else equal, but I suspect what is most needed is mentorship for early career researchers. Generally speaking, I would suggest getting as much feedback on your research as possible, ideally from someone who is already established in the field you want to be in, but you could try sharing things on this forum if not.

Testing your fit

I'd also recommend testing your fit for research before embarking on a PhD, due to the heavy time and financial commitment, and the competitiveness of academic careers. It sounds like you're pretty set on the academic path, but it's worth spending time really testing that before investing too heavily.

Thanks for your question! Your background in math, software development, and strategic thinking - as well as familiarity with history and politics - may actually be quite relevant for AI governance strategy work, especially in technical policy roles that bridge the gap between research and implementation.

Without knowing specifics of your career profile (e.g. years of experience, location, etc), some very general direct roles for reducing AI risk:

• AI Policy Research: at think tanks, developing concrete policy proposals
• Government roles: Congressional staff or agency positions working on AI strategy
• Industry governance: Policy roles at AI companies working on safety standards and internal governance

Indirect but valuable:

• Technical communication: Translating AI research for policymakers (your flash writing background helps)
• Strategy consulting: Helping organizations develop AI risk mitigation approaches

Resources to explore:

• 80,000 Hours AI Governance and Policy guide (80,000 Hours) - comprehensive overview of the field
• Emerging Tech Policy Careers website (Horizon Institute for Public Policy) - specific pathways and opportunities
• AI Governance Subfields guide (Damen Curtis)- overview of different specializations within the field

Next steps:

• Are there insights/strategies from our recently published article that you see worth adopting into action?
• Also, would you consider attending upcoming events to learn more about roles/people/orgs in the space, such as Zurich AI Safety Day and EA conferences/summits?
• Finally, apart from reading available resources, consider applying to Successif's services for tailored career advising/coaching. 

All the best,

Moneer (Career Advisor at Successif) 

You might want to look into "AI for Epistemics", which I think overlaps substantially with (or possibly complements) your concerns and approach. Some resources:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/jPKoNFRowKJwGgGyy/what-s-important-in-ai-for-epistemics

https://80000hours.org/2024/05/project-idea-ai-for-epistemics/

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Gi8NP9CMwJMMSCWvc/ai-for-epistemics-hackathon (completed)

https://www.flf.org/fellowship (closed)

I think your arguments are directionally correct, but without more description, it's hard to say whether I support specific conclusions or interventions. Also, unfortunately, I don't think the buck stops at within-country governance, but there is urgent work required on international AI governance as well.

As a journalist, look into the Tarbell fellowship, or consider whether being an independent writer/thinker/commentator (e.g. Shakeel's Transformer, Nathan's Cognitive Revolution Podcast) is a path you'd be excited to traverse; there is so much room/demand for high-quality AI-risk-aware content, and so few players.

There are all kinds of other paths to pursue, e.g. in think tanks, civil service, politics, etc. that can help reduce AI risks, should you want to explore. Consider applying for 80k advising! 

Hi,

thank you for providing details about your situation and the questions asked.

Especially at the beginning of your career journey it can be valuable to build career capital towards high-impact AI Safety roles. You might also want to look at training programs / fellowships that you can find here, and apply to those that fit your background.

I will provide you with some more resources that could be insightful in terms of how to transition into the AIS Research space:

• ML Safety Research Advice - GabeM
• Levelling Up in AI Safety Research Engineering
• How to pursue a career in technical AI alignment (Charlie Rogers-Smith)
• AGI safety career advice (Richard Ngo)
• Tips for Empirical Alignment Research (Ethan Perez)
• 2025 Engineering Reading List (Latent Space)
• AI Safety Research Gaps (2025)

Some questions for you:

1. Do you already have more concrete ideas where your skills and motivation could have an impact on the AI Safety (research) space?
2. How technical (e.g. coding) vs. high-level (e.g. technical project management) do you want to be?
3. What did you most enjoy during your studies or past jobs? How could those underlying skills be translated into impactful work?

Hope this is a good starting point.

All the best,
Simon (Career Advisor @ Successif)

Hi alphaplus, thank you for the questions. I'm glad to hear your health is improving.

I want to start by saying: your (written) English seems fine! Even if you're concerned about your speaking skills, you can always lean in to your written ability to connect, exchange ideas, and grow.

Without knowing more, it's hard to give very tailored advice, so here are some messages I think more folks should take seriously:

1. AI could be a big deal, soon. It could create huge dangers.
   1. In light of this, lots of stuff needs doing, e.g. technical research, governance, cybersecurity, international cooperation.
      1. even if the most egregious risks of AI don't materialise soon (or at all), I'll claim (albeit without justification) that having an understanding of how these technologies are transforming the world puts one is a good place to help out in many future scenarios.

