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Comment by pugio | Hacker News Reader

Random shot here, but I work for a non profit interested in building a better kind of education (focused on programming, ml, and data science).

We've been having a hard time figuring out how to hire qualified people to build top-notch educational content because we pay less than industry rates.

The upside is that we do meaningful work, have good health care, decent pay, good work environment, (edit: also fully remote-able), and job stability (we're funded by philanthropists and don't need to make a profit).

If anyone hit by the recent layoffs is passionate about good education and would like a change of pace, feel free to email me (address in profile) to start a conversation.

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> to build top-notch educational content

I'm confused as to whether you are looking to hire Instructional Designers (who probably have a masters degree in educational/instructional psychology) to design/build educational content, or if you are looking for programmers to build the learning management system (LMS) to host the content the Instructional Designers are building. Or... maybe you are looking for programmers to be subject matter experts for the Instructional Designers?

I sure hope you are not trying to get programmers to design and build top-notch educational content. That's like asking a programmer to also do the work of a graphic designer. They are two entirely different skill sets.

In short: we're looking for people with overlap between instructional design experience and programing+ml industry experience, to create instructional content.

A masters in education/instructional psychology isn't needed, so long as you can demonstrate pedagogical aptitude. In other words, can you put yourself in the mind of a beginner, and craft an explanation which is clear, intuitive, and anticipates common student questions/pitfalls?

Are you also US only hiring or True Remote from the other side of the globe ?

I think most of us graybeards here might agree that a focus on STEM, and programming particularly, is not in any way shape or form a better education. The treatment of the humanities as "lesser" has been catastrophic, in my opinion.

I didn't mean that "a better education is one which focuses on programming". We'd like to improve education across the board, but have chosen to focus our efforts on STEM topics at the moment.

Humanities are by no means lesser, they're just not what we're focused on, presently. (Also, a really good humanities education probably looks very different from a really good STEM education setup. Different challenges, different problems to solve, at least initially.)

How far below industry are you? What's your tech stack?

Have you posted in the "who is hiring" threads?

Have you tried paying industry rates? I've never understood the idea that a greater number of less qualified people is a way to build a "top-notch" product. Scale down and hire the people you need.

It's a fair point. Qualified ML people working at big companies command huge salaries. Work at big tech: get lots of $$ and access to big compute.

Our value prop is different. Work with us, and do something really meaningful. I think that's a pretty normal tradeoff between for-profit and non-profit companies, no? (Higher pay vs possibly higher goal satisfaction).

If you're in the US, try a marketing pivot to minorities & the disadvantaged, then seek grants. Just a shot in the dark though.

Have you considered hiring outside of the US?

what kinda positions are you looking to fill? I currently work for less than industry rates by far but I enjoy the work life balance and generous PTO, and I wouldn't mind doing some more interesting work for the same.

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