Some quick thoughts on how to get ahead in your AI safety career (from a CBAI fellow, Redwood contractor):

• Apply to more things and do more projects. For example, a month or so ago, a friend and I decided to submit to a NeurIPS workshop. This project got accepted, while another NeurIPS workshop submission that I thought had higher chances didn’t. A project’s success is depends partly on chance, so give yourself as many chances as possible.
• Network. Traveling to conferences and meeting people that are ahead of me has given me fellowships and collaborations, as well as invaluable advice for advancing my career. If I didn’t expand my network, I would have stayed as a recent college graduate who posts on LessWrong sometimes (I know I still have a long way to go but I’m in a way better spot now).
• Working on important problems. Many people have told me this one, but I have also seen it first hand. My most fruitful collaborations have happened because I picked a high-impact problem, and other, more important people were also working on it.