We're looking for stories of EA career decisions

By Benjamin_Todd @ 2014-09-30T18:20 (+5)

If you’ve made a career decision recently, or are still thinking about one, we’d like to feature your story on the 80,000 Hours blog. Here’s some examples: Peter, Jess, Alexei.

If you’re interested, please email ben@80000hours.org.

Why are we looking?

• We find these case studies really useful in our research - they help us to identify the key considerations, most common sticking points and most promising solutions.
• Our readers find them useful. The three examples above were very popular. Concrete examples help to communicate our approach and bring it to life.
• Writing up your career decision helps you make better choices. First, writing out your reasoning forces you to think deeply about the decision. Second, putting your ideas out there helps you to get feedback and support. Jess and Peter found it really useful to write about their career decisions.

What are we looking for?

• A written-out study of a specific decision e.g. “what should I study at university?”, “which of these three jobs should I take?”, “what’s the next step I should take if I want to start a startup?”. The decision can either be in the past, or still in progress.
• Your long-term potential to make a difference is one of the main priorities in the decision.

Otherwise, there’s no restrictions!

A template

• Feel free to use whatever structure you like in writing up. Here’s some suggested subheadings as a starting point.
• What’s the decision you’re making to make?
• What are your priorities in making this decision? (e.g. career capital, earnings, learning more about your long-term options).
• What’s your current situation and background?
• What options are you considering? What are the pros and cons of each?
• What did you decide, and why? / How do you plan to make this decision?
• (If in the past) Are you satisfied with the decision? What have you learned from the process?

Next steps

If you’re interested, send a rough draft to ben@80000hours.org.