{"id":4941,"date":"2014-08-17T22:12:59","date_gmt":"2014-08-17T22:12:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eighty-thousand-hours-staging.herokuapp.com\/?page_id=4941"},"modified":"2024-09-03T18:27:58","modified_gmt":"2024-09-03T18:27:58","slug":"career-planning","status":"publish","type":"careerguidepage","link":"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/career-guide\/career-planning\/","title":{"rendered":"Part 10: How to make your career&nbsp;plan"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-caption\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/ape-530759_640.jpg\" alt=\"Perfect match\" width=\"632\" height=\"347\" class=\"size-full wp-image-30161\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">People like to think finding the right career is like finding their &#8220;perfect match&#8221; for life. It&#8217;s not.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div id=\"audio-player\">\n<div style=\"width: 100%; min-height: 75px; clear: both;\" class=\"margin-top-smaller margin-bottom-smaller\">\n    <type-3-player \n      cover-image-url=\"\"\n      background-color=\"#f1f1f1\"\n      listen-to-this-page=\"\"\n      listen-to-this-page-text=\"\"\n      link-to-timestamp=\"true\"\n      header-play-buttons=\"true\"\n      sticky=\"true\"\n      primary-color=\"#333\"\n      secondary-color=\"#aaa\"\n      accent-color=\"#2ebdd1\"\n      primary-font-family=\"'museo-sans','Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif\"\n      secondary-font-family=\"'proxima-nova',Arial,sans-serif\"\n      analytics=\"custom\"\n      t3a-logo=\"false\"\n      link-to-timestamp-selector=\".type-3-player__replace-timestamps-with-links\"\n      feedback-button=\"false\"\n      custom-css=\" \n    .type-3-player.sticky {\n      box-shadow: 0px -2px 10px 0px rgb(171 171 171 \/ 60%);\n      z-index: 8000;\n      opacity: 1;\n      visibility: visible;\n      transition: opacity 0.2s ease, visibility 0.2s ease;\n    }\n    .type-3-player.sticky.hidden:not(.loading) {\n      display: flex !important;\n      opacity: 0;\n      visibility: hidden;\n    }\n    .-t3a-button-pill span {\n      padding-top: 1px !important;\n      font-weight: 600;\n    }\n  \"\n    ><\/type-3-player><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n      window.t3aAnalytics = function(eventType, event) {\n        analytics.track(eventType, event);\n        gtag(\"event\", eventType, event);\n        if (typeof plausible === \"function\") { \n          plausible(eventType, {props: event});\n        }\n      }\n      window.addEventListener(\"scroll\", function() {\n        const players = document.querySelectorAll(\"type-3-player\");\n        const tocButton = document.querySelector(\".sidebar-toc__open-button-wrap\");\n        const scrollTop = window.scrollY;\n        const viewportHeight = window.innerHeight;\n        const totalHeight = document.documentElement.scrollHeight;\n        if (scrollTop + viewportHeight >= totalHeight) {\n          players.forEach(player => player.style.display = \"none\");\n          if (tocButton) {\n            tocButton.style.display = \"none\";\n          }\n        } else {\n          players.forEach(player => player.style.display = \"\");\n          if (tocButton) {\n            tocButton.style.display = \"\";\n          }\n        }\n      });\n    <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n      document.addEventListener(\"DOMContentLoaded\", function() {\n        const noPlayButtonTitles = [\"Read more\", \"Read next\", \"Learn more\"];\n        document.querySelectorAll(\"h2, h3\").forEach(function(element) {\n          if (noPlayButtonTitles.includes(element.textContent.trim())) {\n            element.classList.add(\"no-heading-play-button\");\n          }\n        });\n      });\n    <\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>People often come to us trying to figure out what they should do over the next 10 or 20 years. Others say they want to figure out &#8220;the right career&#8221; for them.<\/p>\n<p>The problem with all of this is that, as we&#8217;ve seen, your plan is almost certainly going to change:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You&#8217;ll change &#8212; <a href=\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/2015\/02\/we-change-more-than-we-expect-so-keep-your-options-open\/\">more than you think<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/li>\n<li>The world will change &#8212; many industries around today <a href=\"\/career-guide\/career-capital\/#future-skills\">won&#8217;t even exist in 20 years<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/li>\n<li>You&#8217;ll learn more about what&#8217;s best for you &#8212; it&#8217;s very <a href=\"\/career-guide\/personal-fit\/\">hard to predict<\/a> what you&#8217;re going to be good at ahead of time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In a sense, there is no stable &#8220;right career for you.&#8221; Rather, the best option will keep changing as the world changes and you learn more. Many people we&#8217;ve advised would never have predicted the job they&#8217;ve ended up doing.<\/p>\n<p>Long-term planning could even be counterproductive. There&#8217;s a risk of becoming fixated on a specific plan, and failing to change your plans as your situation changes.<\/p>\n<p>All that said, giving up on planning and setting goals probably isn&#8217;t wise either. As Eisenhower said, &#8220;Plans are useless but planning is essential.