Benjamin Todd

Will the culture be a good fit for you?

Some people we know have entered promising policy positions, but later felt like the culture was a terrible fit for them.

There's also a risk of doing harm if you get things wrong.

So it's important to think about each specific opportunity, whether it's a job, a degree, or something else, and to think carefully about your fit.

4.

Develop a useful skill

Any option that gives you a provable, useful, transferable skill can be a good move.

Some concrete options here include, in no specific order, software engineering.

We know lots of people who started with no technology background and within six months ended up with highly paid programming jobs they enjoy far more than their old jobs.

Programming is also an in-demand skill that can be used in many areas, including on some of our top problems.

Even if you don't have much background in software engineering, or even a quantitative background, it's often possible to learn rapidly through self-study or programming bootcamps, which can take you from zero experience to having a job in 6 to 12 months.

Machine learning, or ML, and applied AI.

ML will probably continue to be increasingly relevant to the world over the next few decades as AI becomes more widely applied.

So besides preparing you to work on reducing risks from AI, you'll be able to apply ML to many other pressing problems, and likely earn over $100,000 a year.

If you're currently at college, you might be able to take an ML course even if you're not majoring in computer science.

Or if you want to self-study, we list some places you might start in Appendix 7.

Management.

A skill that increasingly becomes required in a very wide range of positions as you move further along your career.

Whether it's managing people, long and complex projects, or both.

there are lots of ways to become better as a manager.