Hey everyone,
I'm a 22-year-old from Germany about to graduate with a history degree, and I'm feeling pretty worried and unsure about my next steps. I picked history because it caught my interest in school, but I didn't have much guidance from family, relatives or teachers while making that decision. It was a more or less random and not well considered step.
During my studies, I learned a lot about different philosophies and eventually discovered utilitarianism. It resonated deeply with me and I noticed what truly matters to myself is reducing suffering and improving well-being in the world. This realization led me to adopt a utilitarian mindset, and eventually, I found the amazing resources offered by 80000 Hours and the effective altruism community.
As graduation is just around the corner, I'm trying to figure out the best direction for my career. While I was still studying, I already explored other fields and managed to secure a spot in the medical school of Vienna, Austria. My initial thoughts were that a medical career could lead me to opportunities in public health, research, or clinical practice, which seem to have high potential for doing good (except clinical practice which might only be useful for earning to give). I've also been toying with the idea of leveraging my medical knowledge to start a company that addresses global health challenges.
But there's this nagging feeling that maybe I'd make a bigger impact if I pursued a career in AI policy or AI technical research instead. I know this path would demand a lot of time and effort, like getting a degree in computer science, math or physics and maybe even earning a PhD from a top-tier university.
While I believe I have the potential to succeed, I'm really concerned about spending too much time on preparation and facing setbacks, because I already “wasted” 5 years of my life with a more or less useless degree. The only useful thing during this time was the orientation process and even that could have taken place in a couple months with better guidance.
What's making this decision even harder is the fact that I've already invested lots of time and energy into securing the spot at the Austrian medical school. It's tough for me to think about changing directions now.
So I'm reaching out to you all, hoping for some advice to help me navigate this challenging decision. I know that I am in an immensely privileged situation to even ask this question and have so many options to consider.
Thanks in advance for your understanding and help. Your insights will be truly appreciated!
My personal view is that it is worth spending some more time to think about cause prioritisation, while at the same time building up career capital (see: https://80000hours.org/articles/career-capital/) that is robustly useful across a range of likely options. One way to narrow down your option set is to think about the type of work which you prefer: policy vs. research vs. operational vs. technical work. If you prefer policy/strategy/managerial kinds of work, a graduate degree in AI or medicine may not be required.
You might be able to get some work experience in one such type of work with your history degree, while thinking about cause prioritisation on the side. If possible, you may also want to try to find a job that is medicine/public health or AI-related, so you can also build up some knowledge of these fields while assessing your own personal interest. Grad school is one of the most useful ways to make a "career switch", so I think it would be wise not to rush the decision.
(unless you think AGI would be developed in the next 2 years or something and you should therefore aim for impact straightaway)