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Having <em>some<\/em> idea of where you&#8217;d like to end up can help you spot much better opportunities to advance. In fact, if you want to have a big positive impact, we&#8217;d argue that planning is <em>even more<\/em> important. Many of the highest-impact roles require specialist career capital you&#8217;re unlikely to get by accident, such as connections to people in biosecurity or expertise in particular technical skills. Likewise, getting to the top of many fields often requires decades of focused effort.<\/p>\n<p>This is the planning puzzle &#8212; most &#8216;plans&#8217; will radically change long before they&#8217;re completed, but we still benefit from having them.<\/p>\n<p>Given all this, how should you make a good career plan? Here are our main tips.<\/p>\n<p><em>Reading time: 20 minutes. Or use our planning template to <a href=\"\/career-guide-template\/\">make your own plan<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"panel clearfix \">\n<h2 class=\"no_toc\">The bottom line<\/h2>\n<p>Your career should move through three stages:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Explore<\/strong> to find the best longer-term options for you.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Build career capital<\/strong> towards those options.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Deploy<\/strong> the career capital you&#8217;ve built to tackle pressing problems and bargain for a job you find personally satisfying. <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Your plan will change, and most people can&#8217;t predict what job they&#8217;ll be doing in 10\u201320 years. But it&#8217;s still useful to have a broad longer-term vision: 2\u20135 global problems you might try to solve, and 1\u20135 potential roles you&#8217;ll steer towards longer term.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s even more important to devote time to finding your best concrete next step &#8212; a specific job, educational opportunity, or project you&#8217;re going to do in the next 1\u20133 years that will increase your impact or career capital.<\/p>\n<p>Generate a long list of ideas for next steps by:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Working backwards: look for options that accelerate you towards your longer-term vision.<\/li>\n<li>Working forwards: look at the opportunities right in front of you, even if you&#8217;re not sure where they&#8217;ll lead.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Then create an A\/B\/Z plan:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Plan A is the top option you&#8217;d like to pursue, or a series of paths you want to try out.<\/li>\n<li>Plan Bs are the promising nearby alternatives you can switch into if Plan A doesn&#8217;t go as intended.<\/li>\n<li>Plan Z is your temporary fallback in case everything goes wrong \u2014 it helps you feel more comfortable taking chances.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Identify key uncertainties with your plan, then investigate them. If you need help narrowing down your vision or your next steps, you can <a href=\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/career-decision\/article\/\">use our decision tool<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, set a time to review your career, typically within 6\u201324 months. You can use <a href=\"\/annual-career-review\/\">our tool<\/a> to help.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"toc_container\" class=\"toc_white no_bullets\"><p class=\"toc_title\">Table of Contents<\/p><ul class=\"toc_list\"><li><a href=\"#dont-keep-your-options-open\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_1\">1<\/span> Don&#8217;t &#8220;keep your options open&#8221;<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#three-career-stages\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_1\">2<\/span> The three key stages to a career<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#have-a-longer-term-vision\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_1\">3<\/span> Have a longer-term vision<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#spend-longer-planning-your-next-steps\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_1\">4<\/span> Spend longer planning your next steps<\/a><ul><li><a href=\"#working-backwards\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_2\">4.1<\/span> Working backwards: if you know your long-term vision, work out how to get there<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#working-forwards\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_2\">4.2<\/span> Working forwards: look at the opportunities immediately in front of you<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><a href=\"#have-backup-options-the-abz-plan\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_1\">5<\/span> Have backup options: the A\/B\/Z plan<\/a><ul><li><a href=\"#plan-A\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_2\">5.1<\/span> 1. Plan A: your ideal scenario<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#plan-B\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_2\">5.2<\/span> 2. Plan B: nearby alternatives<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#plan-Z\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_2\">5.3<\/span> 3. Plan Z: if it all ****s up, this is your temporary fallback<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><a href=\"#set-a-review-point\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_1\">6<\/span> Set a review point<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#apply-this-to-your-own-career\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_1\">7<\/span> Apply this to your own career<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#want-to-come-back-later-get-the-guide-as-a-free-book\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_1\">8<\/span> Want to come back later?:  Get the guide as a free book<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n<h2><span id=\"dont-keep-your-options-open\" class=\"toc-anchor\"><\/span>Don&#8217;t &#8220;keep your options open&#8221;<\/h2>\n<p>A very common response to the planning puzzle is to try to &#8220;keep your options open.