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rjain 🔹

68 karmaJoined Pursuing an undergraduate degreeWashington, DC, USA
Interests:
BiosecurityGlobal health & developmentGlobal catastrophic biological riskExistential riskBiotechnology

Bio

Participation
2

I study human biology at Stanford with a minor in international relations. I'm excited about biosecurity and pandemic preparedness, global health, and existential risks broadly. I've previously worked on biotech and biosecurity policy, advancing PPE/pandemic defense technologies, and I help run the Stanford Existential Risks Initiative. In my free time, I coach high school debate, compete in the undergraduate bioethics bowl, and write on Substack. Ask me about meta x-risk, the current state of biosecurity policy, or my dog (all subjects I can talk about for far too long). 

Comments
3

We need to be honest with young people about biosecurity careers
rjain 🔹1
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Thanks Jeff! This looks like an awesome role and I hope you find a great candidate- huge fan of the work you guys do.

Out of curiosity, has SecureBio ever considered taking on in-person summer interns? I wouldn't be qualified, but I know some undergrads who might be :) 

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We need to be honest with young people about biosecurity careers
rjain 🔹3
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You make some great points! 

For 4), I agree that the AI safety world has done a really good job field-building, both because of funders in/out of the EA space, and I wonder how much of it truly is transferable to biosecurity/climate/other x-risk fields. Perhaps someone should write a piece on that. 

1 & 6) I don't mean to say that people are intentionally giving bad advice or that it's dishonest on purpose. However, when it comes to asking people for advice, I agree that 5) that it's hard for experienced folks to know exactly how to help young people without a ton of context. Regardless, I don't think there's a consensus on how the average young person should navigate the field. (And interesting idea about the 'career strategist'! I wonder who would be the best audience for this sort of coaching?)

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We need to be honest with young people about biosecurity careers
rjain 🔹4
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Hi Conor, thanks for your comment! Appreciate all the work you do on the 80k job board. 

I will caveat by saying 1) my perspective is based on a job search in the US/Western biosecurity landscape, not a global one and 2) I drew on my own personal experiences and that of my friends' in attempting to find a credible full-time position (e.g. summer internship) in biosecurity. 

During this job search, many of the entry-level and junior opportunities I scouted on biosecurity job boards tended to (and still do) fall into one of two categories: 

  1. Part-time projects/ 'test your fit'/Expression of Interest (EOI) forms; or
  2. Full-time roles that are tagged as open to Junior (1-4 yrs) professionals, but are also open to senior-level candidates, and/or state a PhD or master's degree requirement. 

Obviously, there are some exceptions and I would love to see someone do an analysis of entry-level biosecurity job postings over time. However, I would point out that it is still difficult to find jobs when moving from category #1 to #2, and if you go down the list of entry level positions today, it would be hard to find more than 5-10 positions that a young person without a PhD could be competitive for. I also think EA jobs are often competitive and agree with Peter's comment that this higher competitiveness lends itself to selecting more senior, experienced candidates (even when a junior position is available). I would love to see both more orgs (both established and new) run more summer internship/RA/entry-level positions and advertise them here more.  

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