New releases

The best email scripts for cold-emailing

Article by · Published June 2016

Here’s a collection of the most useful email scripts we’ve found for asking for introductions and small favours from people you don’t know.

How to ask for an introduction
A basic script from the Muse

Hi [name],

I hope all is well with you. As you know, I’ve been [context: looking for a new job, raising capital, working in sales at XYZ company]. I noticed that you’re connected to [target name] and was hoping that you could introduce us for [reason] if you feel comfortable doing so.

I’ve included an easy-to-copy blurb below, to provide context, but let me know if there’s any other information I can provide. I appreciate your help!

[Your name]

SOURCE

Scott Britton

Britton is a successful tech entrepreneur. Here’s his advice.

How to set up an informational interview
Ramit Sethi

An informational interview is an opportunity to meet someone who works in a position or industry you’d like to work in, where you can ask them questions about their job and get the inside scoop.

Never, ever directly ask for a job in an informational interview. That’s a big no-no. You can turn an informational interview into a potential job opportunity, but only if you approach it wisely. Here’s the first step of that process: The email introduction for an informational interview.

By the way,

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Maria Gutierrez on doing good through art, Costa Rica and why 80,000 Hours changed her career

Blog post by · Published June 2nd, 2016

This week I interviewed Maria Gutierrez to learn more about how 80,000 Hours had changed her career plans. For the last year Maria has been our freelance graphic designer, producing most of the artwork on our site today.

I sped up the recording so it is quick to listen to:

Summary of the interview

  • In 2014 Maria had a general desire to improve the world, but no idea how to put that into practice. She didn’t see any way to do useful work while using her creative skills and was frustrated by this.
  • She stumbled onto 80,000 Hours and effective altruism while browsing the internet, and its ‘honesty’ immediately resonated with her. It provided a much more concrete way to assess what would actually be useful to do than she previously had. It was the first time she had considered ‘earning to give’ as a way to do good.
  • She realised that she could do a lot of good by using her artistic skills to contribute to any organisation that does exceptional work. She decided to make her first contribution by working for us.
  • Maria decided to move back to Costa Rica to dramatically lower her cost of living, and thereby be able to donate more. This is possible because all the work she does is online for groups in the US and UK. She recommends other people think about doing the same thing, and we suggest some careers that are particularly promising for remote work.
  • We discuss how the 80,000 Hours framework can be applied to others in the creative arts, and challenge the view that such skills are not valuable.
  • Long term, Maria is weighing up earning to give as a fine artist, against doing ‘direct work’ as a designer for non-profits or for-profits that she thinks are having a large social impact.
  • This raises tricky issues about personal fit, and which sacrifice she is willing to make and which she isn’t. Maria doesn’t think she could be happy without being challenged artistically. She also thinks she would burn out doing pure marketing.
  • Finally, we discuss RISE (Red de Impacto Sustenible y Effectivo), en effective altruism inspired organistion for Costa Rica, which she intends to launch with a friend. Maria explains why she doesn’t want to take donations away from charities that work in countries poorer than Costa Rica.

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To find work you love, don’t (always) follow your passion

Article by · Last updated May 2016 · First published September 2014

Watch our Executive Director’s TEDx talk, which has been viewed over 4.7 million times, or read a more up-to-date article below (updated May 2016).

“Follow your passion” has become a defining piece of career advice.

Follow your passionSource: Google Ngram

The idea is that the key to finding a great career is to identify your greatest interest – “your passion” – and pursue a career involving that interest. It’s an attractive message: just commit to following your passion, and you’ll have a great career. And when we look at successful people, they’re often passionate about what they do.

Now, we’re fans of being passionate about your work. Research shows that intrinsically motivating work makes people a lot happier than a big pay cheque. We also think it’s really important to find something you can excel at.

However, there’s four ways “follow your passion” can be misleading advice.

Following your passion doesn't guarantee a fulfilling career

One problem is that it suggests that passion is all you need. But even if you’re interested in the work, if you lack the other key ingredients of job satisfaction that research has shown are important, you’ll still be unsatisfied. If a basketball fan gets a job involving basketball, but works with people he hates, has unfair pay, or finds the work meaningless, he’s still going to dislike his job.

In fact, “following your passion” can make it harder to satisfy the other ingredients,

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The rent is too damn high — should you work on reforming land use regulations?

Blog post by · Published May 11th, 2016

We’ve released a new ‘problem profile’ on reform of how land is used in cities.

Local laws often prohibit the construction of dense new housing, which drives up prices, especially in a few large high-wage urban areas. The increased prices transfer wealth from renters to landowners and push people away from centres of economic activity, which reduces their ability to get a job or earn higher wages, likely by a very large amount.

