Benjamin Todd

However, we also have advice about all kinds of career decisions, and many of the core ideas apply to readers of any age or circumstance.

At the end, there are also a few more resources.

some additional articles that further explore our key ideas, summaries of our career reviews, and summaries of our top problem area profiles.

To get the most out of this guide, we recommend reading each chapter, then doing the exercises that go with each one.

If you complete them, you'll have applied the ideas to your own career, and it'll be easy to use our online career template to make your new career plan.

Go to 80k.link slash ncp.

When we've delivered this content over an afternoon, often over half the people who attended changed what they had planned to do with their lives.

So let's get started.

What's the best way you can use your 80,000 hours?

Chapter 1.

What makes for a dream job?

We all want to find a dream job that's enjoyable and meaningful.

But what does that actually mean?

Some people imagine that the answer involves discovering their passion through a flash of insight, while others think that the key elements of their dream job are that it be easy and highly paid.

We've reviewed three decades of research into the causes of a satisfying life and career, drawing on over 60 studies, and we didn't find much evidence for these views.

Instead, we found six key ingredients of a dream job.

They don't include income, and they aren't as simple as following your passion.

In fact, following your passion can lead you astray.

Steve Jobs was passionate about Zen Buddhism before entering technology.

Maya Angelou worked as a calypso dancer before she became a celebrated poet and civil rights activist.