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.
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.
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.