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Guides
- Key ideas Understand what makes for a high-impact career.
  Read the full guide →
  Introduction
  Your most important decision
  Summary
  Foundations
  A definition of impact
  Future generations & their moral significance
  Effective altruism
  Global priorities
  Why problem selection is crucial
  The case for reducing existential risks
  This could be the most important century
  Our current list of pressing problems
  Solutions
  The best solutions are far more effective
  Leverage
  What is leverage, and how to get it?
  Our list of high-impact careers
  Personal fit
  Fit is more important than you think
  Strategy
  What is career capital?
  How much to explore?
  Coordination and impact
  Balancing impact and doing what you love
  Aim higher: a rational case for dreaming big
  Three career stages
  Conclusion
  How much do careers differ in impact?
  Read the full guide →
- Problem profiles Find out about the world's biggest and most neglected problems.
  Go to problems hub →
  Top areas to work on
  Positively shaping the development of AI
  Global priorities research
  Building effective altruism
  Reducing the risk of catastrophic pandemics
  Nuclear security
  Improving institutional decision making
  Extreme climate change
  Other promising areas
  Mitigating great power conflict
  Global governance
  Space governance
  See all →
  Go to problems hub →
- Career reviews Learn about high-impact career paths.
  See all our career reviews →
  Key categories of impactful careers
  Government and policy
  Organisation-building at effective nonprofits
  Research
  Applying an unusual strength to a needed niche
  Communication
  Earning to give
  List of top-recommended career paths
  AI safety technical research
  Long-term AI policy
  Founder of new projects
  Helping build the effective altruism community
  Grantmaker
  Operations management in high-impact organisations
  Research into global priorities
  Biorisk research, strategy, and policy
  China-related AI safety and governance
  Forecasting research and implementation
  Sometimes-recommended paths
  High-impact but especially competitive
  Promising but under-researched
  Impactful if you’re an especially good fit
  Recommended career capital
  Steps to build your skills and network
  Making the most of your current job
  Doing good in any career
  How to invest in yourself
  See all our career reviews →
- Planning & decision making Use our tools to make concrete plans.
  See all planning resources →
  Create a high-impact career plan
  8-week career planning course
  Summary
  Career plan template
  Annual career check-up
  Make good career decisions
  Make an immediate decision
  Improve your decision-making skills
  See all planning resources →
- Browse all our content Pick a topic to explore or check out our most popular pieces.
  Selected topics
  Moral philosophy
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  Job satisfaction
  Anonymous advice
  Unconventional advice
  What to study
  Advocacy
  Catastrophic risks
  Meta-causes
  Priority paths
  See all topics →
  Top articles from outside our guides
  What makes for a dream job?
  Best charities to donate to
  Misconceptions about effective altruism
  High-impact research questions
  What are your chances of getting elected to Congress, if you try?
  How many lives does a doctor save?
  What's the impact of voting?
  Advice for undergraduates
  All articles →
  
  2017 career guide
  All career guide pages →
Read the full guide →
Introduction
Your most important decision
Summary
Foundations
A definition of impact
Future generations & their moral significance
Effective altruism
Global priorities
Why problem selection is crucial
The case for reducing existential risks
This could be the most important century
Our current list of pressing problems
Solutions
The best solutions are far more effective
Leverage
What is leverage, and how to get it?
Our list of high-impact careers
Personal fit
Fit is more important than you think
Strategy
What is career capital?
How much to explore?
Coordination and impact
Balancing impact and doing what you love
Aim higher: a rational case for dreaming big
Three career stages
Conclusion
How much do careers differ in impact?
Read the full guide →
Go to problems hub →
Top areas to work on
Positively shaping the development of AI
Global priorities research
Building effective altruism
Reducing the risk of catastrophic pandemics
Nuclear security
Improving institutional decision making
Extreme climate change
Other promising areas
Mitigating great power conflict
Global governance
Space governance
See all →
Go to problems hub →
See all our career reviews →
Key categories of impactful careers
Government and policy
Organisation-building at effective nonprofits
Research
Applying an unusual strength to a needed niche
Communication
Earning to give
List of top-recommended career paths
AI safety technical research
Long-term AI policy
Founder of new projects
Helping build the effective altruism community
Grantmaker
Operations management in high-impact organisations
Research into global priorities
Biorisk research, strategy, and policy
China-related AI safety and governance
Forecasting research and implementation
Sometimes-recommended paths
High-impact but especially competitive
Promising but under-researched
Impactful if you’re an especially good fit
Recommended career capital
Steps to build your skills and network
Making the most of your current job
Doing good in any career
How to invest in yourself
See all our career reviews →
See all planning resources →
Create a high-impact career plan
8-week career planning course
Summary
Career plan template
Annual career check-up
Make good career decisions
Make an immediate decision
Improve your decision-making skills
See all planning resources →
Selected topics
Moral philosophy
Skills
Job satisfaction
Anonymous advice
Unconventional advice
What to study
Advocacy
Catastrophic risks
Meta-causes
Priority paths
See all topics →
Top articles from outside our guides
What makes for a dream job?
Best charities to donate to
Misconceptions about effective altruism
High-impact research questions
What are your chances of getting elected to Congress, if you try?
How many lives does a doctor save?
What's the impact of voting?
Advice for undergraduates
All articles →

