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- Key ideas Understand what makes for a high-impact career.
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  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
  Contribution
  Which careers let you contribute most?
  Some solutions are far more effective than others
  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
  Preventing an AI-related catastrophe
  Catastrophic pandemics
  Building effective altruism
  Global priorities research
  Nuclear war
  Epistemics and institutional decision making
  Climate change
  Great power conflict
  Other promising areas
  Promoting positive values
  Space governance
  See more →
  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
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  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.
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  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
Contribution
Which careers let you contribute most?
Some solutions are far more effective than others
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
Preventing an AI-related catastrophe
Catastrophic pandemics
Building effective altruism
Global priorities research
Nuclear war
Epistemics and institutional decision making
Climate change
Great power conflict
Other promising areas
Promoting positive values
Space governance
See more →
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 →
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- Effective Altruism: An Introduction
- Effective Altruism: Ten Global Problems
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Explore our archive by topic...

Big picture (102)
- Longtermism (44)
- Moral philosophy (42)
- Now vs. Later (7)
- True Impact (16)

Problem areas (312)
- Animal Welfare (24)
  - Factory Farming (15)
- Catastrophic risks (127)
  - Artificial Intelligence (43)
  - Biorisk reduction (29)
  - Climate change (12)
    - Geoengineering (2)
  - Nuclear security (18)
- COVID-19 (16)
- Developed world education (1)
- Future generations (39)
- Global Poverty (46)
  - Appropriate Technology (2)
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  - Global Health (13)
  - Immigration Reform (3)
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  - School Building (1)
- Meta-causes (119)
  - Global Priorities Research (36)
  - Improving Decision Making (32)
  - Promoting Effective Altruism (65)
- Other causes (15)
  - Charter Cities (1)
  - Ending Ageing (1)
  - Gun Control (3)
  - Philosophy (6)
- Scientific research (28)
  - Biomedical Research (9)
  - Science policy and infrastructure (10)

Priority paths (141)
- AI policy (22)
- AI technical safety (28)
- Biorisk strategy & policy (22)
- China specialists (5)
- Earning to give in quant trading (6)
- Forecasting & related research and implementation (14)
- Grantmaker (14)
- Operations at high impact organisations (13)
- Global priorities research (36)
- Roles at effective altruism organisations (16)

Careers (352)
- Arts and Entertainment (4)
- Business (53)
  - Entrepreneurship (47)
    - Social entrepreneurship (8)
    - Startup early employee (4)
    - Tech Entrepreneurship (26)
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- Nonprofit (60)
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    - Foundation Program Management (9)
  - Founding effective nonprofits (31)
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- Remote (1)
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  - Research manager (6)
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Frameworks and planning (182)
- Career capital (48)
  - Skills (26)
    - Judgement (7)
- Career trends (4)
- Decision making (30)
- Decision Tools (33)
- Exploration (4)
- Frameworks (31)
  - Cause selection (8)
- Keeping options open (14)
- Personal fit (53)
  - Ability (19)
  - Job satisfaction (24)
- Rules of Thumb (18)
- Your Plan (25)
Other topics (181)
- Anonymous advice (18)
- Best resources (13)
- Effective Altruism (52)
- Forecasting (1)
- High Impact People (10)
- Job opportunities (13)
- Mental health (4)
- Motivation (3)
- Research principles (7)
- Unconventional advice (72)
- Volunteering (7)
- What to study (13)
Strategies (118)
- Advocacy (27)
- Earning to Give (81)
  - Donation effectiveness (13)
  - EtG advice (7)
  - EtG pros and cons (14)
  - Income (16)
- Influencing budgets (7)
Updates (42)

Topic archive: Strategies

See our key ideas page for a summary of our views on some important topics in career strategy.

Subtopics in "Strategies":

Advocacy (27)
Earning to Give (81)
- Donation effectiveness (13)
- EtG advice (7)
- EtG pros and cons (14)
- Income (16)
Influencing budgets (7)

Filter by content type:
All118
Blog posts74
Podcasts21
Key articles15
Career reviews7
Podcasts (80k After Hours)1

All content tagged "Strategies"

2022

September

#8 – Kuhan Jeyapragasan on effective altruism university groups
Podcast (80k After Hours)
Journalism (Updated)
Career review

July

#133 – Max Tegmark on how a 'put-up-or-shut-up' resolution led him to work on AI and algorithmic news selection
Podcast

June

Know what you’re optimising for
Blog post

May

#130 – Will MacAskill on balancing frugality with ambition, whether you need longtermism, & mental health under pressure
Podcast

April

#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
Communication careers
Article
The highest-impact career paths our research has identified so far (Updated)
Article

February

#121 – Matthew Yglesias on avoiding the pundit's fallacy and how much military intervention can be used for good
Podcast
#120 – Audrey Tang on what we can learn from Taiwan’s experiments with how to do democracy
Podcast

2021

December

#119 – Andrew Yang on our very long-term future, and other topics most politicians won’t touch
Podcast
What’s the best charity to donate to? (Updated)
Article

November

Government and policy in an area relevant to a top problem
Article

October

Manager of a long-term philanthropic fund
Career review
Organise an effective altruism local group
Career review
Public intellectual
Career review
Policy careers focused on other pressing global issues
Career review
Earning to give in a high-paying role, such as quantitative trading
Career review
Grantmaker focused on pressing world problems
Career review

September

How much risk to take?
Article

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

2020

December

#88 – Tristan Harris on the need to change the incentives of social media companies
Podcast