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>There is some wisdom in this idea: if you gain transferable <a href=\"\/career-guide\/career-capital\/\">career capital<\/a>, you&#8217;ll have more options in the future. And if you&#8217;re extremely uncertain what to do, just building transferable career capital and coming back to your plan later is a reasonable course of action.<\/p>\n<p>But through advising thousands of people with their careers, we&#8217;ve seen that it can have some serious pitfalls. Deciding to just &#8220;keep your options open&#8221; can:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Lead to you spending far too long working in a generally prestigious job (like consulting) that you know you don&#8217;t want to do long term and just isn&#8217;t that relevant to your longer-term goals. <\/li>\n<li>Stop you committing, so you end up pursuing a middle-of-the-road job that gives you some flexibility, rather than going for something that might be <em>outstanding<\/em> for career capital, and so ultimately give you better options.<\/li>\n<li>Turn into an excuse to not think hard about what&#8217;s best.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So what should you do instead?<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"three-career-stages\" class=\"toc-anchor\"><\/span>The three key stages to a career<\/h2>\n<p>Move through the following three stages:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Explore:<\/strong> take low-cost ways to learn about and test out promising longer-term roles and skills, until you feel ready to bet on one for a few years. (Most likely to be the top priority ages 18\u201324.)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Build career capital:<\/strong> take a bet on a longer-term path that could go really well by building the <a href=\"\/career-guide\/career-capital\/\">career capital<\/a> \u2014 especially skills \u2014 that will most accelerate you in your chosen path, but with a backup plan. (Age 25\u201335.)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Deploy:<\/strong> use the career capital you&#8217;ve built to tackle pressing problems and bargain for a job you find personally satisfying. (Age 36 and up.)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>And then keep updating your plan every 1\u20133 years as you continue to learn more and the world changes.<\/p>\n<p>Career capital, exploration, and of course the impact of your work are always going to be relevant to every career decision you face, throughout your career. But your <em>focus<\/em> should change over time.<\/p>\n<p>The stages last different amounts of time for different people:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If you&#8217;re especially uncertain about what to do longer term but feel like you&#8217;re learning a lot about where to focus, you might stay focused on exploration for longer (or just build transferable career capital and figure out your vision later). (Or someone mid-career who&#8217;s made a dramatic career change might shift back to exploration.)<\/li>\n<li>If you&#8217;ve already hit diminishing returns on career capital, you might move to the deploy stage faster, and vice versa.<\/li>\n<li>If you think work on your chosen problems is especially urgent &#8212; which many people think is the case for <a href=\"\/problem-profiles\/artificial-intelligence\/\">AI safety<\/a> &#8212; and the opportunities around today are better than those that will be around in 10 years, that&#8217;s a reason to skip to the deploy stage even <em>if<\/em> you&#8217;ll be less well-prepared for it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Next, we&#8217;ll look at some more ways we recommend going about career planning \u2014 while taking the uncertainty involved seriously.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"have-a-longer-term-vision\" class=\"toc-anchor\"><\/span>Have a longer-term vision<\/h2>\n<p>Although the future is very uncertain, we think for most people, it&#8217;s helpful to have at least a <em>vague<\/em> idea of where you&#8217;d like to end up longer term. This is your <em>vision<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Your vision should be broad enough that it won&#8217;t constantly change, but narrow enough to provide some direction.<\/p>\n<p>Your vision should include:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>A list of 2\u20135 global problems you&#8217;d most like to work on longer term, as covered in <a href=\"\/career-guide\/world-problems\/\">part 5<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>A list of 1\u20135 roles or types of work you&#8217;d like to aim towards, as introduced in <a href=\"\/career-guide\/high-impact-jobs\/\">part 6<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Your long-term role will often be defined by a broadly impactful skill set, such as those we <a href=\"\/skills\/\">list here<\/a>, e.g. organisation builder or communicator. Sometimes you might want to make this more specific, e.g. a writer rather than communicator, or you might want to target a specific <a href=\"\/career-reviews\/\">career path<\/a>, like economics academic or lawyer.