I am a British GCSE student predicted 8-9 across all of my subjects including Art, Design & Technology and Music and I am soon to select my A-levels. I want to maximise my positive output and equip myself for a future altruistic career, and in order to do this I feel I must carefully choose my A-levels so I can prepare myself for whatever path I may choose. However, I don't know what career to go down as nothing I have come across particularly interests me and I don't know what problems to tackle.
First I feel I must choose a career to pursue, but I'm not sure where my skills would be best put to use and nothing I have come across aligns with my creative interests. I am very good at problem solving and I am a very logical thinker, however my passions lie in more creative pursuits such as art and music which I doubt have much scope for large positive impact, leaving me at an impass. Considering my academic ability, I feel I have the potential to make a great contribution to society, but unless I play my cards right, I fear my output may be limited.
Do you have any suggestions on what I should do?
I don't know about impactful paths related to art and music. Have you considered asking 80,000 hours for a free careers advising call? https://80000hours.org/speak-with-us/
There's also some useful content on the 80,000 hours website on impactful careers in arts: https://80000hours.org/topic/careers/other-careers/art-entertainment/
From my perspective, I wouldn't worry too much about what A-levels you choose at this stage. You're not going to pigeonhole yourself by just choosing what you find interesting and are likely to succeed in - maybe try and pick a range of humanities and sciences to cover your bases.
I'd say if you're really unsure then try and pick something broad like international politics (or geography; where you could specialise into x-risks, AI safety, climate change or any other global problem), physics (which gives you broad science/maths skills you can apply to a range of cause areas), maths, statistics, or philosophy (which definitely has broad applications, but maybe more debatable transferrable skills). This applies to doing a degree too, and what A levels you did won't matter very much after you do the degree.
No problem :)
Best of luck with your A-levels!