2017 career guide
All career guide pages →
Job board
Podcast
- The 80,000 Hours Podcast
- 80k After Hours
- Effective Altruism: An Introduction
- Effective Altruism: Ten Global Problems
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Big picture (96)
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- Now vs. Later (7)
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Priority paths (138)
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Careers (347)
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Other topics (171)
- Anonymous advice (18)
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Strategies (117)
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Topic archive: Careers

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All content tagged "Careers"

2022

May

#130 – Will MacAskill on balancing frugality with ambition, whether you need longtermism, & mental health under pressure
Podcast
Climate change
Problem profile
Data collection for AI alignment
Career review
#129 – James Tibenderana on the state of the art in malaria control and elimination
Podcast

April

#128 – Chris Blattman on the five reasons wars happen
Podcast
#127 – Sam Bankman-Fried on taking a high-risk approach to crypto and doing good
Podcast

March

#125 – Joan Rohlfing on how to avoid catastrophic nuclear blunders
Podcast
#124 – Karen Levy on fads and misaligned incentives in global development, and scaling deworming to reach hundreds of millions
Podcast
Communication careers
Article
#123 – Samuel Charap on why Putin invaded Ukraine, the risk of escalation, and how to prevent disaster
Podcast
Engineering
Career review
Michelle and Habiba on what they’d tell their younger selves, and the impact of the 1-1 team [80k After Hours]
Podcast
#122 – Michelle Hutchinson & Habiba Islam on balancing competing priorities and other themes from our 1-on-1 careers advising
Podcast
Operations management in high-impact organisations (Updated)
Article
The highest-impact career paths our research has identified so far (Updated)
Article
Journalism (Updated)
Career review

February

#121 – Matthew Yglesias on avoiding the pundit's fallacy and how much military intervention can be used for good
Podcast
Software engineering
Career review
#120 – Audrey Tang on what we can learn from Taiwan’s experiments with how to do democracy
Podcast
Founder of new projects tackling top problems (Updated)
Career review

2021

December

#119 – Andrew Yang on our very long-term future, and other topics most politicians won’t touch
Podcast
#118 – Jaime Yassif on safeguarding bioscience to prevent catastrophic lab accidents and bioweapons development
Podcast

November

#117 – David Denkenberger on using paper mills and seaweed to feed everyone in a catastrophe, ft Sahil Shah
Podcast
#116 – Luisa Rodriguez on why global catastrophes seem unlikely to kill us all
Podcast
Government and policy in an area relevant to a top problem
Article
#115 – David Wallace on the many-worlds theory of quantum mechanics and its implications
Podcast
The growth of effective altruism: what does it mean for our priorities and level of ambition?
Blog post
Founder of new projects tackling top problems (First published)
Career review

