“How to have an impact when the job market is not cooperating [EAG Bay Area + EAG London workshop]” by LGlez

At the last EAG Bay Area, I gave a workshop on navigating a difficult job market, which I repeated days ago at EAG London. A few people have asked for my notes and slides, so I’ve decided to share them here.

This is the slide deck I used.

Below is a low-effort loose transcript, minus the interactive bits (you can see these on the slides in the form of reflection and discussion prompts with a timer). In my opinion, some interactive elements were rushed because I stubbornly wanted to pack too much into the session. If you’re going to re-use them, I recommend you allow for more time than I did if you can (and if you can’t, I empathise with the struggle of making difficult trade-offs due to time constraints).

One of the benefits of written communication over spoken communication is that you can be [...]

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Outline:

(01:29) Introduction

(02:49) General Observations

(02:52) Market inefficiencies

(06:07) Some Skills in High Demand and Low Supply

(08:34) Be Careful About Deferring to Others

(11:00) Multiple Bets Are Required to Solve a Problem

(14:35) Be Prepared to Pivot

(16:56) Practical Job Hunting and Career Advice

(17:01) Impact Requires Unpaid Work (Unfortunate but True)

(19:49) Maximize Your Luck Surface Area

(20:41) Say Yes to Things

(21:32) Reframe Job Applications as a Communication Protocol, Not an Evaluation

(24:03) Final Thoughts

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First published:

June 15th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/zWqEfKycEDgMiX6HR/how-to-have-an-impact-when-the-job-market-is-not-cooperating

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.