80,000 Hours 80,000 Hours
  • Career guide
  • AI & the future
  • Podcast
  • Job board
  • Resources
    • Problem profiles What are the world's most pressing problems?
      See all →
      Top areas to work on
      • AI takeover
      • Catastrophic pandemics
      • Nuclear weapons
      • Great power war
      • Factory farming
      Emerging challenges
      • The moral status of digital minds
      • AI-enabled power grabs
      • S-risks
      • Space governance
      • Gradual disempowerment
      More problem profiles →
    • Career reviews Write-ups on high-impact career paths.
      See all →
      AI-focused career paths
      • AI governance and policy
      • AI safety technical research
      • Information security in high-impact areas
      • Expert in AI hardware
      • China-related AI safety and governance
      Other top paths
      • Journalism
      • Biorisk research, strategy, and policy
      • Be a founder
      • Earn to give
      • Help build the effective altruism community
      • Research into global priorities
      • Nuclear weapons safety and security
      • Operations in high-impact organisations
      More career reviews →
    • Foundations What's the philosophy behind our advice?
      Key topics
      • Your career is your most important decision
      • A definition of impact
      • On problem selection
      • Why prioritise existential risks
      • Effective solutions
      • Making a big contribution
      • Differences in productivity
      • Comparative advantage
      • Being ambitious
      • Coordination
      • Exploration
      • Harmful jobs
      • Fundamentals of career planning
      See the full series →
    See all →
    Top areas to work on
    • AI takeover
    • Catastrophic pandemics
    • Nuclear weapons
    • Great power war
    • Factory farming
    Emerging challenges
    • The moral status of digital minds
    • AI-enabled power grabs
    • S-risks
    • Space governance
    • Gradual disempowerment
    More problem profiles →
    See all →
    AI-focused career paths
    • AI governance and policy
    • AI safety technical research
    • Information security in high-impact areas
    • Expert in AI hardware
    • China-related AI safety and governance
    Other top paths
    • Journalism
    • Biorisk research, strategy, and policy
    • Be a founder
    • Earn to give
    • Help build the effective altruism community
    • Research into global priorities
    • Nuclear weapons safety and security
    • Operations in high-impact organisations
    More career reviews →
    Key topics
    • Your career is your most important decision
    • A definition of impact
    • On problem selection
    • Why prioritise existential risks
    • Effective solutions
    • Making a big contribution
    • Differences in productivity
    • Comparative advantage
    • Being ambitious
    • Coordination
    • Exploration
    • Harmful jobs
    • Fundamentals of career planning
    See the full series →
  • Get 1-1 advice
  • Get 1-1 advice
  • New releases
  • All articles
  • Give feedback
  • About
    • About us
    • Meet the team
    • Our impact and credibility
    • Our mistakes
    • Our donors
    • Contact us
    • Support us
    • Work with us
Home Topics Careers Sometimes-recommended careers Engineering
  • New releases
  • All articles
  • Give feedback
  • About
    • About us
    • Meet the team
    • Our impact and credibility
    • Our mistakes
    • Our donors
    • Contact us
    • Support us
    • Work with us
Explore our archive by topic...
  • Foundations (331)
    • Effective Altruism (128)
    • Existential risk (95)
    • Future generations & longtermism (82)
    • Moral philosophy (78)
      • Moral patients (15)
      • Moral uncertainty (12)
    • Reasoning well (128)
      • Decision making (46)
      • Epistemics (7)
      • Forecasting (9)
  • World problems (402)
    • Emerging challenges (47)
      • Artificial sentience (14)
      • Civilisational resilience (11)
      • Risks of stable totalitarianism (14)
      • S-risks (5)
      • Space governance (5)
      • Wild animal suffering (12)
    • Most pressing problems (301)
      • Artificial Intelligence (104)
      • Building effective altruism (66)
      • Catastrophic pandemics (42)
      • Factory Farming (26)
      • Global priorities research (55)
      • Great power conflict (24)
      • Institutional decision making (52)
      • Nuclear war (28)
    • Other pressing problems (137)
      • Atomically precise manufacturing (3)
      • Charter cities (3)
      • Climate change (20)
        • Geoengineering (3)
      • Economic growth (13)
      • Ending Ageing (5)
      • False ideas on social media (10)
      • Global Health (29)
      • Global public goods (13)
      • Gun Control (3)
      • Harmful restrictions on migration (5)
      • Improving values (5)
      • Individual reasoning & cognition (21)
      • Mental health (problem area) (5)
      • Risks from malevolent actors (16)
      • Science policy & infrastructure (22)
      • Voting reform (8)
      • Whole brain emulation (6)
    • Problem prioritisation (27)
  • Careers (548)
    • Careers to build career capital (31)
      • Congressional staffer (4)
      • Early-stage startup employee (3)
      • Economics PhD (17)
      • Machine learning PhD (6)
    • Categories of impactful careers (268)
      • Applying an unusual skill to a needed niche (9)
      • Communication (30)
      • Earning to Give (63)
        • EtG advice (6)
        • EtG pros and cons (15)
      • Government & policy (88)
        • Party Politics (13)
      • Organisation-building at effective nonprofits (42)
        • Foundation Program Management (10)
        • Fundraising (9)
        • Philanthropic Advising (11)
      • Research in relevant areas (88)
        • Biomedical Research (24)
        • Scientific research (21)
    • Other careers (180)
      • Art & Entertainment (7)
      • Biomedical Research (16)
      • Computer Science PhD (15)
      • Consulting (10)
      • Data science (28)
      • Design (2)
      • Education (7)
      • Finance (19)
        • Asset Management (7)
          • Quantitative hedge funds (4)
        • Investment Banking (6)
      • Lawyer (14)
      • Marketing (3)
      • Medicine (28)
        • Doctor (13)
        • Medical Researcher (7)
      • Nursing (1)
      • Philosophy academia (11)
      • Politics (53)
        • Civil Service (11)
        • Party Politics (21)
      • Web designer (1)
    • Sometimes-recommended careers (253)
      • Academic Research (110)
      • China-Western coordination (11)
      • Data collection for AI alignment (2)
      • Earning to give in quant trading (6)
      • Effective climate change interventions (10)
      • Engineering (9)
      • Expert in AI hardware (10)
      • Found a tech startup (30)
      • High impact executive assistant (3)
      • Historian of large societal trends (8)
      • Information security (16)
      • Investigate new problems (8)
      • Journalism (27)
        • Journalist (12)
      • Longtermist philanthropy (3)
      • Non-technical roles in leading AI labs (9)
      • Organise an effective altruism group (1)
      • Policy careers (14)
      • Public intellectual (16)
      • Research management (7)
      • Software Engineering (33)
      • Specialist in emerging global powers (6)
      • Think tank research (5)
    • Top-recommended careers (247)
      • AI safety technical research (53)
      • Biorisk strategy & policy (35)
      • Building the effective altruism community (19)
      • China-related AI safety & governance (11)
      • Forecasting research & implementation (26)
      • Founder of new projects (46)
      • Grantmaker (23)
      • Long-term AI policy (58)
      • Operations at high impact organisations (13)
      • Research into global priorities (47)
  • Skills (8)
  • Career advice & strategy (329)
    • Accidental harm (20)
    • Advice for undergraduates (16)
    • Being ambitious (20)
    • Career capital (56)
    • Career planning (29)
    • Community & coordination (12)
    • Exploration (20)
    • Graduate school (22)
      • PhDs (13)
    • How to get a job (25)
    • Leverage (7)
    • Mental health (27)
    • Now vs. Later (18)
    • Personal fit (80)
      • Ability (19)
      • Job satisfaction (29)
    • Risk (14)
    • Unconventional advice (116)
      • Replaceability (5)
  • Fields (145)
    • Computer science (27)
    • Economics (46)
    • History (13)
    • Law (10)
    • Machine learning (31)
    • Philosophy (25)
    • Physics (4)
    • Psychology (19)
    • Statistics (7)
  • Other topics (208)
    • About 80,000 Hours (69)
      • Updates (45)
    • Anonymous advice (19)
    • COVID-19 (23)
    • Doing good in your current job (95)
      • Advocacy (32)
      • Donating effectively (27)
      • Income (30)
      • Volunteering (8)
    • Promoting effective altruism (2)
    • User stories (3)