October

#114 – Maha Rehman on working with governments to rapidly deliver masks to millions of people
Podcast
Manager of a long-term philanthropic fund
Career review
Investigate a potentially pressing but unexplored global issue
Career review
Mitigating climate change using effective altruist approaches
Career review
Journalism
Career review
Public intellectual
Career review
Information security
Career review
Expert in AI hardware
Career review
Specialist in emerging global powers
Career review
Research management
Career review
Policy careers focused on other pressing global issues
Career review
Non-technical roles in leading AI labs
Career review
Historian of large societal trends, inflection points, progress, or collapse
Career review
Forecasting and related research and implementation
Career review
Earning to give in a high-paying role, such as quantitative trading
Career review
Biorisk research, strategy, and policy
Career review
Research into global priorities
Career review
Help build the effective altruism community
Career review
Grantmaker focused on pressing world problems
Career review
AI safety technical research
Career review
Long-term AI policy strategy research and implementation
Career review
#113 – Varsha Venugopal on using gossip to help vaccinate every child in India
Podcast
#112 – Carl Shulman on the common-sense case for existential risk work and its practical implications
Podcast

September

#111 – Mushtaq Khan on using institutional economics to predict effective government reforms
Podcast

August

#110 – Holden Karnofsky on building aptitudes and kicking ass
Podcast
#109 – Holden Karnofsky on the most important century
Podcast
#108 – Chris Olah on working at top AI labs without an undergrad degree
Podcast
#107 – Chris Olah on what the hell is going on inside neural networks
Podcast

July

#106 – Cal Newport on an industrial revolution for office work
Podcast
#105 – Alexander Berger on improving global health and wellbeing in clear and direct ways
Podcast

June

#104 – Pardis Sabeti on the Sentinel system for detecting and stopping pandemics
Podcast
#103 – Max Roser on building the world's first great source of COVID-19 data at Our World in Data
Podcast
#102 – Tom Moynihan on why prior generations missed some of the biggest priorities of all
Podcast

May

Part 6: Plan to adapt
Article
Part 5: Determine your best-guess next career step
Article
Part 3: Generate ideas for longer-term paths
Article
Effective Altruism: Ten Global Problems — curated episodes from The 80,000 Hours Podcast
Article
#98 – Christian Tarsney on future bias and a possible solution to moral fanaticism
Podcast

April

#97 – Mike Berkowitz on keeping the U.S. a liberal democratic country
Podcast
#96 – Nina Schick on disinformation and the rise of synthetic media
Podcast

March

#95 – Kelly Wanser on whether to deliberately intervene in the climate
Podcast
#94 – Ezra Klein on aligning journalism, politics, and what matters most
Podcast
#93 – Andy Weber on rendering bioweapons obsolete & ending the new nuclear arms race
Podcast
#92 – Brian Christian on the alignment problem
Podcast

January

#90 – Ajeya Cotra on worldview diversification and how big the future could be
Podcast
Rob Wiblin on self-improvement and research ethics
Blog post

2020

December

#89 – Owen Cotton-Barratt on epistemic systems & layers of defense against potential global catastrophes
Podcast
#88 – Tristan Harris on the need to change the incentives of social media companies
Podcast

November

#87 – Russ Roberts on whether it's more effective to help strangers, or people you know
Podcast

October

If you care about social impact, why is voting important?
Article
#86 – Hilary Greaves on Pascal's mugging, strong longtermism, and whether existing can be good for us
Podcast

August

Research questions that could have a big social impact, organised by discipline
Article
How to use your career to help reduce existential risk
Article
Why I’ve come to think global priorities research is more important than I thought
Blog post
#84 – Shruti Rajagopalan on what India did to stop COVID-19 and how well it worked
Podcast
Ideas for high-impact careers beyond our priority paths
Blog post

July

#83 – Jennifer Doleac on ways to prevent crime other than police and prisons
Podcast
#82 – James Forman Jr on reducing the cruelty of the US criminal legal system
Podcast

June

#80 – Professor Stuart Russell on why our approach to AI is broken and how to fix it
Podcast
#79 – A.J. Jacobs on radical honesty, following the whole Bible, and reframing global problems as puzzles
Podcast

May

#77 – Professor Marc Lipsitch on whether we're winning or losing against COVID-19
Podcast
#76 – Tara Kirk Sell on COVID-19 misinformation, who's over and under-performed, and what we can reopen first
Podcast

