Action:

Make your career more impactful

  • Occupation:
    Professional
  • Time commitment:
    Full-time
  • Duration:
    Long-term
  • Familiarity with EA:
    Very Familiar

Most people spend roughly 80,000 hours working in their lives. If you want to make a substantial impact on the world, your career is probably your best opportunity.

This means it's worth thinking hard about how to use this time most effectively. For example, if you switch to a new job or career path and do 1% more good as a result, it's worth spending hundreds of hours to make that change. And it's possible to do much, much better than that.

The best source for impact-focused career advice is a nonprofit called, appropriately, 80,000 Hours.

They offer a lot of different resources, but these are the best places to start:

  • Their career planning course takes you step-by-step through making a career plan. It's designed to be helpful no matter what your goals are, or how much experience you have.
  • If you want to start small, they've also summarized their advice in one brief article.
  • If you want to start big, they have a key ideas page, which explains their entire worldview and their guidance on tackling a variety of global problems.

You can also apply for 1-on-1 advice from one of their coaches, though you may get more benefit if you start with their online resources to get a sense for what you need.

80,000 Hours isn't the only good resource, of course. Here are more options:

You can reach out to us. We aren't focused on career advice, but we're experts on the EA community and its resources. We can answer your questions, share articles relevant to your situation, or put you in touch with others who may have advice.

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