By Jim Chapman, Linkedin.

TL;DR: In 2023, I was a 57-year-old urban planning consultant and non-profit professional with 30 years of leadership experience. After talking with my son about rationality, effective altruism, and AI risks, I decided to pursue a pivot to existential risk reduction work. The last time I had to apply for a job was in 1994. By the end of 2024, I had spent ~740 hours on courses, conferences, meetings with ~140 people, and 21 job applications. I hope that by sharing my experiences, you can gain practical insights, inspiration, and resources to navigate your career transition, especially for those who are later in their career and interested in making an impact in similar fields. I share my experience in 5 sections - sparks, take stock, start, do, meta-learnings, and next steps. [Note - as of 03/05/2025, I am still pursuing my career shift.]

Sparks – [...]

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Outline:

(01:16) Sparks - 2022

(02:29) Take Stock - 2023

(03:36) Start

(04:15) Do - 2023 and 2024

(05:13) Learn

(10:46) Get a Job

(14:21) Create a Job

(16:49) Contractor

(18:16) Meta-Learnings

(19:50) Next Steps

(20:48) Appendix A - Helpful Feedback

The original text contained 30 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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