April

Policy and research ideas to reduce existential risk
Blog post
#74 – Dr Greg Lewis on COVID-19 & catastrophic biological risks
Podcast
What programmes will 80,000 Hours provide (and not provide) within the effective altruism community?
Blog post
Essential Facts and Figures – COVID-19
Article

March

#73 – Phil Trammell on patient philanthropy and waiting to do good
Podcast
#72 – Toby Ord on the precipice and humanity's potential futures
Podcast
#71 – Benjamin Todd on the key ideas of 80,000 Hours
Podcast

February

Arden & Rob on demandingness, work-life balance and injustice (80k team chat #1)
Podcast
#70 – Dr Cassidy Nelson on the twelve best ways to stop the next pandemic (and limit COVID-19)
Podcast
Bonus episode: What we do and don’t know about the 2019-nCoV coronavirus
Podcast

January

#68 – Will MacAskill on the paralysis argument, whether we're at the hinge of history, & his new priorities
Podcast

2019

December

#67 – David Chalmers on the nature and ethics of consciousness
Podcast
#66 – Peter Singer on provocative advocacy, EA, how his ethical views have changed, and drowning children
Podcast

November

#65 – Amb. Bonnie Jenkins on 8 years pursuing WMD arms control, & diversity in diplomacy
Podcast
Advice on how to read our advice
Article
Before committing to management consulting, consider directly entering priority paths, policy, startups, and other options
Article

October

#64 – Bruce Schneier on the big risks in computer security, secrets, and surveillance without tyranny
Podcast
Anonymous answers: How have you seen talented people fail in their work?
Blog post

September

#63 – Vitalik Buterin on better ways to fund public goods, blockchain's failures, & effective giving
Podcast

August

Philosophy academia
Career review

July

#61 – Helen Toner on emerging technology, national security, and China
Podcast

June

#60 – Prof Tetlock on why accurate forecasting matters for everything, and how you can do it better
Podcast
#59 – Cass Sunstein on how social change happens, and why it's so often abrupt & unpredictable
Podcast
#58 – Pushmeet Kohli of DeepMind on designing robust & reliable AI systems and how to succeed in AI
Podcast

April

Career advice I wish I’d been given when I was young
Blog post
#57 – Tom Kalil on how to do the most good in government
Podcast
#56 – Persis Eskander on wild animal welfare and what, if anything, to do about it
Podcast

March

#55 – Mark Lutter & Tamara Winter on founding charter cities with outstanding governance to end poverty
Podcast
#54 – Askell, Brundage & Clark from OpenAI on publication norms, malicious uses of AI, and general-purpose learning algorithms
Podcast

February

#53 – Kelsey Piper on the room for important advocacy within journalism
Podcast
#52 – Glen Weyl on uprooting capitalism and democracy for a just society
Podcast

January

#51 – Martin Gurri on the revolt of the public & crisis of authority in the information age
Podcast

2018

December

#50 – Dr David Denkenberger on how to feed all 8 billion people through an asteroid/nuclear winter
Podcast
#49 – Dr Rachel Glennerster on a year's worth of education for under $1 and other development best buys
Podcast

November

#48 – Brian Christian on better living through the wisdom of computer science
Podcast
#47 – Catherine Olsson & Daniel Ziegler on the fast path into high-impact ML engineering roles
Podcast

October

#46 – Hilary Greaves on moral cluelessness, population ethics, & harnessing the brainpower of academia to tackle the most important research questions
Podcast
#45 – Prof Tyler Cowen's stubborn attachments to maximising economic growth, making civilization more stable & respecting human rights
Podcast
Ways people trying to do good accidentally make things worse, and how to avoid them
Article
What skills or experience are most needed within professional effective altruism in 2018? And which problems are most effective to work on? New survey of organisational leaders.
Blog post
Have a particular strength? Already an expert in a field? Here are the socially impactful careers 80,000 Hours suggests you consider first. (First published)
Article
New career review on becoming an academic researcher: Highlights on your chances of success, which fields have highest GRE scores, & having impact outside research
Blog post
#44 – Dr Paul Christiano on how OpenAI is developing real solutions to the 'AI alignment problem', and his vision of how humanity will progressively hand over decision-making to AI systems
Podcast
Academic research
Career review

