Each year, millions of passionate young individuals graduate from colleges in their respective fields. While some manage to find lucrative jobs and/or pursue their dreams of making an actual difference with their careers, most end up wasting their talent, only because they are not sure what to do.
A nonprofit organization called “80,000 Hours” wants to help young graduates make a difference with their careers. It has been founded by two Oxford students; Benjamin Todd, Executive director at the organization, and William MacAskill, the President.
It is a nonprofit that provide career advice for talented young people who want to have a social impact. They work alongside academics at the University of Oxford and have done in-depth research on graduates and their potential social impacts.
Back in 2011, Bill and William— the co-founders— were students at Oxford and trying to decide what to do with their careers. They couldn’t find any good advice either, so they conducted their own research. It turned out to be a huge success and they managed to convince a huge number of people to completely change what they were planning to do with their lives, in just one lecture.
Emboldened by their research, they officially launched 80,000 Hours later that year. Since then, they have raised over $800,000 in funding and have attracted a global audience.
Now, they’ve also formulated an online 8-parts career guide. The guide helps you decide on a high-impact career and also recommends high-impact options you might not have thought of. It gives you a step-by-step process for making career decisions.
All you have to do is head over to their website and sign-up for their weekly guide using your email. Alternatively, you can start reading right away or watch their short videos on YouTube.
The website has multiple quizzes that can help you decide which problem you should tackle in your career. I took a short 5-minute quiz and it managed to make some incredibly useful suggestions about problems I should consider, from the potential risk posed by Artificial Intelligence to problems in the process of Factory Farming. They have dedicated a whole separate section for problem profiles.
They have also organized all their research in a neat, easily-understandable manner. A planner tool at the end ties in everything with their career guide to help formulate a plan.
None of the sessions/videos will take you more than 20 minutes. Not sure if you can spare that time? Just watch the first video that will explain how spending some time to decide on a career will be better for you in the long term. Everything is free and funded by individual donors in the name of altruism. There is nothing to lose, except maybe a few minutes of your time.
Image Credit — Forbes