As a result, I advocate more people develop 'situational awareness', and make their plans keeping (the possibility of) rapid AI progress in mind.

To your main question of "What would you do if you were in my position?", there are several ways to progress. One procedure is articulated here:

1. Make some best guesses (hypotheses) about which options seem best.
2. Identify your key uncertainties about those hypotheses.
3. Go and investigate those uncertainties.

The key point is to try things, get feedback, and update your beliefs, and try again. Once you have more clarity, you'll be able to aim for and commit to specific paths.

Finally, there are no real barriers to entry to engaging with Effective Altruism! If you think you'll find value in connecting with folks in the community, you absolutely should. In addition to this Forum, there are plenty of other spaces, e.g. EAG(x) events you can attend, or slack channels you can join.

Hi Gabrielle, thanks for the question!

With the obvious caveat that some of this will depend on the specifics of your workplace and career plan (which we'd be happy to chat through in an advising call), hopefully the following general pointers are useful.

On the 'how to move into higher impact roles', we have a bunch of resources in our article on how to get a job. The fact of you being in a job already doesn't change this too much, but probably allows you to be more patient and deliberate in your search, and might give you more leverage in negotiating on things like salary.

If you're not actually sure on whether you should quit your job yet - and I'd generally advise anyone to take that decision seriously - then this article from 80k has some great advice. But assuming you know you're going to leave, I'd expect it's better to stay in your role until you've found your next thing, for the financial security and other reasons above. If you're able to be open with your manager about the things you're not getting in your current role, there's a chance they'll be able to shape things to better suit you, even if that's only a short term improvement till you move on. There might also be opportunities within your current organisation to learn new skills, make new connections, or pick up qualifications that could be useful in future. Finally, the old advice of not burning bridges is worth bearing in mind. Even if you think you'll never want to work at that organisation or with that person again, references can be really important.

There are times when it just makes sense to move on, even if you don't know what you're doing next. It can give more time for contemplation, learning, or just recharging your batteries. But that's something probably worth discussing specifically in an advising call :)

Thanks again, and all the best with your move!

To add on, a lot of engineers we recruited for our EA group just wanted an internship and resume points, and they bounced away. What kind of value could EA provide to those kind of people? Or are EA-adjacent careers just not a good fit to engineers (other than earning-to-give). 

Consider applying for the Impact Accelerator Program at High Impact Processionals - this is an excellent course to help you figure out an impactful career path.  I did the course last year and it directly helped me to find a role in an EA-aligned organization

Hi James! Thanks for the question.

A great option if you're thinking of starting your own non-profit is the Charity Entrepreneurship incubation programme, which will open to applications on 3 August. If you're not yet set on a particular idea, they can help you work through that, along with pairing you with a co-founder, and providing various kinds of support. Having a look through their charities will give you a sense of the kinds of ideas people have pursued; not all are in LMICs, and many of the founders didn't have experience in international development before starting.

Finding the ideal volunteer opportunity can be tricky, but my guess is that even if the work isn't exactly what you want to be doing in the long term, you'll likely learn useful things about what makes an organisation successful, what things you like and dislike about organisational culture, and some basic tools and techniques you can take into future work. That said, you might actually be better trying to start a small, low-cost project yourself in the areas you mention above, or even a for-profit enterprise to help you build and demonstrate your skills so that you could start your own non-profit later.

In terms of finding small EA orgs, you can check out the orgs on the Probably Good jobs board. We don't (yet) have a way to rank them by size, but clicking through and learning a bit about each organisation is probably useful in building your knowledge anyway.

Could you say more about why you want to start a nonprofit? The way you describe your situation, you might consider earning to give.

Hi Marc, thanks for the question.

Lots has been said about the value of PhDs:

1. Lewis Hammond gives advice here about doing PhDs
2. Rohin Shah talks a little about PhDs here in relation to AI safety work
3. Adam Gleave makes a positive case here for AI safety

[Caveat: having dropped out of a PhD myself, I might be biased against doing one.] I think our piece on doing PhDs mostly holds up, but I'd make a few updates away from doing one:

1. AI things might happen soon, and in many worlds it would be better to do good soon rather than build a lot of skill first. (This obviously doesn't apply if you are able to do good via your PhD as well.)
2. For many of us, we're likely to really succeed at a PhD only if we are obsessed about it: an An advisee once said to me "Only do a PhD, if it's something that you would do for free, in your free time, after work, on nights and weekends."
   1. A softer version of this: I think many of us are not calibrated about what attitudes and behaviours help to do a PhD -- I certainly wasn't! Before committing, try to come to grips with what you're signing up for.
3. Finally, I subscribe to a PhD not being an end-in-itself, and instead a way to get some role/job/opportunity, which otherwise might be very unlikely without it. In impact-focussed spaces, I don't think there are that many opportunities gate-kept by a PhD credential: academia/professorship, the "research scientist" title (but not necessarily the work), and maybe some policy positions. Orgs and managers who care about impact, care more about "can do you the work?" rather than "do you have the credential?"; could you get the legible skills to "do the work" in a paid job with better hours in fewer years, or do you have to do a PhD instead?