October

If you care about social impact, why is voting important?
Article

September

Benjamin Todd on the core of effective altruism and how to argue for it (80k team chat #3)
Podcast
Benjamin Todd on varieties of longtermism and things 80,000 Hours might be getting wrong (80k team chat #2)
Podcast

August

How to use your career to help reduce existential risk
Article
Misconceptions about effective altruism
Blog post

July

#82 – James Forman Jr on reducing the cruelty of the US criminal legal system
Podcast

June

#79 – A.J. Jacobs on radical honesty, following the whole Bible, and reframing global problems as puzzles
Podcast

April

#75 – Michelle Hutchinson on what people most often ask 80,000 Hours
Podcast

March

Options for donating to fight COVID-19
Article
If you want to help the world tackle COVID-19, what should you do?
Article
#73 – Phil Trammell on patient philanthropy and waiting to do good
Podcast
#71 – Benjamin Todd on the key ideas of 80,000 Hours
Podcast

February

Anonymous contributors answer: Should the effective altruism community grow faster or slower? And should it be broader, or narrower?
Blog post

2019

December

#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

August

How replaceable are the top candidates in large hiring rounds? Why the answer flips depending on the distribution of applicant ability
Blog post

June

#59 – Cass Sunstein on how social change happens, and why it's so often abrupt & unpredictable
Podcast

May

Recap: why do some organisations say their recent hires are worth so much?
Blog post

February

#53 – Kelsey Piper on the room for important advocacy within journalism
Podcast

2018

October

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

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

2017

December

Guide to effective holiday giving in 2017
Blog post

May

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

2016

December

The effective altruism guide to donating this giving season
Blog post

November

What’s the best charity to donate to? (First published)
Article
How much is one vote worth?
Blog post

June

How to do high impact research (Updated)
Article

February

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

January

Just how bad is being a CEO in big tobacco?
Blog post

2015

December

Where should you donate to have the most impact during giving season 2015?
Blog post
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
What’s the easiest way anyone can have a big social impact?
Blog post

November

Why you should focus more on talent gaps, not funding gaps
Blog post

October

Common investing mistakes in the effective altruism community
Blog post

July

Can you have more impact working in a foundation than earning to give?
Blog post
Update: how many extra donations have we caused?
Blog post
Is wealth inequality so extreme that it’s OK to be a ruthless trader?
Blog post
Defining ‘Earning to Give’
Blog post
The highest-impact career paths our research has identified so far (First published)
Article
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
Why are wages less stable in skilled professions?
Blog post
What are your chances of getting elected to Congress, if you try?
Blog post

June

What’s the best way to spend $20,000 to help the common good?
Blog post
Journalism (First published)
Career review
The winner takes all economy
Blog post
Donating to Giving What We Can is higher impact than donating to GiveWell recommended charities.
Blog post
The rise of income inequality and what it means for your career
Blog post
Why I stopped Earning to Give
Blog post

2014

December

Earning to give is systemic change
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
Update: 7 career strategies for making a difference
Blog post
Tips on careers in journalism from NPR correspondent David Folkenflik
Blog post

September

Why and how to earn to give (First published)
Article
How to do high impact research (First published)
Article

August

Job satisfaction research
Article

July

Foundation influence interview with Kerry Vaughan
Blog post

June

Which university has better entrepreneurs?
Blog post
Increasing your earnings as a doctor
Blog post

April

App Academy interview with Buck Shlegeris
Blog post
How much do people pursuing earning to give actually give?
Blog post

February

Interview with Matt Gibb
Blog post
Case study: should I finish my degree?
Blog post
Case study: earning to give compared to medical research
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
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

An interview on which skills most boost your employability
Blog post
A comparison of medical research and earning to give
Blog post

November

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

July

Show me the harm
Blog post

June

Maximizing your donations via a job
Blog post
Where can I earn the most?
Blog post
Why Earning to Give is often not the best option
Blog post
How to create a Donor-Advised Fund
Blog post

May

How to double your donations with no extra effort
Blog post
Estimation – Part II: How much will you earn?
Blog post

April

How much is 50p worth to you?
Blog post

March

How much do taxes matter if you’re giving to charity?
Blog post

February

How to find out earnings for different jobs
Blog post

January

Trading, donating and charter cities: An interview with Ben Gilbert
Blog post

2012

December

The power of effective activism
Blog post
Christmas gifts, goats and cash-transfer charities
Blog post

September

Is there such thing as a ‘bad’ charity?
Blog post

July

Universalisability – Immoral Industries Part 3
Blog post
Collective Action: working in unethical industries part 2
Blog post
The wider consequences of giving away money
Blog post

June

Following in Schindler’s footsteps
Blog post

May

Donation methods: credit vs cheque
Blog post

March

The replaceability effect: working in unethical industries part 1
Blog post
Why doesn’t everyone use match funding?
Blog post

February

5 ways to be misled by salary rankings
Blog post

January

Is banking harmful?
Blog post

2011

November

It is Effectiveness, not Overhead that Matters
Blog post

Filter by content type:
All118
Blog posts74
Podcasts21
Key articles15
Career reviews7
Podcasts (80k After Hours)1

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

We work closely with the Centre for Effective Altruism and Giving What We Can.

80,000 Hours is a project of the Effective Ventures Foundation (England and Wales registered charity number 1149828 and registered company number 07962181) with a registered 501(c)(3) Exempt Organization in the USA (Centre for Effective Altruism USA Inc., 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 a project of the Effective Ventures Foundation (England and Wales registered charity number 1149828 and registered company number 07962181) with a registered 501(c)(3) Exempt Organization in the USA (Centre for Effective Altruism USA Inc., 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.