Introduction
Now that we’ve done all this introspection and investigation, we can get to the task at hand: actually finding a career that’s good for you and good for the world.
In the first section of the guide, we talked about what it means to make an impact. This involved reflecting on how your values and moral views could influence the cause area you want to work in – and then carefully analyzing these cause areas to prioritize between them. This led us to look at some especially promising cause areas – including global health & development, animal welfare, and catastrophic risks.
In the second section of the guide, we looked at what makes a role especially impactful. We utilized the SELF framework to assess specific jobs and roles – analyzing the significance of the problem, efficacy of the solution, leverage of the position, and fit of your skills/personality. Then, we considered what might happen if you didn’t take a particular job and how that could affect our impact assessment. Finally, we looked at how someone might actually weigh different opportunities using these tools.
So where does all this leave us? In the final section, we’ll apply all these concepts to figure out practical next steps in your career journey. But before getting started, we need to establish some idea of where you are in this process. It could be that you’re trying to decide between specific roles, or you’re figuring out which jobs to apply for, or maybe, you’re at a point you’re just exploring potential paths or career changes.
While your specific considerations will differ depending on what decision you’re making, it’s helpful to have an idea of what you’re hoping to gain and figure out along the way. Once you do, we can begin exploring and prioritizing your options. In the remainder of the guide, we’ll deep dive into the major steps of this process:
Setting your scope
What are all of your relevant options? What options can you throw out? How do you determine what’s in and outside the realm of possibility?
Structuring your decision
Now that we have some idea of your possibilities, how can you start assessing and prioritizing your specific options? What’s a useful methodology for comparing between them?
Resolving uncertainties
When looking at these options, what are some of your big uncertainties? What information can you gain to help clarify the things you’re unsure about?
Taking next steps
How do you move out of planning stage and start taking action? What are some examples of potential next steps?
We think this process will be helpful for making decisions across many stages – whether you’re looking at specific roles or just exploring paths. It’s not guaranteed to lead you to the single perfect choice, but it should help you explore your options, clarify your confusions, and ultimately come to a more informed decision.
If you’ve come to this point and you’re totally confused or just starting to think about doing good – that’s okay too. It may be helpful to revisit the reflection stage, allowing yourself to be curious about what you care about, what you enjoy, and what you could do well in. It’s normal to have no idea what to do with your career. But what you can do is take the time to thoughtfully investigate.
First up, we’ll dive into step 1: Setting your scope of possible options.
