Table of Contents
The four categories we have now reviewed—research, direct work, high-paying professions that enable large donations, and advocacy—are not exhaustive options for making progress on important problems. You can also often do more than one thing at a time. The important thing is that you focus on the work that is needed in the problem area you have chosen and that you would be particularly good at and enjoy.
Exercise
Make a list of promising roles
- Go through the four categories of occupations and make a list of specific jobs within them that would suit you.
- In each “Problem Profile” on the 80,000 Hours website, suggestions for jobs are given at the end. See which roles are recommended within the problems you think are most important and write down the ones that interest you.
The point of this exercise is to generate more options. We explain how to shorten the list further on. Often we have too narrow an idea of which roles we would be suitable for. It is therefore valuable to broaden the picture of what you can do before choosing the best options.