Hi. I've been a utilitarian for a number of years, but the more I examine my life and the path that I'm on, the more I realized I may have made some major mistakes in my career choices. When I became a utilitarian around age 18, I didn't really apply logical thinking to my career choice. At that point, I wanted to get into polling (American politics). I majored in political science, and started a graduate program in survey methodology. However, the more research I've done and the more I've thought about my career, the more I've realized that this is not the way to do the most good. Whether or not I could accomplish a lot of good by doing political polling for progressive candidates, I could always earn more money elsewhere and donate a portion of the sum to pay someone else to do that political polling. In the end, earning to give seems like the superior option.

The problem is, I'm already down this track, which is unlikely to even bring me a 6 figure income (dollars) anytime soon. However, other jobs, such as in programming/software engineering, could possibly provide a six figure income in a number of years, and a job in finance could prove even more fruitful. Right now I'm almost half way done with a two year degree in survey methodology. I would very much prefer to finish it, but I know I can't accept the sunk costs fallacy and am willing to jump ship if arguments are persuasive. On the other hand, a degree in survey methodology is heavy on statistics, so I am building some skills that could be transferable. Does anyone know to what extent I could break into a very well paying field with a degree in Survey Methodology?

Additionally, if I do decide to engage in a radical career change, I'd like advice on what direction I should go in. From my understanding, finance is probably the most lucrative, and might involve the use of quantitative skills i have acquired. However, I have some worries about finance. I'm not sure how easy to land a job with my credentials and my severe lack of social/interview skills (I may be somewhere on the autism spectrum). I do have a very strong GPA going for me though. I also know the hours in finance are supposed to be brutal, sometimes 100 hours a week. I certainly would be willing to work long hours, but I'm not sure I can work what I'd need to do in finance because I'm not a fast worker (I work 80 hours a week or so just to do a normal course load and a Research Assistantship in my program). Additionally, I worry that a career in finance would alienate my family, who make up my entire support network. Programming on the other hand sounds like a job I could switch to. I have enjoyed the limited programming experience I have had, and would work well with my lack of social incompetence. However, I wonder if the expected value of a career in programming would be lower, and I don't have a good sense of how hard it is for someone with only limited experience to master programming to the extent necessary to land the 100k+ jobs.

Does anyone have any suggestions of what path I should take, and how I could best leverage the experience I already have? Thanks a lot for the advice.

Hi Torgo, welcome to Felicifia!

Your post definitely needs the attention of someone with more actual work experience than myself. But I can offer a few thoughts.

When it comes to choosing a career, I personally look at four things.

1. Is it something you're good at?

2. Is it something you'll enjoy?

3. Is it something people want enough to pay you?

4. Is it something that will allow you to contribute significantly to the greatest good?

Is it something you're good at?

The reason why I place this highly is that you want your career to be something you have a comparative advantage in, that will make the most of your division of labour. If you're no good at it, then you're not making the most of your potential. Your career should cater to your strengths as a person, to maximize the potential impact you can have. I assume if you have chosen already to study Survey Methodology, then you're pretty good at this field. Can you be sure that you'll be just as good at finance or software engineering? It may be easy to say that you should jump to the field that let's you earn more to give, but how confident are you that you'll actually be good enough at this new field to actually make the money that you're hoping for? Regarding how challenging it would be to learn to be a good enough programmer to earn a six figure income... it'll depend on a lot of things I think. How good are you with the logic of math and abstract problem solving? If I asked you right now to, without looking it up, looking at the sun, or using a compass, figure out what direction was north, could you do this? Also, contrary to the stereotype, programming is not necessarily a job for the socially incompetent. Most actual work I believe, is done on teams, rather than alone, so you do need to be able to work with other people.

Is it something you'll enjoy?

Generally this is a concession to human nature. Most people are not perfect altruistic robots who can do something they absolutely despise with the same level of motivation as if it were something you at least can stand doing for a significant portion of your waking hours. If you don't enjoy your work, you're more likely to find it stressful and burn out. Also, it grants that we should value your happiness as a person as well. If everyone did things they utterly despised, it seems like there would be a fair bit more suffering than if everyone were able to do things that created happiness for themselves as well as others. Again, I assume if you have chosen already to study Survey Methodology, that you enjoy this field. Can you be sure that you won't despise working in finance or software engineering? You already mentioned that working in finance would alienate you from your family. That seems like it would be a pretty big hit on your morale.

Is it something people want enough to pay you?

This is somewhat obvious, but the point is there to ensure you don't end up doing something that isn't sustainable. In your case this appears to be a non-issue, so I won't go into it the way I would if you were asking about a philosophy degree or something.

Is it something that will allow you to contribute significantly to the greatest good?

This doesn't have to be directly. Earning to give would count as way to contribute significantly to the greatest good. I think this is ultimately the most important question, and one that incorporates the other questions into it. To contribute the most, you want to have a career that maximizes your potential value as a human being. This means you should be looking at more than just the pure amount of money that it pays, but also look at whether or not you can fill some niche that no one else can, or whether this career makes the most of your abilities and is something you'll be able to handle well mentally and physically. If it doesn't fit you, you won't perform in your career, and you won't end up making the potential amounts that you're hoping for.