September

Have a particular strength? Already an expert in a field? Here are the socially impactful careers 80,000 Hours suggests you consider first. (Updated)
Article
Recent research we’ve published: Our top 10 careers for social impact; Congressional staffing; Comparative advantage; And can you guess which psychology experiments will replicate?
Blog post
#43 – Daniel Ellsberg on the creation of nuclear doomsday machines, the institutional insanity that maintains them, & how they could be dismantled
Podcast
American with a science PhD? Get a fast-track into AI and STEM policy by applying for the acclaimed AAAS Science & Technology Fellowship by Nov 1.
Blog post
#42 – Amanda Askell on moral empathy, the value of information & the ethics of infinity
Podcast

August

#41 – David Roodman on incarceration, geomagnetic storms, & becoming a world-class researcher
Podcast
#40 – Katja Grace on forecasting future technology & how much we should trust expert predictions.
Podcast
The highest-impact career paths our research has identified so far
Article
#39 – Spencer Greenberg on the scientific approach to solving difficult everyday questions.
Podcast

July

#38 – Prof Yew-Kwang Ng on anticipating EA decades ago & how to make a much happier world
Podcast
#37 – GiveWell picks top charities by estimating the unknowable. James Snowden on how they do it.
Podcast
#36 – Tanya Singh on ending the operations management bottleneck in effective altruism
Podcast
Global priorities research (Updated)
Problem profile

June

#35 – Tara Mac Aulay on the audacity to fix the world without asking permission
Podcast

May

#34 – We use the worst voting system that exists. Here's how Aaron Hamlin is going to fix it.
Podcast
#33 – Dr Anders Sandberg on what if we ended ageing, solar flares & the annual risk of nuclear war
Podcast
#32 – Prof Bryan Caplan on whether the Case Against Education holds up, totalitarianism, & open borders
Podcast
Congressional staffer
Career review
#30 – Dr Eva Vivalt on how little social science findings generalize from one study to another
Podcast
#29 – Dr Anders Sandberg on three new resolutions for the Fermi Paradox and how to easily colonise the universe
Podcast

April

#28 – Dr Owen Cotton-Barratt on why scientists should need insurance, PhD strategy & what if AI progresses fast
Podcast
#26 – Marie Gibbons on how exactly clean meat is created & the advances needed to get it in every supermarket
Podcast

March

Operations management in high-impact organisations (First published)
Article
#25 – Prof Robin Hanson on why we have to lie to ourselves about why we do what we do
Podcast
#24 – Stefan Schubert on why it’s a bad idea to break the rules, even if it’s for a good cause
Podcast
Yes, a career in commercial law has earning potential. We still don’t recommend it.
Blog post
Blog: A new recommended career path for effective altruists: China specialist
Blog post
#22 – Dr Leah Utyasheva on the nonprofit that figured out how to massively cut suicide rates
Podcast
UK commercial law (for earning to give) (First published)
Career review

February

UK commercial law (for earning to give) (Updated)
Career review
#21 – Holden Karnofsky on times philanthropy transformed the world & Open Phil's plan to do the same
Podcast
#20 – Bruce Friedrich on inventing outstanding meat substitutes to end speciesism & factory farming
Podcast
#19 – Samantha Pitts-Kiefer on working next to the White House trying to prevent nuclear war
Podcast

January

#17 – Prof Will MacAskill on moral uncertainty, utilitarianism & how to avoid being a moral monster
Podcast

2017

December

#16 – Dr Hutchinson on global priorities research & shaping the ideas of intellectuals
Podcast

November

#15 – Prof Tetlock on how chimps beat Berkeley undergrads and when it’s wise to defer to the wise
Podcast
Why you should consider applying for grad school right now
Blog post

October

#13 – Claire Walsh on testing which policies work & how to get governments to listen to the results
Podcast
#12 – Dr Beth Cameron works to stop you dying in a pandemic. Here’s what keeps her up at night.
Podcast
#11 – Dr Spencer Greenberg on speeding up social science 10-fold & why plenty of startups cause harm
Podcast
New problem profile: Improving institutional decision-making
Blog post
New career review: Policy-oriented civil service (with a UK focus)
Blog post
Policy-oriented government jobs
Career review
#9 – Christine Peterson on how insecure computers could lead to global disaster, and how to fix it
Podcast

