It's great to hear that being on the front foot and reaching out to people with specific offers has worked for you.

I actually want to push back on your advice for many readers here. I think for many people who aren't getting jobs, the reason is not because the jobs are too competitive, but that they're not meeting the bar for that role. This seems more common for EAs with little professional experience, as many employers want applicants who have already been trained. In AI Safety, it also seems like for some parts of the problem, an exceptional level of talent or skill is needed to meaningfully contribute. 

In addition to applying for more jobs or reaching out to people directly, I'd also recommend:

1. broadening your search to a wider array of roles.
2. apply to impactful work that is not on the 80k job board. most impactful jobs arent run at orgs where most people are ea.
3. get a few years of training under your belt and come back to these jobs, with I think a much higher chance of success. (see my post here)

I realise short timelines makes this all much harder, but I do think many people early in their career do their best work in the environment of an organisation, team, manager, etc.

As someone who just participated in a name change recently I can assure you the pros and cons of this name with other contenders was probably discussed ad nauseam by the team involved, and they decided on this name despite the nerdy and clunky vibe. 

Thanks for writing this, as someone who feels more at home in EA spaces I do sometimes feel like EAs are pretty critical of rationalist sub-culture (often reasonably) but take for granted the valuable things rationalism has contributed to EA ideas and norms.

Hi David, if I've understood you correctly, I agree that a reason to return home as for other priorities that have nothing to do with impact. I personally did not return home for the extra happiness or motivation required to stay productive, but because I valued these other things intrinsically, which Julia articulates better here: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/zu28unKfTHoxRWpGn/you-have-more-than-one-goal-and-that-s-fine  

Ah man I feel you. To be honest I've been avoiding the abyss recently with some recent career vs family dilemmas. Lemme know if you want to have a chat sometime.

For sure. I think Chana does a good job of talking about some of the downsides of living in a hub similar to what you mention: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/ZRZHJ3qSitXQ6NGez/about-going-to-a-hub-1

Wow that's gotta be one of the fastest forum post to plan changes on record. I'm glad to hear this resolved what sounds like a big and tough question in your life. As I mentioned in the post, I do think stints in hubs can be a great experience.

I do think the messaging is a little gentler than it used to be, such as the 80k content and a few forum posts emphasising that there are a lot of reasons to make life choices besides impact, and that that is ok. This is hard in general with written content aimed at a broad audience because some people probably need to hear the message to sacrifice a little more, and some a little less.

This is a good question. I'm honestly not sure what I would have done differently overall. My guess is I would have gone back a little sooner, and invested a little more in maintaining friendships in Melbourne while away. 

Thinking about this sooner also might have changed how I approached dating while in London if I would have known in advance I was always heading home.