Thoughtful, kind, smart, and competent colleagues
Pros
The people at Open Phil are a remarkable combination of capable and kind. Whenever I collaborate with other folks on the team, I am reminded of how skilled each person is in their respective roles and also that people genuinely care about our mission. It also feels good to work somewhere that folks genuinely believe in the mission and what we're striving for. Even if folks work on different issue areas, there is a lot of respect for what the other teams are doing. Open Phil also cares a lot about the employee experience - the ops teams are very supportive and our benefits are great. This type of support is pretty unheard of anywhere else.
Cons
It can sometimes feel like there are many small organizations within Open Phil (i.e., that different areas of work are doing their own thing e.g., Farm Animal Welfare is doing something really different than Technical AI Safety) Open Phil is not a racially diverse place. I think the leadership and recruiting teams are paying attention to this and working to develop new pipelines and approaches, which is good, but doesn't negate the current state.