An opportunity to tackle the problem which nobody has yet taken is to start a nonprofit or lobbying body to advocate for more housing construction in key urban areas and states. Another option would be to try to shift zoning decisions from local to state governments, where they are less likely to be determined by narrow local interests, especially existing land-owners who benefit from higher property prices.

In the profile we cover:

  • The main reasons for and against thinking that working on land use reform is among the best uses of your time.
  • How to use your career to make housing in prospering cities more accessible to ordinary people.

Read our full profile on land use reform.

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New report: Is climate change the biggest problem in the world?

Blog post by · Published May 11th, 2016

We’ve released a new ‘problem profile’ on the risks posed by extreme climate change.

There is a small but non-negligible chance that unmitigated greenhouse emissions will lead to very large increases in global temperatures, which would likely have catastrophic consequences for life on Earth.

Though the chance of catastrophic outcomes is relatively low, the degree of harm that would result from large temperature increases is very high, meaning that the expected value of working on this problem may also be very high.

Options for working on this problem include academic research into the extreme risks of climate change or whether they might be mitigated by geoengineering. One can also advocate for reduced greenhouse emissions through careers in politics, think-tanks or journalism, and work on developing lower emissions technology as an engineer or scientist.

In the profile we cover:

  • The main reasons for and against thinking that the ‘tail risks’ of climate change are a highly pressing problem to work on.
  • How climate change scores on our assessment rubric for ranking the biggest problems in the world
  • How to use your career to lower the risk posed by climate change.

Read our full profile on the most extreme risks from climate change..

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Land use reform

Problem profile by · Published April 2016

Local laws often prohibit the construction of dense new housing, which drives up prices, especially in a few large high-wage urban areas. The increased prices transfer wealth from renters to landowners and push people away from centers of economic activity, which reduces their ability to get jobs or earn higher wages, likely by a very large amount.

The direct beneficiaries of progress on this problem would mostly be middle-class people in developed countries – not the most needy of groups globally. However, if you believe economic growth, wage increases and technological advancement in developed countries are valuable goals, this is one of the more promising policy changes for raising productivity.

An opportunity to tackle the problem is to start or join a nonprofit or lobbying body to advocate for more housing construction in key urban areas and states. For example, the YIMBY Party and More New York are grassroots lobbying groups that advocate for changes to zoning regulations in San Francisco and New York City respectively. Another option would be to try to shift zoning decisions from local to state governments, where they are less likely to be determined by narrow local interests, especially existing land-owners who benefit from higher property prices.

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Why and how to work on nuclear security

Blog post by · Published April 12th, 2016

We’ve released a new ‘problem profile’ on the risks posed by nuclear weapons.

Nuclear weapons that are currently armed have the potential to kill hundreds of millions of people directly, and billions through subsequent effects on agriculture. There are many examples in history of instances in which the US or Russia came close to accidentally or deliberately using their nuclear weapons.

Fortunately, nuclear security is already a major topic of interest for governments, inter-governmental organisations and think tanks. However, this does make it harder for any additional individual to influence the outcome.

Most opportunities to reduce the risks posed by nuclear weapons seem to be through work in the military or foreign policy establishments, or research in the think tanks that offer them ideas on how to lessen the risk of nuclear conflict.

In the profile we cover:

  • The main reasons for and against thinking that nuclear security is a highly pressing problem to work on.
  • How to use your career to ensure nuclear weapons are never used.

Read our full profile on nuclear security.

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How and why to use your career to make artificial intelligence safer

Blog post by · Published April 7th, 2016

AlphaGo

We’ve released a new ‘problem profile’ on the risks posed by artificial intelligence.

Many experts believe that there is a significant chance we’ll create artificially intelligent machines with abilities surpassing those of humans – superintelligence – sometime during this century. These advances could lead to extremely positive developments, but could also pose risks due to catastrophic accidents or misuse. The people working on this problem aim to maximise the chance of a positive outcome, while reducing the chance of catastrophe.

Work on the risks posed by superintelligent machines seems mostly neglected, with total funding for this research well under $10 million a year.

The main opportunity to deal with the problem is to conduct research in philosophy, computer science and mathematics aimed at keeping an AI’s actions and goals in alignment with human intentions, even if it were much more intelligent than us.

In the profile we cover:

  • The main reasons for and against thinking that the future risks posed by artificial intelligence are a highly pressing problem to work on.
  • How to use your career to reduce the risks posed by artificial intelligence.

Read our full profile on the risks posed by artificial intelligence.

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Smoking in the developing world

Problem profile by · Published April 2016

Smoking takes an enormous toll on human health – accounting for about 6% of all ill-health globally according to the best estimates. This is more than HIV and malaria combined. Despite this, smoking is on the rise in many developing countries as people become richer and can afford to buy cigarettes.

