Which career paths are highest-impact?

We've updated our top 10 most recommended list.

A 🧵 about what they're based on, how they've changed & the 25 other paths we recommend.

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Roughly our process is:

1. List the most pressing global problems
2. Identify key bottlenecks to progress on them
3. Find career paths that can help with those (& that 30+ people could pursue)
4. Rank them by impact, assuming constant personal fit

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80000hours.org/problem-profiles/

The main changes since last year:

Due to the growth of funding available in our top problems, the key bottleneck now seems like a lack of project founders.

So, we added a new profile on founding impactful projects.

80000hours.org/career-reviews/founder-impactful-organisations/

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For a similar reason, we moved earning to give in high-earning careers down to 'sometimes recommended'.

80000hours.org/career-reviews/earning-to-give-in-a-high-paying-role/

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Operations became less of a bottleneck a few years ago, but with the new focus on rapidly scaling new organisations, it's back.

So we added operations management back to the list.
80000hours.org/articles/operations-management/

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Demand for AI technical safety engineers seems to have risen significantly the last few years, so we moved it to the top (ahead of AI policy).

Though bear in mind the ranking is sketchy and usually dominated by your fit!

80000hours.org/career-reviews/ai-safety-researcher/

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There's little AI safety research in China right now, but over the next 50 years, there’s a good chance that the most powerful AI systems will be developed in China.

So we added:
80000hours.org/career-reviews/china-related-ai-safety-and-governance-paths/

(And moved broader 'China specialists' to sometimes recommended.)

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We also updated our list of ~25 'sometimes recommended' path, and divided them into four categories.

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In particular, I want to highlight that we added organising an effective altruism local group as a new path:

80000hours.org/career-reviews/organise-an-effective-altruism-group/

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See all our career reviews and recommendations here:

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80000hours.org/career-reviews/