Before I started at METR I dropped out of Caltech and had written two random interp papers
Not to belabor your specific case—I agree directionally that there’s no intense gatekeeping or connections needed—but you worked at Jane Street and MIRI and then did MATS before joining METR right . . . OP’s claim isn’t that specific time-consuming credentials are needed but that even “smarts + unpredictable fit” things are hard to signal in an application from outside (without PhDs or work experience).
Fair enough. OP sounded like they were talking about domain specific experience though, rather than credentials. And I think my past experience transferred poorly.
I only interned at Jane Street but that does have a lot of signaling value.
Not to belabor your specific case—I agree directionally that there’s no intense gatekeeping or connections needed—but you worked at Jane Street and MIRI and then did MATS before joining METR right . . . OP’s claim isn’t that specific time-consuming credentials are needed but that even “smarts + unpredictable fit” things are hard to signal in an application from outside (without PhDs or work experience).
Fair enough. OP sounded like they were talking about domain specific experience though, rather than credentials. And I think my past experience transferred poorly.
I only interned at Jane Street but that does have a lot of signaling value.