Earning to give usually makes the most sense if you truly are capable of doing those careers well, but keep in mind that the grass always seems greener on the side that you didn't end up choosing, because you don't have the actual experience of it yet to make a proper comparison. Part of the reason why those careers pay so well is because they are tough careers and there is high demand for the few people who can perform well in them.

Just some thoughts to consider. Since I don't have a lot of work experience myself, I will refrain from suggesting a particular path for you. This is definitely not a decision to take lightly, and I wish you the best of luck in figuring it out!

Some more things that came to mind...

Have you gone through the various opinions on Earning To Give?

http://80000hours.org/earning-to-give

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earning_to_give

http://lesswrong.com/lw/hjn/earning_to_ ... er_choice/

http://www.benkuhn.net/downgrading-conf ... rning-give

http://blog.givewell.org/2013/06/26/our ... g-to-give/

There actually seems to be some difference of opinion over how good an option Earning To Give actually is. Some people seem to think that a more direct contribution involving working for a non-profit might actually be a better choice for various reasons. Have you considered this option?

Also, I should mention that all of this should take into account Opportunity Costs. You mentioned already being two years away from graduation, would switching careers force you to spend more time in school? Because if so, you have to consider the amount of money you could have made by working and also not paying tuition, and factor that into your calculations.

Regarding lack of social skills, I think that's something that can be worked on if you're willing to put the time into it. I used to be very much socially inept in high school, but throughout university I deliberately put myself into social situations to practice being social, and have improved significantly in terms of being able to deal with social situations. Maybe you're one of many people who suffer from social anxiety or phobia. The best way to overcome such things is exposure therapy, which you can sort of do on your own by intentionally going to low importance social gatherings and just focusing on learning to be social. Don't let the outcomes affect you negatively. If you make a mistake or a faux pas, just consider it a learning experience and don't let yourself be discouraged. Remember, most people will forget about the particular words and things spoken over the course of a night of socializing. Just try to relax and not overthink things. Worrying about how people will respond to what you say and do, consumes cognitive resources that you should be using listening to other people and finding things that you can talk about from the discussion. A good strategy is to practice a kind of active listening, where you focus on other people and what they are saying, rather than yourself.

Note that if you really have trouble even going to low importance social gatherings, you may want to consider something like reading a book on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) to get your emotions and your thoughts under control. It's often the case that we indulge in things like Catastrophizing, where we imagine only the worst possible situation. CBT helps to identify such misconceptions and helps one to be more rational about ones thoughts and emotions. That might help if your problem is social anxiety. If you're actually somewhere on the autistic spectrum, this may be more difficult for you, though I wouldn't give up hope. I have a friend who apparently has Asperger syndrome, but is able to get along well enough with his friends. He happens to be very intelligent, so he's learned more or less how to deal with social situations despite thinking a bit differently than other people. So I think, while it could take more effort on your part, you can still learn to handle social situations competently enough. You have a high GPA, have managed to get this far in university, and sound quite intelligent, so I think this is something that is within your abilities.

Other than that, I really hope someone else with more work experience sees your post and can provide some more adequate advice.

Hi Torgo,

We're pretty similar. I'm also a utilitarian who majored in political science (and psychology). I thought polling / grad school in poli sci would be a pretty neat career path, but I ultimately decided against it for utilitarian reasons. Instead, I'm aiming for web development with the goal of also doing EA projects on the side.

Your worries about finance seem apt. You might do well in computer programming. You probably would not get $100K right away, but I think chances are good you could land a beginning position at ~$60K with about 300-600 hours of training, depending on your aptitude and prior experience. I'd be happy to coach you through what this would look like, if you're interested.

That being said, I don't think having the largest salary is the only ticket to impact. A career in politics can be important for utilitarian reasons, because utilitarians need to learn more about how to influence the government. Do you think you could get a job that helps you learn that, like lobbying?

You can see a lot of my career choice on my blog here. I tend to think it's smart to evaluate different careers on the following nine criteria:

Direct Impact: The actions of the career itself directly improve the world. (Technically, all these other measures are supposed to be measures of indirect impact.)

Earnings: The career has a large compensation package.

Skills: The career will develop me in valuable, personal, transferable skills that are useful for furthering my career or otherwise being better at effective altruism.

Connections: The career will connect me with people that can help me a lot down the road.

Credentials: The career will look good on my resume, improve my impressiveness for employers, and qualify me for better jobs.

Information Value: The career teaches me more about what career opportunities there are and improves the quality of my future career choices.

Flexibility: The career keeps my options open in terms of allowing me to switch to another career easily.

Enjoyment: I would enjoy the career.

Replaceability: I’m not doing something that someone else easily would do just as well.

Good questions, Torgo. You seem to have a pretty clear picture of the situation. I agree with Peter that earning to give is not the only other option. I suspect there's a lot of non-replaceable impact to be had within politics, as well as plenty from the outside if you did direct altruism work in some other fashion. For instance, what would you think of doing altruism research on topics like these?

Finishing the degree might or might not make sense depending on where you go after this. Certainly stats is useful in many fields, though it wouldn't be ideal if you had particular careers in mind.

Feel free to friend me on FB if you'd like to connect.