Expression of Interest: Advisor
Summary
80,000 Hours’ advising team is interested in hearing from people with a range of expertise in our top problems to mentor the next generation of impactful talent.
Location: London, UK or San Francisco Bay Area (preferred). We’re open to remote candidates, especially those located close to networks of expertise related to our top problems (e.g. Washington DC). We can support UK and US visa applications.
Salary: Varies depending on skills and experience. To give a rough sense, a starting salary for someone with five years of highly relevant experience would be in excess of £70,000 per year.
To apply, please complete this application form.
This expression of interest will be periodically reviewed on a rolling basis. You may or may not hear back from us.
The role
80,000 Hours provides free research and support to help people find careers tackling the world’s most pressing problems, including how to help society safely navigate a transition to a world with transformative AI.
We’re keen to potentially hire another advisor to talk to talented and altruistic people in order to help them find high-impact careers.
It’s a great sign you’d enjoy being an 80,000 Hours advisor if you’ve enjoyed managing, mentoring, or teaching. We’ve found that experience with coaching is not necessary — backgrounds in a range of fields like medicine, research, management consulting, and more have helped our advisors become strong candidates for the role.
For example, Laura González-Salmerón joined us after working as an investment manager, Sudhanshu Kasewa was a consultant and engineering PhD student, and Matt Beard was a political staffer. It’s particularly useful for us to have a broad range of experience on the team, so we’re excited to hear from people with all kinds of backgrounds.
The core of this role is having one-on-one conversations with people to help them plan their careers. We have a tight-knit, fast-paced team, though, so people take on a variety of responsibilities. These include, for example, building networks and expertise in our priority paths, analysing data to improve our services, and writing posts for the 80,000 Hours website or the EA Forum.
For more context on 80,000 Hours’ new direction, read our recent post on why we’re shifting our strategic approach to focus more on AGI.
What we’re looking for
We’re looking for someone who has:
- A strong interest in effective altruism and our top cause areas, including AI risks and biosecurity
- Strong analytical skills, and would enjoy puzzling out the key considerations for a complex problem
- A deep interest in understanding people, and the ability to be supportive and kind when discussing sensitive issues
- A high social budget, and would enjoy having a lot of one-on-one conversations via video call
- The ability to rapidly learn and follow developments in the talent needs of nascent and fast-changing fields, especially AI safety
- Excellent professional communications and social skills
Previous experience in one of our priority areas would be a significant advantage in the role, but we encourage you to apply even without it if you have a deep interest in our top problems.
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.
Role details
We expect this to be a full-time in-person role based out of our London office and we are able to sponsor visa applications if required. Our remote work policy accommodates being away for up to three months of the year, if needed.
However, we are potentially open to a remote role. This is especially true if you are located close to networks of expertise related to our top problems, such as San Francisco or DC. If moving to London won’t work for you, please let us know in your application.
Salaries will vary based on your skills and experience, but to give a rough sense, a starting salary for someone with five years of highly relevant experience would be in excess of £66,000 per year. The start date of the role is flexible, although we’re likely to prioritise candidates who can start sooner, all else equal.
Our benefits include:
- The option to use 10% of your time for self development
- 25 days of paid holiday, plus bank holidays
- Standard UK pension, with 2% contribution from employer
- Flexible work hours and location
- Private medical insurance
- Long-term disability insurance
- Up to 14 weeks of fully paid parental leave
- Childcare allowance for children under 5
- Coverage of work-related expenses like travel to conferences and office equipment
- £5,000 annual mental health support allowance
- £5,000 annual self-development budget
- Gym, shower facilities, and free food provided at our London office
We have a really awesome team and are excited for more people to join us in our mission to help people use their careers to solve the world’s most pressing problems.
What should candidates expect from the hiring process?
To apply, please complete the application form. We’re reviewing applications on a rolling basis and may not respond to all candidates or immediately respond to promising applicants.
The application process will vary depending on the candidate but will likely involve:
- A short screening call
- A ~2–4 hour work test
- An interview
- A 2–5 day in-person (if possible) work trial, if we think it’s at least 50% likely we’d offer you the role
We offer payment for work samples and trials whenever legally possible (that is, conditional on your location and right to work in the UK). If payment issues would create a barrier to you applying, we may be able to find alternative solutions (e.g. we’re sometimes able to compensate remote trials when we’d be unable to compensate in-person ones).