All my T&S career links in one place

I'm Alice Hunsberger. Trust & Safety Insider is my weekly rundown on the topics, industry trends and workplace strategies that trust and safety professionals need to know about to do their job.

This week, by popular demand, I've got every single resource I could find for early-career T&S professionals and new leaders in one place.

(If you've been in T&S a while, chances are you get asked about getting started in T&S a lot, so feel free to bookmark this and send it to folks).

Get in touch if you think I missed something. Here we go! — Alice

Getting started in T&S

If you're looking to work in T&S, start by reading, watching and listening everything you can from professionals working in the industry. Not only will give you a sense of what types of roles are out there but it will also help you understand what people's career journeys are typically like, and what it's really involved in doing this work.

So, here are my go-to resources from some of the best T&S practitioners that I know:

Read

• Katie Harbath (Duco Experts) often posts about tips for navigating your career in her newsletter, Anchor Change.
• Pearlé Nwaezeigwe (Oversight Board) recently shared some great resume tips on LinkedIn and also hosted a workshop on navigating the field — sign up here to see the recording. She also posts a lot about early career and job searching resources, especially for policy roles.
• Follow Jeff Dunn (Hinge) and Leslie Taylor (Genpact) for weekly job listings. Jeff also put together a Trust & Safety Starter Kit with tons of links and information on how to learn more about T&S.
• To learn everything about T&S, you can't go wrong with TSPA's T&S Curriculum.

Watch

• This just-released video from Hymanavya Sree Koppula (ex Uber) is the first in a series about how to find an entry-level Trust & Safety job. She gives a great overview of the field, talks about which locations have the most roles posted, and offers some specific tips for job searching.
• I joined forces with Pearlé Nwaezeigwe for this All Tech is Human webinar on building a career in T&S.
• Careers in T&S FAQ is a great resource from the Trust & Safety Professional Association. And they have a bunch of handy videos: From Academia to T&S, From NGO to T&S, and From Government to T&S.

Listen

• I answered a bunch of job search questions on my podcast, Trust in Tech, in the episodes on careers in T&S: job search special and a follow-up based on listeners' questions featuring Cathryn Weems (former Epic Games and X/Twitter).
• Speaking of career pivots, check out this Trust in Tech episode about finding a first job in T&S product management with Heather Grunkemeir (former Rover).
• There's also Building a career in T&S by Matt Soeth (Tremau). Matt is one of those people who knows everyone and is so generous with sharing what he knows on his podcast Safety is Sexy and IRL. Start with the My journey in Trust & Safety episode, and Go! Reboot your life with the vastly experienced Lisa Thee.

T&S specific job boards

Now you've got a sense of what working in T&S is like, you'll want to see what jobs are out there. Here are the places I'd keep an eye on:

• Professional Helpers
• All Tech Is Human
• TSPA
• The House of Fraud
• Marketplace Risk

If you're job seeking, consider playing Bad Job Bingo.

Tips for landing operations and policy roles

I've received specific questions about the difference between operations roles and policy roles so want to briefly touch on that.

For operations roles, hiring managers want to know that you are resilient, emotionally mature, able to follow directions, have attention to detail, and can stay calm under pressure. To get the perspective of a hiring manager, check out this Trust in Tech episode with a particular focus on hiring and growing trust & safety teams at small companies.

Entry-level ops roles are relatively easy to find, but often aren’t highly paid. It can take a long way to work your way up in tech when you start as a frontline content moderator (although that’s how I started~14 years ago). Here are two ways to prove you have experience without having had a job in the field yet:

• Volunteer at a crisis help line Trust & Safety work is emotionally difficult. Like, REALLY difficult. Volunteering at a crisis help line is a great way to gain confidence and experience working with these types of issues, and prove to a hiring manager that you have the resilience and maturity to handle them. With the added benefit that you're doing good in the world at the same time.
• Get involved in community moderation. Reddit and Discord are the two platforms most known for community-moderated groups, but there are plenty of smaller platforms and forums that work on the same model. This is a great way to do some hands-on moderation and see if you enjoy it.

When it comes to policy roles require an understanding of internet norms, online safety regulations, and sometimes deep niche policy knowledge (such as extremism, gender-based violence, or child safety).

Hiring managers want to know that you are able to apply this knowledge in a practical (not just academic) way, and that you can weigh tradeoffs against each other and make decisions even when there’s no “good” answer. Entry-level policy roles exist, but they are usually geared towards mid-career people who have a good deal of experience from somewhere else, such as lawyers, academics, and people with extensive operations experience.

To learn more about what it's like to work in policy roles, try the Safety is Sexy episode on Tech Policy and Career Growth and the Best Practices for Developing & Launching Content Policies for your Platform from the Integrity Institute.

Networking

When looking to learn more about T&S, don't just reach out to senior-level people: finding folks who are newer in Trust & Safety can be equally helpful, as they've just been where you are now. Those of us who started in T&S 10+ years ago had a VERY different experience than folks starting today. Advice from someone a year or two ahead of you is probably more relevant to your search. I wrote an ultimate guide to networking earlier this year, so check it out.

Sometimes a mentor can unlock the next move or a new phase of personal development. To find one, check out:

• TSPA Coffee Chats
• All Tech is Human Mentorship Program
• T&S Mentor Match.

Resources for new leaders

If you're in your first T&S leadership role, congratulations! Leadership in T&S is hugely rewarding, but also difficult. You'll need to look out for your team's wellbeing, as well as user safety, which is a lot of responsibility. You'll need:

• Leadership Advice for New Trust & Safety Leaders from Bri Riggio (Discord) compiles advice from 15 seasoned T&S pros. It's by far the best resource I've found on this topic.
• Tips for transitioning into a leadership role by Katie Harbath (also check out the podcast that prompted this post).
• Four Key Lessons on Trust & Safety from Amazon’s Head of Family Trust Catherine Teitelbaum.

Also worth reading

Mis- and disinformation is in the news this week, apparently!

Differences in misinformation sharing can lead to politically asymmetric sanctions (Nature)
Why? A study confirming what those of us in T&S already know: it's not that platforms are biased against conservatives, it's that conservatives break the rules by posting misinformation more often. Washington Post and TechDirt both covered this story.

To combat misinformation, start with connection, not correction (NPR)
Why? Six tips for combating misinformation. Number six is a good one to remember.

What AfD’s Dark Campaign in Germany Tells Us About Disinformation (Tech Policy Press)
Why? Germany is going through a helluva time right now with politically motivated narratives. This is a holistic look at how to combat disinformation and extremism.