“Career Advice for Policy Researchers” by Shaan Shaikh

I’ve been a policy researcher (aka “think tanker”) for eight years.[1] Over this time, I’ve learned how good scholars conduct and share their research, build and manage their teams, and push their ideas into public policy. I’ve also seen some scholars struggle—falling prey to partisanship, corruption, or simply poor research or management practices. This post lays out my thoughts on how to be a good policy researcher. The first section describes useful skills, practices, and behaviors. The second section explores how good think tankers write reports, build useful stuff, engage with the media, and host events. The third and last section examines several common failure modes by which policy researchers may lose productivity and influence. I hope this post helps to inform new and aspiring policy researchers on how to succeed in this field, and perhaps even remind established scholars of best practices. TL;DR: Learn to read [...] ---Outline:(01:40) I. Personal: What are useful skills, practices, and behaviors?(03:23) Discipline(04:21) Teamwork(06:09) Creativity(07:04) II. Products: What do you write, build, say, and organize?(07:11) Reports(10:10) Tools, games, & graphics(11:10) Media engagement(12:56) Events(15:12) III. Failure Modes: What should you avoid?(15:29) Forgetting your audience(17:31) Corruption(18:20) Writing in a bubble(19:05) Conclusion The original text contained 1 footnote which was omitted from this narration. --- First published: October 26th, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/w4L9xi48gAbTXmPAj/career-advice-for-policy-researchers --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. ---Images from the article:Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.