September

#7 – Julia Galef on making humanity more rational, what EA does wrong, and why Twitter isn’t all bad
Podcast
Working at effective nonprofits
Career review

August

#5 – Alex Gordon-Brown on how to donate millions in your 20s working in quantitative trading
Podcast

June

Which professions are paid too much given their value to society?
Blog post
#2 – Prof David Spiegelhalter on risk, stats and improving understanding of science
Podcast
Machine Learning PhDs
Career review
Working at effective altruist organisations
Career review
The Schwarzman Scholarship: An exciting opportunity to learn more about China and get a Masters in Global Affairs
Blog post
#1 – Miles Brundage on the world's desperate need for AI strategists and policy experts
Podcast

May

How much do hedge fund traders earn?
Blog post
Which industry has the highest-paying jobs?
Article

April

Should you wait to make a difference? (Updated)
Article
Why and how to earn to give (Updated)
Article

March

Allied health professional
Career review
Some further resources on high-impact careers
Article

January

5 reasons not to go into education
Blog post

2016

December

Product manager in tech
Career review

November

How much is one vote worth?
Blog post

June

Maria Gutierrez on doing good through art, Costa Rica and why 80,000 Hours changed her career
Blog post
How to do high impact research (Updated)
Article

May

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

April

Global priorities research (First published)
Problem profile

February

Interview: trying to change the resources industry from the inside
Blog post
New career review: web designer
Blog post
Web designer
Career review
What the literature says about the earnings of entrepreneurs
Blog post
Is nursing or headhunting the best career for you?
Blog post
Executive search
Career review
Doing good through for-profits: Wave and financial tech
Blog post
Nursing
Career review
We can learn a lot from Tara, who left pharmacy to work in effective altruism
Blog post
Plan change story: interview with Dillon Bowen, founder of Effective Altruism group at Tufts University
Blog post

January

10 steps to a job in politics
Blog post

2015

December

Podcast with Ben West, who expects to donate tens of millions for charity through tech entrepreneurship
Blog post
Who should found a startup? Podcast with the founder of Entrepreneur First
Blog post
Plan change story: from neuroscience academia to cost-effectiveness research
Blog post
Lehua closed down her fundraising startup after reading our blog: plan change story
Blog post

November

One of the most exciting new effective altruist organisations: An interview with David Goldberg of the Founders Pledge
Blog post
Take the growth approach to evaluating startup nonprofits, not the marginal approach
Blog post
Why and how to found a (GiveWell) nonprofit
Blog post

October

Research into risks from artificial intelligence (First published)
Career review
Startup employees don’t earn more
Blog post

September

Research into risks from artificial intelligence (Updated)
Career review
The return to coding bootcamps may not remain so high forever
Blog post
Are too many people going into biomedical research – or too few?
Blog post
Will effective altruism destroy the arts? No.
Blog post
What do journalists say about journalism as a high-impact career?
Blog post
What do leaders of effective nonprofits say about working in nonprofits?
Blog post
Early-stage startup employee (Updated)
Career review

August

4 reasons working at a foundation is better than you think
Blog post

July

Can you have more impact working in a foundation than earning to give?
Blog post
Foundation grantmaker
Career review
Is wealth inequality so extreme that it’s OK to be a ruthless trader?
Blog post
Early-stage startup employee (First published)
Career review
If you want to save lives, should you study medicine? Probably not.
Blog post
Think tank research
Career review
Teaching
Career review
Pursuing fame in art and entertainment
Career review
Medical careers
Career review
Actuarial science
Career review
The highest-impact career paths our research has identified so far (First published)
Article
Why you usually shouldn’t work at nonprofits straight after graduation
Blog post
Effective altruists love systemic change
Blog post
80,000 Hours thinks that only a small proportion of people should earn to give long term
Blog post
In some careers your parents can give you a huge boost. Should you do what they did?
Blog post
I want to make a difference. Should I work in marketing?
Blog post
What are your chances of getting elected to Congress, if you try?
Blog post
Marketing (for skill-building & earning to give) (Updated)
Career review

