TLDR: there are now a notable number of profession-based community building organisations in EA and below you will find the key activities, team structure, and ways to get involved for several of the most active organisations.
Summary
There has been a significant increase in the number of organisations catering to specific professions – profession-specific organisations (PSOs) – over the past 12-24 months and we want to update the community on who some of these organisations are and what they seek to provide for their members and the broader EA community.
Please note that this list is not fully comprehensive. It should be treated as a partial snapshot of some of the organisations that exist in this space and a window into some of the ways in which they are doing community building in a profession-specific context. If your profession isn’t listed on this post then you may find an organisation that does cater for it on High Impact Professional’s Professional Groups Directory, which is a more comprehensive resource for finding professional groups (see their EA forum post). If you run a PSO that isn’t on the High Impact Professionals’ Workplace and Professional Groups Directory, please email Devon or book a call with him. Additionally, High Impact Professionals can help nascent PSOs through strategic support, reviewing grant proposals, making introductions, and more so don’t hesitate to get in touch!
If you run a PSO and would like to be added to this post, please copy and fill out this template and send it to Sean.
The What and Why of Profession-Specific Organisations
PSOs focus their organisational mission and scope on supporting a specific profession, or group of related professions, with tailored content and programming to help members of that field learn more about EA and how they can contribute to the shared project of doing the most good in the world. Additionally, PSOs provide a community of like-minded professionals to help increase network effects amongst members, limit value-drift and make the EA space more welcoming to professionals overall.
Goals
We think this post could be valuable to:
- Increase the awareness of existing PSOs and their activities. Recent EAGs have given some of us the impression that members of the EA community are unaware that there are active community building efforts targeting professionals and what each group's target focus and mechanisms of engagement are.
- Summarise the methods for engagement with professionals. This post may help to motivate nascent professional-specific groups, highlight commonalities in PSO’s approaches so organisers can collaborate, and/or highlight gaps in approaches that could be filled.
- Help grow the membership of organisations.
- Inspire people to start groups for neglected professions. By seeing that there are already a lot of professional groups around, we hope that others see this as a viable way to have an impact in their profession.
List of Profession-Specific Organisations
(Please note that this list is not fully comprehensive)
Last updated: 21st December 2022
EA Architects and Planners
What do we do?
We seek ways in which architects, urban designers, and planners can use their unique skills to get involved in EA causes and to have a greater positive impact. We are NOT focused on finding high-impact work within architecture and planning, but rather, explore a wide range of opportunities where architectural or design thinking may lead to more effective ways of doing good.
As we research ways in which this might be achieved, we are updating the Career Options for EA Architects and Planners database to help others find inspiration.
Our aim is to a) create an environment that supports ‘EA’ architects, planners, and people interested in the built environment and b) maintain a global network of contacts that EAs seeking relevant services, advice, and help can benefit from.
Here and here are articles published on the topic on the EA Forum.
Methods of engagement with professionals.
After the launch, we are hoping to offer services such as:
- Architectural and planning consultancy, city and place analysis to help find suitable locations for EA hubs/offices, office space design, support for EA hubs & spaces, fellowships, conferences, events, etc.
- Database of EA built environment professionals and what they can help with
- Career advice for architects and planners seeking high-impact careers
- Group support and networking
- Design guides, templates, resources
About the team.
We are hoping to launch and start actively recruiting and growing the community soon.
Currently, the main point of contact is Tereza, who started exploring the topic of becoming an ‘EA Architect’ in early 2022. Tereza (LinkedIn) is an architecture master’s student at Oxford Brookes with an undergraduate degree from University of Cambridge who has worked in urban design for the past 3 years. Since early 2022, she has explored how to become an ‘EA Architect’ and worked on SHELTERs, EA hubs, and explored ways to get involved in charter cities.
Recently, Britney Budiman (LinkedIn) joined Tereza to help launch EA Architects and Planners. Britney graduated summa cum laude from San Diego State University with a B.A. in Urban Studies and has prior experience researching innovative housing solutions in California and Brazil.
We have a growing database of architects and planners eager to join our efforts after the launch.
Call to action.
Fill in this short form to express interest if you a) want to get involved in setting up and working on EA Architects and Planners, b) are a professional wanting to offer your services through the group, or c) you need help with anything related to the built environment.
More links.
EA Software Engineers
What do we do?
Networking and career building for EA-aligned software engineers.
Methods of engagement with professionals.
About the team.
Nicole Janeway Bills, Yonatan Cale, David Nash, and others. Email: [email protected]
Call to action.
Sign up for the mailing list for a monthly debrief of EA software engineering content.
Effective Altruism Consulting Network
What do we do?
The Effective Altruism Consulting Network (EACN) is a global community of over 500 prospective, current, and former consultants who use evidence and reason to maximise the social impact of their careers. We strive to achieve our mission through:
- Creating connections & space to engage with EA concepts and community members
- Providing career conversations (1-on-1’s) for current and prospective consultants looking to increase their professional impact
- Developing resources that deepen our members’ EA knowledge and equip consultants with the network, context, and opportunities to pursue impactful work
Methods of engagement with professionals.
