EA Global tips: networking with others in mind

Abstract

EAs tend to be pretty good at thinking about people other than themselves. One situation in which I don’t see this as much is when networking, where I’ve seen people largely focus on their careers/questions+uncertainties/projects/funding opportunities/etc. EA Global London 2021 is a day away, and many attendees are searching for attendees to schedule meetings with (which I, and many others, usually strongly recommend over attending recorded sessions, and most other sessions too). I thought now (or more accurately a few days ago, oops) might be a good time to write down some thoughts on: the importance and benefits of coordination in communities with shared goals like the EA community.the implications of this for networking in EA and specifically at EA Global (the default time for many members of the community to set aside a weekend to meet with other members of the community).how I’ve approached networking at EA Global. Some concrete tips I’d encourage for EAs when networking (especially for EA Global): Think about who you can help and how you can help them, along with who can help you when deciding who to reach out to. Default to thinking about your network (EA group, friends, etc) along with yourself when deciding who to network with. In the spirit of the above point, consider how your network can help others along with how others can help your network.When having conversations, get into the habit of regularly thinking about how you can provide value to your conversation partner, and actually following up. I’ve listed some concrete ways I’ve applied these principles at previous EA conferences in the post, and how doing so has helped generate impact (and more specifically, Stanford EA and SERI succeed).