It often seems like software engineering is the most over-represented career in the community. On this ground, at 80,000 Hours we've discouraged more people from going into the area, in order to increase the diversity of skills in the community.
However, recently the following organisations have been trying to hire EA-aligned software engineers:
- Wave
- New Incentives (given a seed grant by GiveWell)
- GiveDirectly
- 80,000 Hours
- CEA
And I don't think any of these groups have found it particularly easy.
Might this mean we're actually short of software engineers after all? It's a bit hard to tell at this point, but if these positions continue to be unfilled, then it'll look that way.
If we are short of engineers, what's the explanation? Some ideas:
- Lots of people in the community have entered the path, but few have become skilled enough to take these positions. In our hiring, it seemed like the choice was between an experienced non-EA or an EA with under a year of experience.
- A large fraction of the community are in the path, but the skill is so useful that we're still short of it.
- Lots of people are in the path, but they prefer to earn to give, either because they believe it's higher impact, or switching to direct work would involve too much sacrifice.
Are you an engineer with over 2yr experience who's involved in effective altruism, and interested in switching to direct work? Get in touch with these organisations.
For those who don't know, I work as a data scientist / software engineer, have more than two years experience, identify as an EA, and donate a considerable portion of my income (right now living on ~$40K and donating ~$50K).
This post resonates with me because I often get annoyed that my earning to give job has little to none direct social impact and takes a lot of time away from my volunteering that I would otherwise like to do. However, when considering these direct work jobs, I usually end up not applying for some of the following reasons, in order from most feared to least feared:
(a) For personal reasons, I need to work in Chicago right now, but none of the other organizations are in Chicago. I would definitely consider remote work, but that sounds like it would make me really lonely as I have few friends outside of work and my girlfriend is long distance. My thought is that someone else who can live in the Bay would be a better fit.
(b) I'm concerned the jobs won't be technically challenging enough. My perception is that these jobs often involve maintaining WordPress sites or chaining Google Sheets together and don't involve making great technology. This motivation of mine exists alongside my EA motivations and is what keeps me interested in my for-profit job, but I'm afraid I'd lose it in a direct work job and I wouldn't be fulfilled from EA drive alone. My thought is that someone else who is less experienced or not motivated by technical challenge would be a better fit. I'd definitely be interested in any EA org that had a strong need for data science though, whether it be in generating predictions, creating product recommendations, classifying objects, etc.
(c) I'm concerned I don't have the relevant skills. These jobs seem very front-end focused or focused on making mobile apps, and my experience is in data science and back-end engineering. I'm not good at designing apps and would think that someone else more skilled at front-end design would be a better fit.
(d) I'm concerned these jobs don't offer sufficient salary. While I definitely identify with EA and want to donate a lot of money, I'm not super into sacrifice and would like to do things that, in Chicago, require $40K or more. I'd also like to save to eventually raise a family, buy a house, send kids to college, etc. My thought is that someone who can take a lower salary would be a better fit.
(e) I think that doing for-profit work will build better career capital that could launch an even more impactful career in the future, perhaps in tech entrepreneurship.
I don't know if (a)-(e) are actually true, but they're fears that keep me from exploring much further. I also think (a)-(e) is also based in the thought that there are many other EA software engineers who could easily be a better fit because of these limitations, but maybe that's not true? I didn't know any EA org other than 80K was struggling to hire software engineers, so that definitely updates me in that direction.
Additional reason that applies to me and probably other EA engineers: Earning to Give lets your impact be more liquid and therefore better directed.
E2G lets you donate money to whichever organization in whichever cause area you think is best. Signing on to work at CEA means you think (impact at CEA) + (donating ?5-15k to Best Charity) is better than (donating 30-60k to Best Charity).
If you think CEA (or New Incentives, or Wave or whatever) is The Most Optimal Charity, easy decision. But it's not clear why the math would work out if you think X-risk, anima... (read more)