Topic archive: Engineering

  • All9
  • Podcasts3
  • Career reviews2
  • Skills1
  • Problem profiles1
  • Key articles1
  • Blog posts1

Selected highlights

Engineering skills

Skill by Benjamin Hilton · Published December 2023

All content tagged "Engineering"

2024

September
  • #201 – Ken Goldberg on why your robot butler isn't here yet
    Podcast

2023

December
  • Engineering skills
    Skill
September
  • Expert in AI hardware (First published)
    Career review
March
  • Why and how to earn to give (Updated)
    Article

2022

May
  • Climate change
    Problem profile
February
  • Software engineering
    Career review

2021

November
  • #117 – David Denkenberger on using paper mills and seaweed to feed everyone in a catastrophe, ft Sahil Shah
    Podcast
October
  • Expert in AI hardware (Updated)
    Career review

2018

December
  • #50 – David Denkenberger on how to feed all 8 billion people through an asteroid/nuclear winter
    Podcast

2016

February
  • Interview: trying to change the resources industry from the inside
    Blog post

2014

September
  • Why and how to earn to give (First published)
    Article

Join our newsletter

Get weekly updates on our research, plus jobs and other opportunities to get involved.

Get 1-1 advice

Want to tackle a pressing global problem with your career?

Speak to an advisor

Our research

  • Start here
  • Career guide
  • List of world problems
  • List of top skills
  • List of careers
  • Advanced series
  • Future generations
  • Artificial intelligence
  • Anonymous advice
  • College advice
  • New releases
  • All our research
  • Translations of our content

Follow us

  • Podcast
  • 80k After Hours
  • Newsletter
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn group
  • Facebook
  • TikTok
  • YouTube

Take action

  • Find a job
  • Get 1-1 advice
  • Make a career plan

About us

  • Why 80,000 Hours?
  • Meet the team
  • Our impact and credibility
  • Our mistakes
  • Our donors
  • Contact us
  • Support us

80,000 Hours Limited is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales (with registered company number 15746854).

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, website privacy notice, and terms of use. See also our cookie notice and adjust your .

© 2025 – all rights reserved. Please contact us if you wish to redistribute, translate, or adapt this work.

The Economist logo FT logo The Guardian logo TED logo Vox logo Y Combinator logo