There appears to be a range of policies which have been shown to reduce smoking rates, which are usually not applied in developing countries. The most natural ways to tackle the problem through your career include becoming a health policy expert, or advocacy through journalism, think tanks and politics. This is a particularly promising cause for people living in a developing country with high smoking rates.

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The case for and against using your career to combat smoking

Blog post by · Published April 6th, 2016

We’ve released a new problem profile on reducing tobacco use in the developing world.

Smoking takes an enormous toll on human health – accounting for about 6% of all ill-health globally according to the best estimates. This is more than HIV and malaria combined. Smoking continues to rise in many developing countries as people become richer and can afford to buy cigarettes.

There are ways to lower smoking rates that have been shown to work elsewhere, such as informing people who are unaware about how much smoking damages their health, as well as simply increasing the price of cigarettes through taxes. These are little used in developing countries, suggesting there is a major opportunity to improve human health by applying the World Health Organization’s recommended anti-tobacco programs.

In the profile we cover:

  • The main reasons for and against thinking that smoking in the developing world is a highly pressing problem to work on.
  • How to use your career to reduce the health damage caused by smoking.

Read our profile on tobacco control in the developing world.

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Why and how to work on cause prioritisation research

Blog post by · Published April 5th, 2016

We’ve released a new problem profile on global priorities research based on our investigation of the area in 2014.

Governments, charities, intergovernmental organisations, and social enterprises spend large amounts of money to improve the world but there is currently little research to guide them on what priorities they should focus on at the highest level.

Global priorities research seeks to use new methods to determine in which causes funding to improve the world can have the biggest impact, and make a convincing case about this to people in a position to redirect large amounts of money.

In the profile we cover:

  • The main reasons for and against thinking that global priorities research is a highly pressing topic to work on.
  • How to use your career to make progress in this research area.

Read our profile on global priorities research.

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Is global health the most pressing problem to work on?

Blog post by · Published April 4th, 2016

Every year around ten million people in poorer countries die of illnesses that can be very cheaply prevented or managed, including malaria, HIV, tuberculosis and diarrhoea.

In many cases these diseases or their impacts can be largely eliminated with cheap technologies that are known to work and have existed for decades. Over the last 60 years, death rates from several of these diseases have been more than halved, suggesting particularly clear ways to make progress.

In our full ‘problem profile on health in poor countries’ we cover:

  • The main reasons for and against thinking that this is the most pressing problem to work on.
  • How to use your career to combat diseases of poverty.

Read our profile on health in poor countries.

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Global health

Problem profile by · Published April 2016

Every year around 10 million people in poorer countries die of illnesses that can be very cheaply prevented or managed, including malaria, HIV, tuberculosis, and diarrhoea.

Only around $100 per capita is spent annually on the healthcare of people living in low-income countries (adjusted for purchasing power). To put this in context: annual health spending in the EU is over $4,500 per capita, in the UK it’s about $5,000 per capita, and in the US it’s nearly $11,000.

As a result, there remain many opportunities to scale up treatments that are known to prevent or cure common health conditions in low-income countries.

Options for working on the problem include serving as a donor to effective projects, working as an economist in intergovernmental organisations (such as the World Bank or World Health Organization), or starting or working in a nonprofit that scales up proven treatments.

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Why and how to use your career to work on biosecurity

Blog post by · Published April 3rd, 2016

We’ve released a new profile on biosecurity.

Natural pandemics and new scientifically engineered pathogens could potentially kill millions or even billions of people. Moreover, future progress in synthetic biology is likely to increase the risk and severity of pandemics from engineered pathogens.

But there are promising paths to reducing these risks through regulating potentially dangerous research, improving early detection systems and developing better international emergency response plans.

In the profile we cover:

  • The main reasons for and against thinking that biosecurity is a highly pressing problem.
  • How to use your career to work on reducing the risks from pandemics.

Read our profile on biosecurity.

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Why and how to use your career to end factory farming

Blog post by · Published April 3rd, 2016

We’ve released a new problem profile on factory farming.

50,000,000,000 animals are raised and slaughtered in factory farms globally each year. Most experience extreme levels of suffering over the course of their lives. But there are promising paths to improving the conditions of factory farmed animals and to reducing meat consumption.

In the profile we cover:

  • The main reasons for and against thinking that factory farming is a highly pressing problem.
  • How to use your career to work on ending factory farming.

Read our profile on factory farming.

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We’ll pay you up to £1,000 to write a career review for us

Blog post by · Published March 30th, 2016

Journalist

Update: Unfortunately, due to staff limitations we cannot accept any more freelance career reviews.

