Taking your strategic next steps

We’ve covered a lot of ground in this guide, from matching your motivations to good opportunities, to mapping your career options, finding and landing impactful roles, navigating obstacles, and more. But, the core idea running through the entire guide is simple: your career can be good both for you and for the world.

That doesn’t mean following a single, predetermined path or sticking only to a narrow set of jobs. Instead, it’s about being intentional and thoughtful with your time and energy. Not all efforts have the same impact. Some problems are more urgent, some approaches are more effective, and some roles are simply a better fit for your unique skills and motivations.

A career with impact really starts where your motivations meet meaningful opportunities. Once you have an idea of what this intersection looks like for you, you can develop what we’ve called a “career hypothesis”—a rough but intentional idea of where your skills, values, and interests might come together to make a difference. Maybe that means using your communication skills to raise awareness for a cause you care about, or applying your analytical strengths to help an organization make smarter decisions. Whatever form it takes, your hypothesis is something you develop and refine as you learn more about yourself and the world.

With that clearer direction, you’re in a better position to find roles that match your goals and to make the most of the opportunities in front of you. You’re not just applying randomly or waiting for something to feel right. You’re making deliberate moves, building relevant skills, and staying open to new information. That’s what we mean by taking a strategic approach: not plotting every step in advance, but making choices that compound over time and keep moving you toward deeper impact.

If you apply these core ideas, you’ll gain something many people go their whole careers without: an understanding of your work’s purpose and the impact you want to make. 

The next question, then, is how to get started and build a meaningful career.

What to do next

You don’t need to overhaul your career tomorrow, but you can start doing a few things today to move you closer to the direction you want to go.

Review your career hypothesis

If you haven’t yet put any career hypotheses on paper, now’s a great time to start, whether that’s one clear idea or a few possibilities you want to explore. Block out at least an hour in your calendar, and use this time to actively reflect on these questions:

• Is your current direction exciting and meaningful to you?
• Are there new cause areas, organizations, or types of work you want to explore?
• What questions or uncertainties do you want to dig into next?

Like a scientist updating their theories with new data, you can then test and refine your career hypotheses as you gain fresh insights and experiences. You don’t need to reinvent your path every few months, but regular check-ins can help you stay intentional about what you’re learning regarding your strengths, values, and the problems that matter most to you. 

Make time for intentional exploration

To test and refine your career hypothesis, you figure out what are the next steps you should take to test out your hypotheses, and then set aside some time for this. Then, figure out could mean diving deeper into the problems you care about, learning about new fields, or investigating different types of roles and organizations.

For example, spend a dedicated 2-hour block this week researching 1–2 career paths or cause areas that genuinely spark your curiosity. Try to go beyond what you already know to understand the scope and urgency of the issues, the main strategies people are using to tackle them, and the evidence behind those approaches. Once you have a clearer picture, look into 3–5 leading organizations working in those areas and explore the kinds of roles they typically hire for. Consider how your skills might have leverage within these organizations, even in roles that aren’t the most obvious fits.

This kind of exploration sharpens the “impact” side of your career hypothesis, helping you spot where meaningful contributions are possible and how your unique strengths could align with those opportunities. 

Build up your skills and portfolio 

Look for 1–2 skills or areas of expertise that would meaningfully boost your career prospects and your ability to contribute effectively. Not every skill is equally valuable in every context, so it’s important to be strategic about what you learn.

To make this actionable, identify a high-leverage skill. This is a specific skill or area of expertise that, if you gained or significantly improved it, would create the most immediate leverage or open the most doors for your career hypothesis. Research what top performers in your target roles or cause areas excel at. Then, dedicate 1-2 hours this week to finding a high-quality resource (an online course, a specialized book, a project brief) to start developing that specific skill.

For fields where a portfolio matters (like design, communication, or coding), taking on side projects is a fantastic way to both practice and develop in areas you want to grow, and to show off your work publicly. A strong portfolio can significantly improve your chances of getting noticed and hired.

In some cases, like when you’re in the early stages of your career, having even just one excellent example showing you can “do the work” can make the difference between getting hired or not. For fields where a portfolio is less common, figure out what skills (like project management, data analysis, or leadership) would be most helpful for the roles you’re interested in. Then, see if there are ways you can grow and demonstrate these skills, through things like volunteering or certifications.

If you find that there’s a significant skill gap that would take a while to bridge, that’s okay too! You can decide to focus on a role that will help you build career capital for now, and later switch to doing more directly impactful work.

Build relationships that support your growth 

Careers are shaped as much by the people around us as by the plans we make. The right conversations can shift your thinking, uncover new paths, or help you see your strengths more clearly. One simple way to start: aim to make one thoughtful connection this week. That might be someone whose work you admire, who’s working in a role or field related to your career hypothesis, or who brings a perspective you’d value. Reach out with a short, genuine message—maybe with a question, or an invitation for a quick chat.

You can also engage with one community that seems relevant to you by reading some of their content, signing up for an event, or posting to their forum. To find relevant communities, you can do a quick search for “[your field] + community”, check out broad communities like Effective Altruism and the School for Moral Ambition (which cover a wide range of topics), or look at our career profiles and cause areas (which contain field-specific communities recommended by experts).

Alongside new connections, keep tending to the relationships you already have. Stay in touch with mentors, peers, and collaborators who care about the kinds of problems you’re exploring. Look for ways to offer value before asking for help, like sharing useful resources, passing along opportunities, or simply asking thoughtful questions. And over time, try to build a small group of people you trust to give honest feedback as your career evolves.

Identify five roles that could be a strong next step

If you’re at the point where you’re ready to start applying, this is a great time to connect your career hypothesis to real-world opportunities. Check out our job board and try to identify five specific roles or volunteer positions that align with your direction. These don’t need to be perfect or final choices. Instead, think of them as promising ways to test your hypothesis, grow relevant skills, or get closer to a cause area you’re excited about.

As you look through roles, pay attention to what sparks your interest or curiosity. Which responsibilities feel energizing? What kinds of problems do you want to help solve? Tracking your reactions can be just as useful as tracking the roles themselves.

Most importantly, if any of these roles look like they could actually be a good fit based on what you learned so far, apply to them! If you land a role, that would be great, and even if you don’t, you’ll still gain valuable insights that you can then use to update your career hypotheses.

Look for other good opportunities

The options we covered above are comprehensive, but by no means exhaustive. There’s tons of other stuff you could do to help yourself build a more impactful career, like:

• Decide on your application strategy, in terms of which roles you’ll apply for and when.
• Polish your resume, with a focus on the type of roles you’re interested in.
• Look into ways to do effective giving, for example through Giving What We Can.

Whatever you choose, the key is to pick a few things that feel most relevant to where you are right now. What matters most is to keep moving forward intentionally, even if it’s just with small steps at a time, rather than waiting for the perfect moment.

Moving forward

Making a difference with your career is about deliberate moves that add up over time. Some seasons will be for exploring, others for building or consolidating. You’ll adapt, refine, and occasionally backtrack. That’s all part of the process!

But if you keep coming back to the core ideas—focusing where it matters, building toward what fits, and treating your career as a long-term journey—you’ll be on your way to creating a career that not only feels meaningful, but is meaningful. And that’s a rare and worthwhile thing to aim for.