What people most often ask 80,000 Hours' career advisors | Michelle Hutchinson (2020)

Mission and Scope of 80,000 Hours Advising

• The primary goal is to help individuals secure the most impactful career possible, rather than merely "finding a job" or "doing good."
• Advising differs from written content by offering personalized encouragement, reframing options, and acting as a sounding board for complex decisions.
• The process typically involves a 30-minute to 1-hour call, preceded by application forms designed to help users clarify their key uncertainties and skill sets beforehand.
• Michelle Hutchinson, the Head of Advising, has a background in moral philosophy (PhD, Oxford) and previously worked at the Center for Effective Altruism and the Global Priorities Institute.

Common Behavioral Patterns and Misconceptions

• Underconfidence: Many advisees are too risk-averse and fail to apply for competitive roles due to a fear of rejection, despite being well-qualified.
  • Recommendation: Apply widely to a mix of competitive "stretch" options and backup "safe" options to avoid anchoring on the first offer received.
  • Strategy: Suggest applying to jobs one does not want first to desensitize oneself to the application process.
• Interpersonal Comparison: Advisees often feel dissatisfied by comparing their absolute impact to the most impressive people they know.
  • Insight: This comparison is often flawed because it ignores unobserved traits (e.g., specific education, background) and focuses on malleable vs. non-malleable traits.
  • Advice: Focus on the absolute amount of good being done (e.g., donating 10% of median income can save lives) rather than relative standing.
• Narrow Option Sets: People frequently rule out paths they haven't researched or assume only a few specific "priority paths" (e.g., AI safety, biosecurity) are viable.
  • Fact: 80,000 Hours has introduced "niche paths" and expanded its job board to include over 500 vacancies across diverse areas to combat this tunnel vision.
  • Example: A doctor considering public health might be guided toward biosecurity; a math student might discover they prefer AI technical safety over global priorities research.
• Impact Disparity: There is often a massive disparity in impact between different career choices within the same cause area (e.g., late-stage AIDS treatment vs. entry-level antiretrovirals).
  • Framing Shift: Advises users to rank options by potential impact first, then determine personal fit, rather than starting with personal preferences.

Decision-Making Strategies and Risks

• Long-term Trajectory: People often focus on the immediate next step rather than a 10–20 year career arc.
  • Risk: Taking a "safe" job (e.g., general consulting) that doesn't provide specific skills for the user's desired long-term impact area.
  • Solution: Map out long-term goals first to select intermediate steps that build relevant experience.
• Passion vs. Impact: Users often rule out high-impact roles because they lack immediate passion, despite the fact that passion is hard to introspect without trying.
  • Strategy: Test specific roles through research, networking, or short-term projects before ruling them out.
• Risk Management: Risk aversion is often disproportionate to actual financial or career resilience.
  • Observation: Many people fail to recognize their "Plan Z" (fallback options) or overestimate the stigma of taking a step back in a career.
  • Advice: Explicitly assess backup plans to reduce anxiety; career setbacks are often less visible and impactful on a CV than assumed if the narrative is clear.
• Geographic Constraints: Users often underestimate the value of being locationally flexible.
  • Data: Advising is most effective for those in hubs like SF, DC, London, or Oxford, or those willing to move.
  • Correction: Many users overestimate the difficulty of relocating and underestimate the community support available in new locations.

Operational Details and Limitations

• Capacity: The team (currently 2-3 advisors) can only advise roughly 10–20% of applicants due to high demand and finite resources.
• Referral Criteria: The program prioritizes individuals who:
  • Broadly share the effective altruism worldview and care about prioritizing pressing problems.
  • Are not already deeply embedded in the EA community (as they likely already know the roles and people).
  • Are not locationally constrained to obscure areas where the team has no network.
• Feedback Loop: Approximately 65% of advisees rate the service 6 or 7 out of 7, though some desire more concrete job lists or less abstract discussion.
• Growth Strategy: 80,000 Hours prioritizes slow, careful hiring to maintain team culture and focus, rather than scaling the advising team rapidly.

Outliers and Lessons Learned

• Bad Advice: Michelle once advised a potential charity founder to wait and gain experience; the user started the charity anyway and succeeded rapidly due to external mentorship.
• Success Stories:
  • Jacob Hilton: Moved from quant trading to AI safety at OpenAI after realizing he could have more impact there, using his employer to learn relevant skills first.
  • Sophie (Human Biology): Transitioned from medicine/law considerations to testing diverse impact areas (lab research, copywriting) before committing.
  • Ollie (Biotech PhD): Systematically evaluated biotech career paths (academia vs. industry vs. policy) and sequenced them to avoid CV gaps.
• Maternity Leave: Michelle is currently on maternity leave, noting that "outlook forecasting" often fails to predict whether work-life balance shifts; she found that returning to work was less daunting than predicted when connecting with similar reference classes.

Resources and Calls to Action

• Job Board: Over 500 roles listed, including a recent focus on biosecurity and pandemic preparedness curated by experts.
• Advising Access: Users can join the waitlist at 80000hours.org/advising.
• Alternative Actions: For those not selected, the recommendation is to self-advise using the site's career guides, expand option sets, and talk to people already in the desired fields.
• Networking: Users are encouraged to reach out to experts for informational interviews, ensuring emails are concise and specific to increase success rates.