This was so amazing to read - thank you for sharing. Sometimes it honestly feels a bit like gaslighting to be told to “pursue a high-impact career,” when in reality the applicant pool is massive and competition is intense. I subscribe to several newsletters and jobs boards, and then see the same roles and fellowships posted across Slack channels and LinkedIn, which means hundreds if not thousands of people are looking at the same opportunities.

Like many others, I often get the generic “too many applicants to provide individual feedback” email, which makes it hard to know where I stand or how to improve. It would be so valuable to have something more personal that helps place you and gives direction - especially since many of us are working full time and trying to transition careers. Treating job applications like full-time work just isn’t realistic for everyone.

The next step is usually applying for career mentoring or consults, but even there, it’s common to get rejected multiple times before getting a breakthrough. So even the pathway into high-impact jobs can feel like rejection after rejection.

Thanks so much for your thoughtful reply, Moneer. I really appreciate the detail you shared, it made me realize I’d been approaching this in a pretty naive way. I’ve started logging my own actions now, and it’s already helping me see that I’ll need to apply to many more programs and opportunities than I initially thought. I’m grateful for the time you took to break things down, and I’ll be using your experience as a guide while I continue to track my own journey.

I’m on a very similar journey (though I only began it this year) balancing a full-time job while trying to carve out a high-impact path in AI governance.

One of the biggest roadblocks I’ve encountered is that you need high-impact experience on your CV in order to land your first high-impact job. That Catch-22 is real.

The line that resonated most deeply with me in your post was:

“In reality, I took more than 170 actions (I kept a log)” - that is so daunting.

I'm curious if after taking all those steps, did you discover a more direct pathway from a non-high-impact role into something specifically in AI safety/governance? I'm trying to find a similarly streamlined route into AI governance, if one exists.

Thanks!