Business operations and project management (including setting objectives, metrics, etc.)
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People management
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marketing
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Events management
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public relations
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I'm especially positive on joining promising, small-but-growing organizations
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good way to get experience with people management and project management, which are often very generally applicable and in-demand skills across organizations
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one of the best indicators of success would be that the people you work most closely with are enthusiastic about you and would give you a glowing reference
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In early career stages
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performing well is more important than being at an organization whose mission you're enthusiastic about
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even when one's understanding is a very "vanilla" or widely accepted story - points of confusion and uncertainty often come into relief, and one often can learn a lot and/or notice underappreciated points this way
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- [note::I often seem to be reluctant to share my thoughts on things for the reasons indicated here i.e. "I don't think my perspective will add many new things to the existing discussion/dialogue, so I'll sit back and continually read/listen to others' thoughts instead."
The reality is that by not sharing these "vanilla" thoughts, I don't open myself up to criticism, which is essentially for developing a well-rounded perspective.]

A possible question to ask yourself: "What's a type of person that I understand and communicate with, better than most EAs / longtermists do?"
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- [note::Great question for thinking about your comparative advantage when it comes to writing/blogging/speaking.]

think there's a lot of opportunity to build this sort of aptitude through independent work, such as blogging, tweeting, podcasting, etc
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greatest potential as communicators are those who find it relatively easy to create large amounts of content and connect with their target audience naturally
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founding, building, and (at least for some time) running an organization that works on some longtermist goal
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here I am instead picturing someone who is explicitly aiming to invest in hiring, management, culture- and vision-setting, etc. with the aim of building an organization that can continue to function well if they leave
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- [note::Now this is what I'm interested in (particularly with regard to management, culture, and vision).]

Entrepreneurship tends to require juggling more duties than one can really learn how to do "the right way."
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relies on the ability and willingness to handle many things "just well enough" (usually with very little training or guidance) and focus one's energy on the few things that are worth doing "reasonably well."
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if there's no organization you have a burning desire to create (or at least, a strong vision for), it's probably not time to be an entrepreneur.
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bringing together people with common interests and goals, so that they form a stronger commitment to these interests and goals and have more opportunities and connections to pursue them.
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- [note::This is one of my focuses with EA Philly, so I guess I'm already working towards this developing this aptitude?]

Referring new people to resources
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- [note::This is me]

if you start to build a thriving mini-community, I'd suggest looking for funding to transition into doing the work full-time, and looking into whether you can expand the population you're working with.
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you're providing a space and/or service (whether this is a networking service, social space, discussion space, etc.) that a good number of people value and recommend to others; you have a strong sense of your target audience and the value that people are getting out of the space; and there are a number of especially promising people that are making heavy use of what you're providing.
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For example, perhaps someone is a reasonably strong software engineer and a reasonably strong project/people manager, which allows them to contribute more as a software engineering manager than they could as either a software engineer or a nontechnical manager
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- [note::Me!]

good to be open to building hybrid aptitudes, but also good to keep in mind that specialization is powerful
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ideal way to pursue a hybrid aptitude is to start with one aptitude, and then notice an opportunity to develop another aptitude that complements it and improves your career options
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generally recommend pursuing multiple aptitudes at once early in one's career
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- [note::I'm very susceptible to this. By default, I'm a generalist and need to focus on becoming more specialized e.g. doubling down on people/project management aptitude while easing up on developing technical skills.]

anyone who is successful and high-performing is likely having very high expected impact; anyone who is barely hanging onto their job is likely having less impact than the first two categories, even if they're in a theoretically high-impact role.
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"Minimize N, where N is the number of people who are more in-demand for this aptitude than you are." A more informal way of putting this is "Do what you'll succeed at."
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most good careers involve a lot of experimentation, learning that some sort of job isn't what one pictured, and changing course. I think people learn more effectively when they follow their curiosity and excitement; this doesn't mean that their curiosity and excitement are pointing directly at the optimal ultimate destination.)
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So I want to close this piece by generally discouraging people from "taking advice," in the sense of making a radically different decision than they would otherwise because of their interpretation of what some particular person would think they should do.
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- [note::Good caveat. Reminds me of the following idea: "Most career advice is bad because the person receiving the advice possesses almost all of the information (say, 90%) while the person giving the career advice has only a mere 10%."]

I'll also link to this page which contains a fair amount of "anti-advice advice," including quotes from me here (“A career is such a personal thing”), here (“When you’re great at your job, no one’s advice is that useful”), and here (“Don’t listen too much to anyone’s advice”).
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- career, advice,