This is an anonymous account (Ávila is not a real person). I am posting on this account to avoid potentially negative effects on my future job prospects.
SUMMARY:
- I've been rejected from 18 jobs or internships, 12 of which are "in EA."
- I briefly spell out my background information and show all my rejections.
- Then, I list some recommendations to EA orgs on how they can (hopefully) improve the hiring process.
This post probably falls under the category of "it's hard, even for high-achievers, to get an EA job." But there's still the (probably bigger) problem of what there is for "mediocre" EAs to do in a movement that prizes extremely high-achieving individuals.
If this post improves hiring a little bit at a few EA orgs, I will be a happy person.
EDIT: I want to make *very clear* that I take full responsibility for how my job search is going. Putting my experience and "recommendations to EA orgs" in the same post could be seen as me thinking that bad hiring practices are to blame. This is not at all the case. I hope this was clear before I added this paragraph in!
EDIT 2 (June 2024): Since writing this, I received ~9 more rejections and 3 acceptances (!). I'm very happy with the 3 opportunities. Thank you all for your encouragement -- and hopefully others in a similar position found this post or the replies helpful.
BACKGROUND
Entry-level EA jobs and internships have been getting very competitive. It is common for current applicants to hear things like "out of 600, we can only take 20" (CHAI), or "only 3% of applicants made it this far" (IAPS) or "It's so competitive it's probably not even worth applying" (GovAI representative). So far, I haven't been accepted to any early-career AI safety opportunities, and I've mostly been rejected in the first round.
ABOUT ME
I'll keep this section somewhat vague to protect my anonymity. I'm mostly applying to AI safety-related jobs and internships.
[EDIT: deleted this section after realizing it may have made me too identifiable.]
JOBS/INTERNSHIPS/FUNDING I'VE APPLIED TO
Rejections
Horizon Junior Fellowship - Rejected on round 3/4
GovAI summer fellowship - Rejected first round
ERA<>Krueger Lab - Rejected first round
fp21 internship - Never heard back
BERI (full-time job) - Rejected first round
MIT FutureTech (part-time) - Job filled before interview
PIBBSS Fellowship - Rejected first round
Berkeley Risk and Security Lab - Never heard back
CLR Fellowship - Rejected first round
ERA Fellowship - Rejected first round
CHAI Internship - Rejected first round
UChicago XLab - Rejected first round
EA LTFF research grant - Rejected
Open Phil research grant - Rejected
Acceptances
None yet!
Note: I've also applied to jobs that align with my principles but are not at EA orgs. I'm also still applying to jobs, so this is not (yet) a pity party.
MY EXPECTATIONS
Although I expected these to be quite competitive, I was surprised to be eliminated during the first round for so many of them. That's because most of these are specifically meant for early-career people and I'd say I have a great resume/credentials/demonstrated skills for an early career person.
RECOMMENDATIONS TO EA ORGS
As someone who's spent a lot of time doing EA org applications, below are some tentative thoughts on how to (probably) improve them. Please let me know what you think in the comments.
Again, I do not mean to imply at all that my failures were caused by bad hiring practices. These are just thoughts that came to mind after applying to many similar programs.
- Increase the required time-commitment as the application progresses.
By this I mean, start out with shorter applications and then increase the time commitment in successive application stages. If you plan to only progress 10% of applicants to the second round, wasting 90% of applicants' times on an hours-long questionnaire or work test seems like a bad policy.
- Start admissions earlier.
For whatever reason, many of these programs don't expect to finish admissions until May. At least in the US, many colleges end the academic year in May. This makes the search very stressful, hard to get done early. And also, given that these programs are so competitive, it would be good to know if one will get in early so that one can apply to more non-EA jobs otherwise. The lack of financial security and knowing where one will end up (and finding housing on very short notice) can be awful.
- Be clear on what you are looking for.
Sometimes EA Orgs will say something like “we have no degree requirements” or "when in doubt apply" but in reality will mostly hire people with PhDs. I appreciate your open-mindedness regarding degree and experience requirements, but saying something like "we expect most successful applicants to have X" or "we may consider Y in exceptional circumstances" helps applicants assess whether the opportunity is worth spending time on.
- Relatedly, show statistics for past application rounds.
A few orgs published some useful statistics on their past cohorts. I found this very helpful. E.g., "historically, around 50% of our cohort were PhD students, 20% X, ..."
- Adopt evidence-based hiring practices
This is already done by many (great!). I personally am no authority on the matter, so please add a comment below if you know more about this. I would presume that blind scoring and having >1 person score each anonymous application reduces bias and noise.
- Have paid work tests.
This is often already done, and greatly appreciated. This may allow many people to afford applying.
- Have clear citizenship requirements.
This goes for EA orgs based anywhere. Don't just ask people where they are or are not legally allowed to work and then move on with the application. TELL applicants what you need. Is X citizenship required? Can you hire people with no citizenship but permanent residence / work permits? Can you hire people with temporary work permits (e.g., OPT, STEM OPT in the US)? Can you sponsor work visas? Do you allow remote work for people not allowed to work in your country?
- Send rejection emails, don’t just not respond to an application.
Great, most already do this!
- Increase information sharing transparency.
Most EA orgs have a box you can check at the end of an application that says something like “would you like us to share your information with similar orgs that may be looking for talent?”
This sounds like a great idea, but I would like to know more details. What may you share? For example, I would say "yes" to my resume, but "no" to the results of my work tests or your evaluations. That's because I don't want one failure or mistake to cascade to every application. I would also say "yes" to sharing for up to a year, but "no" beyond that (because my experience and skills may change a lot in a year). Just one sentence to increase transparency would be great.
- (When possible) allow opt-in for short feedback on the application.
This may be the hardest one to bring about (it's time-consuming and very out-there), so I'm very uncertain about it. I think I would have personally benefitted a lot from feedback on my applications. Why was I rejected? Was it something I could change?
Especially at later stages of the application process (when there are fewer applicants), I would love to be able to opt-in to something like ~1 sentence about the biggest reason I was rejected. Even if it's hurtful.
DISCUSSION I'D LIKE TO SEE IN THE COMMENTS
> Are you also going through something similar? Feel free to share your experience.
> Do you have recommendations of your own? Please add them.
> Are you someone in charge of hiring at an EA org? I'd love to hear general advice on what you see most applicants getting wrong, or how most could improve. I'd also love to see some discussion on why some of these recommendations may be infeasible.
Final note: I decided to write this while still waiting for other applications to get back to me. That's because I thought that if I got a job I might lose the motivation to write this, and it seemed valuable. Just to be extra careful on the anonymity front, if I get one of these jobs, I will not mention it here.
Exactly