EA Opportunities: A new and improved collection of internships, contests, events, and more.

By michel @ 2022-07-22T04:09 (+83)

Summary

• I’ve published EA Opportunities, an improved rebrand of eainternships.com. I hope it becomes the go-to board where people beginning to seriously engage with EA can find out what they can do within the effective altruism community
• You can sign up for a bi-weekly newsletter here and express interest in a Slack integration here.
• Submitting opportunities is a great way to make sure we don’t miss anything, or that more people can see the opportunity earlier. We’re especially keen for people to submit small opportunities only they and a small circle of others might know about.
• Separately, I created a new database of organizations and initiatives either in EA or working on reducing x-risk.

A revamped collection of opportunities

EA Opportunities hosts an opportunity board and organization board. This post provides an update on the revamped opportunity board, while this related post describes the (EA) Organization database.^[1]

The EA Opportunity board is an improvement built upon what used to be called the EA Internship board. The layout is roughly the same, but the opportunity board features a few noticeable improvements:

• The focus of this board has broadened from internships to include volunteer opportunities, bootcamps, conferences, contests, and most other opportunities someone becoming more engaged with the EA community might be curious about.
  • Important note: This board does not feature full-time opportunities. The 80K Job Board has this covered. 
• The target audience has changed from just undergraduates to people generally beginning to seriously engage with EA.
• Board maintenance has improved. I have hired on a virtual assistant to spearhead opportunity entry and general maintenance.^[2]
  • The virtual assistant, who is responsible for most data entry, doesn’t have a full understanding of EAs interpretation of aptitudes and cause areas and I occasionally approve opportunities too quickly to catch these. If you look hard enough, you will find mistakes on this board.]
• New filters: You can now sort opportunities by which aptitudes they will allow you to develop or test your fit for
• Newsletter and Slack automation to stay looped in: I’ve created a bi-weekly newsletter that will feature a subset of cool opportunities (sign up for Newsletter here) and a Slack automation that posts new approved opportunities to any slack channel (request Slack automation here).

Below, I answer some central questions about this board.

What opportunities are featured on this board?

We regularly monitor and collect a wide range of opportunities, including internships, volunteer opportunities, conferences, and more. We want to be the go-to board for people interested in exploring what they can do within the effective altruism community short of a full-time position. Most of the opportunities featured are within EA organizations and initiatives, but we also feature entry-level opportunities from other organizations working on the most pressing problems.

How is this different from 80,000 Hours job board?

This opportunity board features opportunities that require less time or experience, while the 80,000 Hours Job Board focuses primarily on full-time positions, which we don't include. Our hope is that the opportunity board is more accessible to individuals new to the EA community. There is some overlap between the two boards though: like the 80,000 Hours Job board, we feature entry-level internships at EA organizations and other organizations working on the most pressing problems. 

What are some other EA opportunity collections?

We are certainly not the only source for EA opportunities (although we think we’ll be one of the best sources). Other opportunity collections include

• Effective Thesis Early-Career Researcher Newsletter: well maintained, but more optimized for research opportunities than our board
• Training for Good board: not comprehensive and more focused on up-skilling opportunities.
• 80,000 Hours Job Board: this should be your go-to place for full-time positions.
• EA Job Postings Facebook: Higher friction way of looking for opportunities and likely not comprehensive
• Animal Advocacy Job Board: specific to animal welfare
• “Who’s Hiring” EA Forum thread: Experimental EA forum job posting thread
• Tom Wein List of Job Boards: Metaaa (and not EA-specific)

How can I help improve this board?

You can help by submitting new opportunities, submitting new organizations or initiatives, and giving us feedback.

We would especially appreciate it if you submitted niche opportunities that would be easy to miss (e.g., Buck’s call for language model investigators, Rethink Priorities Nuclear research projects)

Acknowledgments

EA Internships was started by Emma Williamson and Sabrina Chwalek with minor support from me (Michel) and other collaborators. I have since taken revamped it into EA Opportunities, but without Emma and Sabrina this board likely wouldn’t exist. I’d also like to thank Jessy Williams for her continued help entering opportunities.

1. ^{^}

   I am separating this into two forum posts because the two boards have different target audiences and use cases. For example, the organization database might be used by grant-makers to let applicants know about organizations in their area of interest, and I want grant-makers to be able to post about the organization database without it being cluttered by information about the opportunity board.

2. ^{^}

    Two comments on the virtual assistant: (1) I have found hiring a virtual assistant very valuable and relatively painless. I think more EAs/ EA orgs should consider onboarding virtual assistants – see advice here. (2) You will find mistakes in the way some opportunities are tagged, especially in the early days of this revamped board.