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You can earn £1,000 by writing a review of a career path that’s sufficiently good for us to publish it on our site. At the same time you’ll help tens of thousands of people choose a career path with more social impact.

We are willing to pay £1,000 if you send us something that’s as good as, or better, than what we could have done ourselves, and only needs minor revisions; £300 if it’s usable but requires significant input from us; and £150 if it’s a helpful input into one of our reviews.

Before you start, send an email to [email protected] to confirm the title you’ll work on.

Some example reviews that we think have an appropriate level of detail to target include Economics PhD, Journalism, and Marketing.

An outstanding career profile is Medical Careers. Here’s a list of all our career profiles (including some ones in an old format and some that are both much longer and shorter than the 3 above).

To help you get started see our list of headings we fill out when writing career reviews, and a list of links we often refer to. In most cases you will want to speak to 1-3 people in the relevant career to collect information to include.

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Which skills make you most employable?

Blog post by · Published March 26th, 2016

super-mario-bros1

Summary

We correlated 35 key transferable skills with salaries, then rated them on how easy they are to learn, and combined them into 11 categories.

Based on this analysis, the five skills to learn that will most boost your employability are:

  1. Learning how to learn and personal productivity
  2. Persuasion and negotiation
  3. Science
  4. Communication
  5. Analysis and problem solving

This analysis is still preliminary, so we wouldn’t put too much weight on it.

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Everything you need to know about whether money makes you happy

Article by · Published March 2016

Last updated: March 2016.

Full reading time: 15 minutes.

Introduction

It’s a cliché that “you can’t buy happiness”, but at the same time, financial security is among most people’s top career priorities. Moreover, when people are asked what would most improve the quality of their lives, the most common answer is more money. What’s going on here? Who is right?

A lot of the research on this question is of remarkably low quality. But there have been some recent major studies in economics that allow us to make progress. In particular, we now finally have survey data from hundreds of thousands of people all around the world. We’ve sifted through the best studies available to figure out what’s really going on. The truth seems to lie in the middle: money does make you happy, but only a little. And this has many important implications about trade-offs you face in your life and career.

Are richer people more satisfied with their lives?

Thinking about it for a moment, you’d expect that the richer you are, the more extra money you need to further increase your happiness.

If you’re earning $10,000 a year, and you get an extra $1,000, you’re probably going to use it on something pretty important, like making rent, which will make a big difference to your happiness. But if you’re earning $100,000 per year, you’ll hardly notice an extra $1,000.

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Will high stress kill you, save your life, or neither?

Blog post by · Published February 26th, 2016

Many people assume stress is obviously bad, and lots of people tell us they want to find a “low stress job”. But a new book (and TED talk with over 10 million views) by psychologist Kelly McGonigal claims that stress is only bad if you think it is, and that stress can make us stronger, smarter and happier. So are most people wrong, or is stress only bad if you have the wrong attitude towards it?

We did a survey of the literature, and found that as is often the case, the truth lies in between. Stress can be good in some circumstances, but some of McGonigal’s claims also seem overblown.

  • In summary, whether work demands have good or bad effects seems to depend on the following things:
    VariableGood (or neutral)Bad
    Type of stressIntensity of demandsChallenging but achievableMismatched with ability (either too high or too low)
    DurationShort-termOn-going
    ContextControlHigh control and autonomyLow control and autonomy
    PowerHigh powerLow power
    Social SupportGood social supportSocial isolation
    How to copeMindsetReframe demands as opportunities, stress as usefulView demands as threats, stress as harmful to health
    AltruismPerforming altruistic actsFocusing on yourself

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Interview: trying to change the resources industry from the inside

Blog post by · Published February 25th, 2016

Benjamin Todd interviewed Michael Dello-Iacovo about his attempts to do good as a geophysicist inside the Australian mining industry.

What does the job involve?

I’m a geophysicist working for a resources company in Australia. The resources industry is broad, and includes exploration, mining and oil and gas production. Roles in the resources industry include geologists, environmental scientists, engineers (of almost all types), information technology, and a host of others. All of these potentially involve some intermittent field work. I’ll focus on geophysics and geology, as these are the roles I’m most familiar with. Note that this summary is focussed on private oil & gas and mining companies, not government or research organisations. While the roles may be similar in these organisations, the culture, salary and other perks are likely not.

As a resources geophysicist, my work ranges from data processing (which is actually more enjoyable and challenging than it sounds), interpreting and developing geological models and spending time in the field, where my role becomes more one of contractor management, environmental/safety auditing and data quality management. Being in a technical role, I don’t have a lot of meetings (perhaps 2-3 formal meetings per week), and a lot of time is spent behind a computer screen.

Why did you take this job?

I first decided to enter the resources industry part-way through my university science degree because I had a long-time love of rocks and minerals,

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