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Longer term&#8221; could mean anything from five to 25 years &#8212; just pick a timeframe that makes sense to you. If you&#8217;ve done the exercises in previous articles, you should have a shortlist already.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s an example: Megan was studying in Beijing when someone suggested she take a look at 80,000 Hours. After reading our guide, she decided that she wanted to work on reducing existential risks, and in particular the risks from AI and nuclear war.<\/p>\n<p>She had spent some time doing research in academia, but she felt that academic work in her field \u2014 international relations \u2014 was unlikely to provide her with a high-impact career path. So her best guess was to aim for a career path in government and policy. Her vision, if all went well, was that she could become an expert in multilateral relations, and then advise key players on multilateral agreements around AI.<\/p>\n<p>Your vision may feel much more uncertain than this, though, and that&#8217;s fine. You only need a rough idea to help spot opportunities and guide your exploration.<\/p>\n<p>As <a href=\"\/career-guide\/personal-fit\/#exploration\">we&#8217;ve covered<\/a>, finding the best career for you is a step-by-step process, so you&#8217;ll update your vision every couple of years: adding or removing options from your list, and making the items more specific (e.g. you might start out looking at organisation-building roles, and later focus on becoming a PR specialist).<\/p>\n<p>A common mistake is to obsess about which longer-term options seem best in the abstract. So once you have a rough idea of longer-term options, turn your attention to generating ideas for concrete <em>next steps<\/em>.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"spend-longer-planning-your-next-steps\" class=\"toc-anchor\"><\/span>Spend longer planning your next steps<\/h2>\n<p>Ultimately, the decision you need to make is what to do <em>next<\/em>. Thinking about your vision is useful, but only because it helps to guide that decision.<\/p>\n<p>Your next step could be a new job, but it could also be a course or a new project. Typically, it&#8217;d be something you might do for a couple of years, though it could be from a few months to 5+ years. For example: accepting a job at Oxfam, spending a summer studying Chinese, or starting a blog while continuing in your current job.<\/p>\n<p>Trying to work out whether you should (for instance) be a researcher (like <a href=\"\/career-guide\/high-impact-jobs\/#research\">Dr Nalin<\/a>) or a communicator (like <a href=\"\/career-guide\/high-impact-jobs\/#communication\">Rosa Parks<\/a>) longer term is hard because it&#8217;s abstract.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s often a lot easier to work out which concrete job or graduate programme to take. Sometimes it makes the decision really obvious: for instance, if you don&#8217;t get into any good graduate programmes, that&#8217;ll be off the table.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s also even possible to skip having a vision and <em>only<\/em> focus on next steps. With each step, you&#8217;ll ideally gain some career capital, learn more about what fits you best, and increase your impact &#8212; putting yourself into a better and better position and having more and more impact over time. In this way you can build a great career <em>step by step<\/em>, even if you have no idea where you&#8217;re going to end up.<\/p>\n<p>Hopefully, this feels like a relief. Even if you have <em>no idea<\/em> what you want to do longer term, you can still build a great career iteratively. And if you <em>do<\/em> have some good ideas for your vision, that&#8217;s a bonus.<\/p>\n<p>So, while we recommend most people spend some time thinking about their longer-term vision, most people should spend even more time identifying and comparing concrete next steps.<\/p>\n<h3><span id=\"working-backwards\" class=\"toc-anchor\"><\/span>Working backwards: if you know your long-term vision, work out how to get there<\/h3>\n<p>To come up with next steps, there are two broad approaches.<\/p>\n<p>The first is to <em>work backwards<\/em> from your vision: think about where you&#8217;d like to end up, and then identify the most direct routes to get there.<\/p>\n<p>The best way to do this is to ask people in the field how someone with your background can advance most quickly. For example, ask: &#8220;If I wanted to be in role X in five years, what would I need to do?&#8221; Or, &#8220;If I wanted to become excellent at X skill, how could I do that?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Think about which types of career capital will be most important. For example, Bill Clinton knew that to succeed in politics, he&#8217;d need to know a lot of people, so even as an undergraduate, he kept a list of everyone he&#8217;d met on a paper notepad.<\/p>\n<p>Look for examples of people who have advanced unusually quickly and figure out how they did it.