High Impact Careers

The average career is over 80,000 hours. That makes your job one of your best opportunities to have a positive impact.

While it’s easy to feel like one person can’t make a difference— and many common ways to do good (such as becoming a doctor) have less impact than you might think— some paths can lead to an extraordinary impact. If you’re fortunate enough to be able to use your career for good, but aren’t sure how to get started, we highly recommend the approach developed by 80,000 Hours:

1. Pursue the right problem

   The issue you work on is probably the most important factor determining your impact. While medicine, teaching, and charity work are often the first options to come to mind, to make the biggest difference, it’s important to focus on the most pressing problems, particularly on those that are large, neglected and solvable. Possible candidates might include working on animal welfare, global health and development, or ensuring a bright future, but there are many options to consider.

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2. Find the best ways to contribute

   Once you’ve identified the most pressing problems, think broadly about all the ways you could help solve them. What is your comparative advantage? Where could you contribute most? Remember, doing good doesn’t necessarily mean direct work. You could also have a big impact by earning to give, or pursuing a career in research, communications, organisation-building, or government and policy.

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3. Focus on personal fit

   Personal fit is even more important than most people think. Not only is it an integral component of career satisfaction, it also increases your impact. This is only logical: you’ll do a much better job, and make more of a difference, if you choose an area where you enjoy the work and are well suited to the position. Being successful in any field also gives you influence, money, and connections, which can be used to promote all sorts of good causes. For that reason, it’s a bad idea to take a job that you’d hate or struggle with just because it’s theoretically “high-impact”.

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Focusing your career on tackling pressing global problems isn’t always easy. For more information and support in developing a high-impact career plan, check out 80,000 Hours’ in-depth guide, or have a look at the resources below.