- Supporting 8 EA workplace groups at the world's largest consulting firms (Accenture, Bain, BCG, Deloitte, EY, Kearney, McKinsey and Oliver Wyman)
- Hosting 1-1 career conversations with current and prospective consultants
- Talent matching among EA-aligned roles and members looking to transition
- Developing custom content for EA-interested consultants shared on our website, facebook group, linkedin group, and via our email listserv
- Hosting networking events at EA conferences, and weekend retreats for members 2-3 times a year
- Exploring innovative new ways to increase membership and the impact of our current members!
About the team.
- Sarah Pomeranz is the full-time Managing Director of the EA Consulting Network and is based in Boston. Prior to running the EACN, Sarah founded the EA workplace group as a Strategy Consultant at Accenture and built a global health start-up focused on clean water in India.
- Zach Thomas is the full-time Community Operations Manager and is based in NYC. Prior to joining the EACN, Zach worked in operations at an early-stage education startup and serves as an Open Philanthropy University Organizer Fellow supporting the re-launch of the Rutgers EA chapter.
- The EACN is supported by our fantastic Workplace Group leaders (Nodes), who are current consultants at the 8 larger consulting firms running the EA workplace group at their respective companies. Please reach out to Sarah if you’d like to be connected directly to a Node at one of the firms we support (listed above).
- EACN Strategic Advisors: Jona Glade (former BCG consultant, Founder of the EACN and cFactual), Habiba Islam (former PwC consultant, 80,000 hours), Joan Gass (former Bain consultant and head of CEA Groups, Horizon Public Service), Zachary Robinson (former Bain consultant, Open Philanthropy) as well as several other informal advisors.
Call to action.
- We encourage consultants to join our listserv so we can share high impact opportunities and best understand your interests
- Prospective and current consultants are invited to apply for a 1-1 career conversation with our team
- If you’re an EA Hiring Manager looking to promote an opportunity you think consultants could be strong candidates for, please reach out to Sarah.
- If you’re eager to connect with other EA’s at your consulting firm or start a new workplace group at your firm, please reach out to Sarah.
More links.
Effective Altruism Tech Network (EATN)
What do we do?
EATN connects EA’s at large tech companies. Primarily, we help support other group organizers do their job better at their respective tech companies (e.g. firm up their theories of change, make newsletters more cost effective, share ideas).
Methods of engagement with professionals.
Mainly through the other EA group organisers to the EA’s at specific companies (e.g. through Noah Starbuck to Amazon).
- career advice
- newsletters
- EA events and conferences
- advice to organisers looking to start or run their EA groups better
- encouraging people to take the pledge, EtG
A couple tech-specific things
- special emphasis on AI Safety (alerting people when there’s an AI Safety event, posting job openings, running AI Safety talks within the tech companies, possibly doing a AGISF course)
- promoting volunteer opportunities or job openings specific to tech
About the team.
- John Yan: helped organise the EA @ Meta group. Started the EATN.
- Swante Scholz: EA @ Google, one of the main organisers there
- Denisse Sevastian: one of the main organisers for EA @ Meta
- Noah Starbuck: EA @ Amazon
Call to action.
Email John Yan ([email protected]) if you’d like a link. Or message Yanjo on the EA Forum.
High Impact Engineers
What do we do?
We aim to increase the quantity of impactful work done by physical engineers across the globe.
Methods of engagement with professionals.
We’re still in the planning and evaluation phase for our larger projects. We have a website with resources tailored to engineers, run a Slack group for engineers, and are attending most EAG(x)s to connect with engineers in the EA community and run meetups.
About the team.
Our team is internationally dispersed:
- Jessica Wen. Co-Founder. Completed a Master's in Materials Science at Oxford University, worked as a mechanical engineer at a global automotive company before running HI-Eng full-time. Based near London, UK.
- Sean Lawrence. Co-Founder. Completed a PhD in aerospace engineering at Monash University and works full-time for HI-Eng. Based in Melbourne, Australia.
Call to action.
You should contact us or request a 1-1 with us if:
More links.
High Impact Medicine
What do we do?
High Impact Medicine (Hi-Med) is a non-profit organisation that builds a global community of impact-driven medical students and doctors empowering each other to maximise the good done with their careers.
Methods of engagement with professionals.
- Community building: An online community with regular virtual events and currently 310 members on Slack, as well as local communities with in-person speaker and social events.
- Knowledge building and sharing: An 8-week introductory fellowship (you can find a paper we published about our first cohort here), a 4-week career planning fellowship, as well as a podcast and a blog.
- Career advising and support: We offer a mentoring programme, pair people for one-off calls and conducted ~140 1:1 career coaching calls in 2022.
- Monitoring & Evaluation: We continuously ask for feedback, analyse our actions and update our strategy to best fulfill our mission.
About the team.