June

Marketing (for skill-building & earning to give) (First published)
Career review
I want to make a difference. Should I become a philosopher?
Blog post
Should you go into journalism to make a difference?
Blog post
Journalism (First published)
Career review
Should you do a computer science PhD?
Blog post
Computer Science PhD
Career review
Why an economics PhD might be the best graduate program
Blog post
Economics PhDs
Career review
Advice on entering a US economics PhD from the UK with a non-quantitative background
Blog post
New profile on a new career path: data science
Blog post
Data science (for skill-building & earning to give)
Career review
New in-depth profile on software engineering
Blog post
Check with your gut, but don’t go with it (Updated)
Article

May

New in-depth profile on management consulting
Blog post

April

Get paid to do existential risk reduction research
Blog post
Management consulting (for skill-building & earning to give) (Updated)
Career review

March

Management consulting (for skill-building & earning to give) (First published)
Career review
Education research: Interview with Dan Greene
Blog post

February

The Chronicle of Higher Education on who gets ‘elite’ jobs
Blog post
How to start a career in technology (even if you studied art)
Blog post

2014

December

Why apply to Teach First?: An interview with the UK’s largest graduate recruiter
Blog post
The camel doesn’t have two humps – update to software engineering profile
Blog post
Learn to code in 16 weeks for free in the UK at Founders and Coders
Blog post
Interested in working in international development? Consider 2Seeds.
Blog post

November

Serial social entrepreneur, Michael Norton OBE, speaks in Oxford
Blog post

October

Should you wait to make a difference? (First published)
Article
Check with your gut, but don’t go with it (First published)
Article
What I learned quitting my job to found a tech startup
Blog post
Update on Peter’s career story
Blog post
Tips on careers in journalism from NPR correspondent David Folkenflik
Blog post

September

Should you move to Thailand?
Blog post
Update: In which career can you make the most difference?
Blog post
Why and how to earn to give (First published)
Article
How to do high impact research (First published)
Article
To find work you love, don’t (always) follow your passion (First published)
Article
Conversation with Paul Penley of Excellence in Giving
Blog post

August

Trading in quantitative hedge funds (for earning to give) (First published)
Career review
Front office finance (for skill-building & earning to give) (First published)
Career review
Party politics (First published)
Career review
Founding effective nonprofits (international development) (First published)
Career review
Program manager in international organisations (First published)
Career review
Job satisfaction research
Article
Found a tech startup (First published)
Career review

July

Trading in quantitative hedge funds (for earning to give) (Updated)
Career review
Party politics (Updated)
Career review
Founding effective nonprofits (international development) (Updated)
Career review
Found a tech startup (Updated)
Career review
Foundation influence interview with Kerry Vaughan
Blog post
How to influence policy? An interview with Owen Barder of the Center for Global Development
Blog post
Careers in journalism – an interview with Larissa MacFarquhar
Blog post

June

The payoff and probability of obtaining venture capital
Blog post
Which university has better entrepreneurs?
Blog post
What is the average net worth of Stanford entrepreneurs?
Blog post
Increasing your earnings as a doctor
Blog post
Case series – why and how to learn programming
Blog post

May

How much do Y Combinator founders earn?
Blog post
Biographies of Top Entrepreneurs
Blog post
Shared values predict startup success? An interview with Saberr
Blog post

April

App Academy interview with Buck Shlegeris
Blog post
The Undercover Economist speaks to 80,000 Hours
Blog post

February

Front office finance (for skill-building & earning to give) (Updated)
Career review
Program manager in international organisations (Updated)
Career review
Interview with Matt Gibb
Blog post
Case study: earning to give compared to medical research
Blog post
An estimate of the expected influence of becoming a politician
Blog post
Assessing the social value produced by founding Google
Blog post
In which career can you make the most difference?
Blog post
5 ways to make a big difference in any career
Blog post

January

Case study: can I earn more in software or finance?
Blog post
Interview with leading HIV vaccine researcher – Prof. Sir Andrew McMichael
Blog post
Reasoning about influence in politics
Blog post
Case study: choosing between working at effective altruist organisations, earning to give, and graduate school
Blog post
Research into the earnings of software engineers
Blog post

