How long ago did you do this? I’m a cracked engineer / highly reliable generalist with non-zero research taste and I can barely get AI safety jobs or fellowships to even talk to me, regardless of what type of position I apply for. It’s fine if they only want the 1-2 exceptional candidates, but that’s “friends with a PhD in machine learning”, not “smart friends”.
Building a network and creating artefacts seem particularly important. It’s not just about being smart. No idea what you’ve already done but I feel like I see plenty of decent people get in and cracked people not get in, so I don’t think the bar is impossibly high. Higher for technical research than some other parts though
I agree that it’s possible to get in, but it has a lot to do with legible experience and networks, and being smart without those things is mostly a recipe for frustration
Edit: And my point is that a field that needs more applicants doesn’t look like this.
Hey I was thinking back of your comments, and I’d love to see if I can help you ideate for your journey. I’m the founder of an org (Lens Academy) that offfers AI Safety courses and ongoing AI guidance, and as part of that it also helps me to do some coaching by myself. Not super sure I can help but if you want, I’ll give it my best for a 30 minute session. You can book here https://www.temporary-url.com/648BC
Thanks for suggesting this. The call was really helpful, and I feel like there’s a lot of options I just didn’t know about. I got pretty burned out feeling like I was throwing my resume into the void, and now I feel like I have some plausible paths forward (plausible enough that I need to seriously consider just quitting my current job—I haven’t been willing to do this before because it seemed too risky with no clarity on whether it would lead anywhere or if I’d continue throwing my resume into the void).
Thanks! I scheduled something. I suspect my problems are obvious but also lead to circular paths: I need more legible outputs to get past filters to get mentors, but it’s hard to have good legible outputs without mentors; and if I really wanted to ramp up fast I should go all-in and quit my day job, but that’s not a move I’m willing to make when getting in is such a lottery.
People are still hiring now though. METR is hiring for evals execution, and probably more things. Epoch is building out several teams including benchmarking. Labs are hiring. All orgs have many people without a PhD in machine learning. The bar is high but it’s much more about smarts + unpredictable fit things than any formal qualification.
How long ago did you do this? I’m a cracked engineer / highly reliable generalist with non-zero research taste and I can barely get AI safety jobs or fellowships to even talk to me, regardless of what type of position I apply for. It’s fine if they only want the 1-2 exceptional candidates, but that’s “friends with a PhD in machine learning”, not “smart friends”.
Building a network and creating artefacts seem particularly important. It’s not just about being smart. No idea what you’ve already done but I feel like I see plenty of decent people get in and cracked people not get in, so I don’t think the bar is impossibly high. Higher for technical research than some other parts though
I agree that it’s possible to get in, but it has a lot to do with legible experience and networks, and being smart without those things is mostly a recipe for frustration
Edit: And my point is that a field that needs more applicants doesn’t look like this.
Hey I was thinking back of your comments, and I’d love to see if I can help you ideate for your journey. I’m the founder of an org (Lens Academy) that offfers AI Safety courses and ongoing AI guidance, and as part of that it also helps me to do some coaching by myself. Not super sure I can help but if you want, I’ll give it my best for a 30 minute session. You can book here https://www.temporary-url.com/648BC
Thanks for suggesting this. The call was really helpful, and I feel like there’s a lot of options I just didn’t know about. I got pretty burned out feeling like I was throwing my resume into the void, and now I feel like I have some plausible paths forward (plausible enough that I need to seriously consider just quitting my current job—I haven’t been willing to do this before because it seemed too risky with no clarity on whether it would lead anywhere or if I’d continue throwing my resume into the void).
Thanks! I scheduled something. I suspect my problems are obvious but also lead to circular paths: I need more legible outputs to get past filters to get mentors, but it’s hard to have good legible outputs without mentors; and if I really wanted to ramp up fast I should go all-in and quit my day job, but that’s not a move I’m willing to make when getting in is such a lottery.
December 2024, so 1.6 years ago.
People are still hiring now though. METR is hiring for evals execution, and probably more things. Epoch is building out several teams including benchmarking. Labs are hiring. All orgs have many people without a PhD in machine learning. The bar is high but it’s much more about smarts + unpredictable fit things than any formal qualification.