We (Pineapple Operations) are seeking nominations for mentees for a pilot longtermist career mentorship program.
Note: Please do not share this page widely or post it to public channels. This is not an open application round. Since this is a pilot, we plan to do invitation-based applications to avoid having to reject large numbers of candidates.
Overview
This program provides career mentorship to people seeking to pursue careers working on longtermist issues. We are excited to partner with some excellent mentors from a range of backgrounds and fields for this pilot, and expect that mentees will benefit from general career guidance, access to opportunities and better networks.
There are a number of project-based mentor programs (e.g., ERI summer fellowships). However, the only group providing career mentorship is Magnify which offers mentorship for women, non-binary and trans people. Given Magnify’s success at placing promising candidates in jobs, projects, and/or securing funding, we want to expand mentorship to mentors and mentees of all genders.
This proposal has been shared with a small, curated list of potential mentors and mentees and will pilot a trial of the program over the course of 2023. If the pilot is successful, we expect to scale to 30-50 mentor-mentee pairings.
Express your interest in the program (it takes about 5-10 minutes)
Program Coordinators: Vaidehi Agarwalla and Elika Somani
Advisor: Kathryn Mecrow-Flynn (Magnify Mentoring)
We are grateful to Michael Aird, Angela Aristizábal, Chris Bakerlee, Ben Clifford, Dan Greene, Nick Fitz, and others for their advice and feedback.
Why participate?
- Receive mentorship and support from leading professionals in various longtermist fields
- Increase your work performance, productivity, and professional networks to multiply your impact on x-risk reduction
Logistics & Expectations
- Timing: ~June - December 2023. We expect ~monthly meetings for 6 months as a default set-up (this is what Magnify uses) but are exact cadence will be determined based on mentor and mentee preferences.
- Confirmation of participation: We expect to receive substantially more applications than we have capacity in the pilot. We will let you know if you are selected by the end of May 2023. We expect we will not be able to place many promising mentees because of limited capacity from mentors.
- Matching Process: Pairings will be based on the needs, interests, and availability of the mentee and mentor, their goals, career paths, and what skills they are looking to develop. We think it’s likely that there will be many excellent candidates whose needs don’t match what our mentors can offer.
- Attitude & Commitment: We expect you to take ownership of your mentorship - be communicative with your mentor, show up on time to meetings, and invest time to prepare before and follow-up after meetings.
- Guidance and Support: We will provide some guidance in case you need it (e.g., mentorship sheets based on Magnify Mentoring’s guidance) and will work with you and your mentor to ensure the program is fitting your needs.