EA - EA career guide for people from LMICs by Surbhi B

Link to original articleWelcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: EA career guide for people from LMICs, published by Surbhi B on December 15, 2022 on The Effective Altruism Forum.Executive SummaryIndividuals from Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs) engaging with EA often find that existing EA career advice does not address various frequently arising questions and challenges. This post attempts to address that gap by sharing the tentative outcomes of discussions between the authors (who are all from LMICs) on the pros and cons for various career paths.We hope that this guide will serve as a tool for individuals in LMICs to prioritize career paths. This post may be particularly useful as material for localized introductory or in depth fellowships.The advice for paths to impact depends on the individual, but broadly speaking, we recommend EAs, and especially those from LMICs, to:Build career capital early onWork on top global issues instead of local ones, unless there are clear impact-related reasons to opt for the latterSome Individuals -we further discuss who and when- may have impact by doing:local community buildinglocal priorities research and charity-related activitieslocal career advisingThere are many other paths the authors did not explore in-depth but consider promising, such as LMIC-relevant content creation to research on regional comparative advantages in addressing global prioritiesFor each path, the authors discuss pros and cons and suggest actionable next steps (lots of them!)Some general advice around how to think about paths to impact:Assess and prioritize paths by the problem’s scale / neglectedness / tractability, the incremental value you can contribute, and your personal fit.Consider global priorities first. Look for local comparative advantage.New EAs with a bias towards acting now risk subpar outcomes by hastily jumping into direct work, so instead first upskill and engage deeply with (and critique!) EA ideas.Note that this post is not meant to be the final word on how EAs from LMICs should think about career paths, but rather a conversation-starter and call-to-action to improve LMIC-specific diversity in EA. It builds upon excellent prior work by several LMIC groups and community builders, which the authors have compiled in this resource bank.AcknowledgementsThanks to Alejandro Acelas, Agustin Covarrubias, Claudette Salinas, Siobhan McDonough, Vaishnav Sunil, and Yi-Yang Chua for all of your feedback on previous drafts.IntroductionEngaging with EA when you come from a Low or Middle Income Country (LMIC) raises some challenges that might not be obvious to the current EA majority, composed of people from higher income countries, often in the Western world. EA principles framed from a high-income audience can fall flat in contexts where individuals lack the ability to donate, don’t have access to large EA networks for continued engagement, and where EA principles may be at odds with typical cultural norms and histories.If you come from an LMIC, you have probably wondered how your strategy and prioritization fits in with the EA movement at-large. Some common questions/concerns we hear from LMICs audiences (that you might have at the moment) are:Why should I care about suffering in other countries if I am surrounded by suffering, poverty, and disease in my own city or country?What are the most effective causes and charities in my country? Does global EA or GiveWell have adequate information to assess local interventions?Is it worthwhile to focus on identifying effective charities in my own country? Will it increase overall impact or divert funding from higher impact interventions?What other high leverage interventions can increase impact? How should we think about localized career advising, research, community building, founding new charities?What are the comparative advantages of my...