We’re an international team of ambitious medical students and doctors: Akhil Bansal and Abe Tolley co-founded Hi-Med in autumn 2021, they’re now joined on the advisory board by Hunter Lau (who founded EA medicine that joined Hi-Med) and Lucia Coulter (Co-founder of LEEP). Marie Firgau is our executive director, part of the core team are also Erik Jentzen, Holly Kristensen, and others.
Call to action.
Fill in our get involved form to receive our monthly newsletter, have a look at our current opportunities, and apply for an in-depth conversation.
More links.
High-Impact Psychology (HIPsy)
What do we do?
HIPsy aims to help people engaged with psychology or mental health to maximise their impact. Our goal is to increase the likelihood of high-impact decisions, make collaboration and information processes more effective, and reduce the risk of value drift for people engaged in psychology or mental health. We will provide access to up-to-date high-quality information, advice, and networking opportunities to foster effective action, i.e., knowledge transfer, exchange, and collaboration, enabling high-speed and high-impact work in psychology-related areas.
Methods of engagement with professionals.
We will provide relevant resources that are easy to access and use, such as:
- newsletters with up-to-date research on the effectiveness of interventions
- career and work advice
- networking and collaboration opportunities and events
We will facilitate the sharing of psychological know-how to support work in EA. This may include resources for:
- mental health and well-being, both within EA and globally
- community building and outreach
- management, HR, and operations
- priorities research, applied research, effectiveness research
- x-risk-reduction and AI safety, e.g., awareness-building, and persuasion
About the team.
Dr. Inga Grossmann was appointed as the youngest professor to date at the HMKW in Berlin, a university of applied science. Having worked in academia and business for 10 years, she has broad and up-to-date knowledge of research, the industry, and the practice related to all sorts of psychological interventions. She managed a variety of research and development projects, small teams in companies and larger groups of students, and built networks of experts for companies. Currently, Inga assists and consults existing EA mental health and meta projects, e.g., Overcome, the Mental Health Navigator, and the Wellbeing Program.
Supporters:
- Lucius Caviola (Havard/GPI): lead for EA Psychology Research, with the EA Psychology Lab
- Dvir Caspi / Jon Massmann (Psychology for EA): collaborating to create the HIPsy Website
- Akhil Bansal (CE), Erik Jentzen (Hi-Med): collaborating on a new mental health cause area report and on events for health care professionals
- Devon Fritz (HIP): marketing and strategic support
- Manuel Allgaier (EA Germany), Anneke Pogarell (CEA), Nadia Montazeri (EA Switzerland), Jona Glade (CEA/EACN): advising on community building
- Michael Plant (Happier Lives Institute), Peter Brietbart (Mindease), Julia Wise (CEA), Emily Jennings (Mental Health Navigator), Sreevidhya Sk (Overcome), John Salter (Overcome): advising on mental health as a cause area
Call to action.
Please contact us here if you'd like to collaborate, share ideas, provide funding, or contribute your skills, such as: online content creation, running mentorship programs, hosting events, web-dev, design, community-building, operations, running surveys, research, and cost-effectiveness analyses.
You can also pre-sign-up to tell us which resources would be most valuable to you. We aim to provide the most wanted and promising ones—very likely for free. Please forward these links to anyone who might be interested in benefiting from our initiative:
- 5 min survey - if you have a background in psychology
- 5 min survey - if you are interested in, working in, or adjacent to the mental health sector
- 3 min survey - for everyone interested in increasing their impact using evidence-based psychology
More links.
Impactful Government Careers
What do we do?
Impactful Government Careers (IGC) is a network of civil servants helping each other have the biggest social impact they can. We offer coaching, workshops and meetups for UK civil servants who want to plan an impactful career. This is supported by our research into how and where to have impact in government (which we publish).
Methods of engagement with professionals.
- 1:1 career coaching for civil servants
- Workshops and talks about career planning and having impact in government
- Meetups on various topics (e.g. improving decision making)
- Researching and publishing ideas about impact in government, including profiles of where to work on particular policy areas.
About the team.
Toby is currently on a career break (sabbatical) from the Cabinet Office to coordinate IGC full time. He is supported by a team of volunteer civil servants from across government and board of advisors.
Call to action.
If you would like to hear more about what we are doing contact Toby ([email protected]) - we are particularly keen to talk to current or ex civil servants.
Anyone can join our mailing list, to get updates on impactful jobs, relevant articles and new ideas about how to have impact in government.
More links.
Closing
Starting a PSO has been hard work at times but a lot of fun. It has afforded me (Sean) the opportunity to meet amazing like-minded professionals, have fantastic conversations and do rewarding and engaging work, all the while making a meaningful difference to the EA community.
If you, or someone you know, are interested in starting a PSO, I would strongly encourage you to reach out to Devon from High Impact Professionals, or anyone else listed on this post, even if you are unsure. The PSO community is incredibly supportive and an absolute joy to be a part of, so don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Finally, if you run a PSO and would like to be added to this post, please copy and fill out this template and send it to Sean.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this post and Devon Fritz for proofreading and feedback.