2013

December

A comparison of medical research and earning to give
Blog post
More evidence on the competitiveness of charity jobs
Blog post
Economics PhD the only one worth getting?
Blog post

November

An attempt to create a new AMF
Blog post
Careers advice from top tech entrepreneur Marc Andreessen
Blog post
Career Opportunities for Economics PhDs
Blog post
Case study: Working in the financial sector to promote a flourishing long-term future
Blog post
Live Q&A in Oxford with Dame Stephanie Shirley
Blog post
What should you do with a very large amount of money?
Blog post

October

Why consider becoming a trader?
Blog post
Interview with the World Health Organisation
Blog post
Why I’m doing a PhD
Blog post
Interview with the founder of Giving Games
Blog post
Interview with Matt Clifford
Blog post
The value of economics PhDs: A conversation with Robin Hanson
Blog post

September

Should more altruists consider entrepreneurship?
Blog post
Case Study: Designing a new organisation that might be more effective than GiveWell’s top recommendation
Blog post
Making a difference through social entrepreneurship: an interview with Tom Rippin
Blog post

July

Show me the harm
Blog post
Looking for a seriously high-impact job using your managerial skills?
Blog post
The Future of Humanity Institute is hiring a high-impact project manager
Blog post

June

Maximizing your donations via a job
Blog post

April

Is most research a waste?
Blog post

March

How to create the world’s most effective charity
Blog post

February

Bringing it all together: high impact research management
Blog post
Vegetarian Research
Blog post

January

How to make a difference in research: An interview with Nick Bostrom
Blog post
Trading, donating and charter cities: An interview with Ben Gilbert
Blog post
Should you go into research? – part 2
Blog post

2012

December

3 Ways to Advance Science
Blog post
How to choose a research topic: An interview with Anders Sandberg
Blog post

October

Why most charity fundraisers cause harm
Blog post
Open Source Technology: A Career in Engineering
Blog post
Why don’t charities spend more on fundraising?
Blog post
How to do important research
Blog post

September

How many lives does a doctor save? – Part 3 – Replacement
Blog post
How to be a high impact philosopher, part II
Blog post
How many lives does a doctor save? – Part 2 – Diminishing marginal returns
Blog post

August

How many lives does a doctor save?
Blog post
Should you go into research? – part 1
Blog post

July

The high impact PA: how anyone can bring about ground-breaking research
Blog post

May

Fundraising for charity – A career for effective altruists?
Blog post
How to be a high impact philosopher
Blog post

February

Software engineering: Britain vs Silicon Valley
Blog post
Entrepreneurship: a game of poker, not roulette
Blog post
How hard is it to become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom?
Blog post

January

Is banking harmful?
Blog post
Policy careers
Blog post
Salary or startup? How do-gooders can gain more from risky careers
Blog post

2011

November

High Impact Science
Blog post

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1aA

We're affiliated with the Future of Humanity Institute and the Global Priorities Institute at the University of Oxford.

We're part of the Centre for Effective Altruism, and work closely with Giving What We Can.

80,000 Hours is part of the Centre for Effective Altruism, a registered charity in England and Wales (Charity Number 1149828) and a registered 501(c)(3) Exempt Organization in the USA (EIN 47-1988398).

Please contact us to suggest ideas, improvements, or corrections.

We do our best to provide useful information, but how you use the information is up to you. We don’t take responsibility for any loss that results from the use of information on the site. Please consult our full legal disclaimer and privacy policy.

© 2021 – all rights reserved. Please contact us if you wish to redistribute, translate, or adapt this work.

80,000 Hours is part of the Centre for Effective Altruism, a registered charity in England and Wales (Charity Number 1149828) and a registered 501(c)(3) Exempt Organization in the USA (EIN 47-1988398).

Please contact us to suggest ideas, improvements, or corrections.

We do our best to provide useful information, but how you use the information is up to you. We don’t take responsibility for any loss that results from the use of information on the site. Please consult our full legal disclaimer and privacy policy.

© 2021 – all rights reserved. Please contact us if you wish to redistribute, translate, or adapt this work.