Expression of interest for a research assistant at 80,000 Hours

By 80000_Hours @ 2022-03-03T14:31 (+10)

This is a cross-post from https://80000hours.org/2022/02/expression-of-interest-research-assistant/ 

 

80,000 Hours is considering hiring a research assistant.

Note: This announcement is an expression of interest, rather than a formal hiring round. We’re not sure what the field of candidates is like, and want to get a sense of that before deciding whether to do a hiring round.

Because of this, we have a high bar for considering enquiries, and typically won’t be able to respond to everyone who reaches out.

If you don’t hear back from us, please don’t take it as a rejection! You should feel very welcome to respond to future ads for 80,000 Hours positions (which we’ll list here and on our job board).

Why 80,000 Hours?

80,000 Hours’ mission is to get talented people working on the world’s most pressing problems. The effective altruism community, of which we are a part, is growing in reach and now includes funding bodies with over $40 billion to allocate in total. But how do we turn all those resources into long-term impact? This is the problem 80,000 Hours is trying to solve.

We’ve had over eight million visitors to our website (with over 100,000 hours of reading time per year), and more than 3,000 people have now told us that they’ve significantly changed their career plans due to our work. 80,000 Hours is also the largest single source of people getting involved in the effective altruism community, according to the most recent EA Survey.

If you join us as a research assistant, you’d help shape some of the most widely read ideas in effective altruism.

The role

As a research assistant at 80,000 Hours, you’d provide research and writing support to our research team (especially our CEO Benjamin Todd), helping them produce pieces that:

If you’re interested, you could also help with research into organisational strategy, such as:

Research support can include gathering and analysing data, conducting literature reviews, or helping organise interviews with experts. Writing support can include editing, formatting, or drafting parts of pieces.

Some of the types of pieces you’d help work on include:

Who we’re looking for

We’d be most excited to hear from people with:

We’re aware that factors like gender, race, and socioeconomic background can affect people’s willingness to apply for roles for which they meet many but not all the suggested attributes. We’d especially like to encourage people from underrepresented backgrounds to apply.

The details

We’re open to this role being either part-time or full-time. If full-time, we expect it to be an in-person role, based in London, though you can work remotely for up to three months of the year if needed. If that won’t work for you, please reach out anyway (and let us know in your email). We can sponsor visas.

The salary will vary based on your skills and experience, but to give a rough sense, the starting full-time salary would be approximately £55,000 per year.

The start date of the role is flexible, but we would expect you to start during 2022 and prefer you to start as soon as you’re able to.

For full-time, in-person staff, our benefits include:

Interested? Get in touch.

If you’re a researcher with a track record and an interest in 80,000 Hours’ mission, please submit the following materials:

SUBMIT MATERIALS

While there’s no hard deadline for getting in touch, we encourage you to submit your materials before the end of March. We’ll reach out to discuss a potential role if we think you’re a particularly great fit.