Hope this helps! All the best.

Hi, thanks for the question!

I'm not sure anyone is confident what "optimal policy" is! Waiting to develop your own views on optimal policy can take some time; in the meanwhile you could check out what some researchers and think tanks have to say, e.g.:

1. CLTR's policy proposals
2. CAIS's policy proposals
3. ARI's recommendations

Some longer reads:

1. International AI safety report
2. MIRI's AI governance research agenda
3. OpenPhil's AI Governance RFP might have some pointers to some reasonable ideas 

Finally, for U.S. citizens, Emerging Tech Policy Careers is great! Check out their AI policy resources.

In general, applying is a great way to get feedback and get calibrated on what you bring to table and what you need to work on, as mentioned elsewhere in these comments, so, yes, I think, you should be biased towards applying to things. There are some nuances to this, including being aware of when a rejection is likely to result in a 'cooling off period' where you may not be able to reapply for 6-12 months.

Hi Libby! I'm glad you're applying broadly to a range of roles. I think consulting can provide a solid foundation for generalist skills, but if you're able to find work for a directly impactful organization that aligns with your values, I'd encourage you to consider that. Sometimes these organizations can provide valuable networks, growth opportunities, and context for the pressing problems you care about. In addition, many impactful causes allow you to work on personal projects in your evenings/weekends to upskill if ops isn't your goal forever (BlueDot courses, personal writing projects, putting work on a GitHub, etc.) Depending on where you work, consulting sometimes provides less work life balance to continue this kind of learning.

Without knowing your specific cause area interests and longer term goals, it's hard to say more. But I'd encourage you to check out Consultants for Impact's resources on the pros and cons of a consulting career, as well as 80,000 Hours' many guides (high impact ops, top problems, etc.)

Hi Josh. I'm not a careers advisor but I'm working on some space governance projects.

I would recommend checking out the sections on space governance in this recent report from William MacAskill and Fin Moorhouse to get an idea of what some effective altruists are currently thinking about in relation to space governance: https://www.forethought.org/research/preparing-for-the-intelligence-explosion

I'd also really recommend getting involved with the Space Generation Advisory Council if you'd like to work on challenges in space tech and governance. They have lots of project groups you can get involved in on many different topics like space law and policy and space safety and sustainability. 

I'm happy to have a chat about space governance and effective altruism if you want to book a chat: https://savvycal.com/AstroJordanStone/2cb3cbdb

Sounds really cool! I'd recommend the space governance career profile and checking out what the Center for Space Governance is working on. If technical governance is exciting to you, you might consider ways you can test your fit for various policy skills and decide which part of that ecosystem you think you'd best fit in with. As a student I'd encourage you to keep building career capital and getting 'so good they can't ignore you,' even if it means your first job out of college is more about skill building than direct impact right away.

Hi Edy,

I'm afraid I don't have any special insight into "how likely..." such funding is, but since the application isn't very costly (between 1 and 4 hours), it probably makes sense to apply anyway? And it's quite reasonable that you can reuse a bunch of stuff across applications too, so this investment at your end goes down.

Exciting that you've been doing so many things! I think it helps your chances if there is legible evidence of how your skills and thinking have evolved over the course of this year. I think it's also useful for grantmakers to know what you're aiming at: Which research agendas, what theories of change do you think are worth working on, and why?  Do your career transition plans align with those?

Finally, I think you should also considering applying to jobs! You've done quite a bit of stuff, and you might already be a good fit for some roles, so you should apply to things to get calibrated on whether you even need the funding.

Hi Clare! I think this varies a lot by industry. For one example, here is a guide to policy/government resumes with some tips and examples. In general I think tailoring your resume to the specific posting and emphasizing the relevant skills can be useful, just be sure to accurately represent your experience. Paying close attention to the job posting can also help you try to get in the mindset of a hiring manager. But it can be hard to know specific answers from the outside. I think this is why networking among colleagues, peers, hiring managers in your industry, etc for informal advice and conversations can help model others' expectations. For example I could see you discussing this at an EAG or EAGx conference.