<\/p>\n<p>We do some of this analysis in our <a href=\"\/career-reviews\/\">career reviews<\/a>, but there&#8217;s no substitute for getting personal advice on the best next steps <em>for you<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re feeling uncertain about a longer-term option, another question to consider is: &#8220;How might I eliminate that option?&#8221; Is there something you could do that would decisively tell you whether pursuing that longer-term path made sense or not?<\/p>\n<h3><span id=\"working-forwards\" class=\"toc-anchor\"><\/span>Working forwards: look at the opportunities immediately in front of you<\/h3>\n<p>That said, it&#8217;s important not to get wedded to a particular pathway.<\/p>\n<p>Most great careers also involve <em>working forwards<\/em> &#8212; being alert to the opportunities that happen to be in front of you, following your nose, and going with what&#8217;s working, even if you&#8217;re not sure where it&#8217;ll eventually lead.<\/p>\n<p>One reason is the inherent unpredictability of career success.<\/p>\n<p>Another reason is because next steps vary so much in how promising they are, so the variation between specific jobs can trump the variation between broad career paths.<\/p>\n<p>For example, maybe you think biorisk policy is more pressing than nuclear risk policy <em>on average<\/em> &#8212; but if you find a job in nuclear policy with an unusual amount of responsibility, or that&#8217;s an unusually good fit for you, or where you work with a great mentor, it could easily be better to work in nuclear policy.<\/p>\n<p>To go back to Megan, when she was figuring out what to do after her master&#8217;s, in order to work backwards, she considered ways she might most rapidly advance in a government and policy path. She put common options, like getting a job at a think tank, on her list of options.<\/p>\n<p>But she also realised her current position, living and studying in China, could open up some additional opportunities off the standard path. She saw an ad for a job working for the US Department of State in Beijing as a Chinese social media analyst \u2014 and got it. She&#8217;s since managed to find a role at the Department of Homeland Security, towards her vision of working on reducing the risk posed by AI systems.<\/p>\n<p>When you&#8217;re working forwards, it helps to make a big list of interesting jobs and training opportunities, even if they don&#8217;t obviously feed into your current longer-term plans. Here are steps you could use:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Earlier in the guide, we covered a list of <a href=\"\/career-guide\/career-capital\/#how-can-you-get-the-best-career-capital-get-good-at-something-useful\">next steps to gain general career capital<\/a>, so you might have some ideas from there.<\/li>\n<li>Ask your friends, colleagues, people working on pressing problems, and people you admire what opportunities they know about. The best opportunities are usually found through people you know.<\/li>\n<li>Check out the jobs listed on our <a href=\"https:\/\/jobs.80000hours.org\/\">job board<\/a> \u2014 do any of them seem interesting? <\/li>\n<li>Are there any opportunities, areas to learn about, side projects, or people you feel especially excited about right now?<\/li>\n<li>Is anything you&#8217;re doing right now going better than expected? Could you spend more of your time on that? <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Many opportunities also only emerge after you start looking. So one of the most useful strategies is to simply pursue lots of specific jobs and make lots of applications.<\/p>\n<p>We often come across people agonising about different longer-term paths, whereas if they&#8217;d simply made applications, the next step would have become obvious.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ll look at <a href=\"\/career-guide\/how-to-get-a-job\/\">how to manage the job application process in the next article<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"have-backup-options-the-abz-plan\" class=\"toc-anchor\"><\/span>Have backup options: the A\/B\/Z plan<\/h2>\n<figure class=\"wp-caption\">\n<div id=\"youtube-a6g8y3EDHkw\" class=\"wrap-video\">\n<div class=\"lazyYT\" data-youtube-id=\"a6g8y3EDHkw\" data-ratio=\"16:9\" data-parameters=\"modestbranding=1&show_info=1&theme=light\" data-autoplay=\"0\"><\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, made a 25-year career plan when he graduated from business school. See how that went.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Startup founders have a broad vision for the company, but face enormous uncertainties in the details of their product and strategy. To overcome this, they test lots of approaches, and gradually improve their plan over time.<\/p>\n<p>You face similarly large uncertainties in your career, so we might be able to borrow some of the best practices in entrepreneurship and apply them to career strategy. This is the premise of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thestartupofyou.com\"><em>The Startup of You<\/em><\/a>, a book by the founder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman. One of his tips is making an &#8220;A\/B\/Z plan,&#8221; which we&#8217;ve also found useful while giving one-on-one advice to our readers.<\/p>\n<p>Writing an A\/B\/Z plan helps you think about specific alternatives and backup plans, putting you in a better position to adapt when the situation changes.<\/p>\n<h3><span id=\"plan-A\" class=\"toc-anchor\"><\/span>1. Plan A: your ideal scenario<\/h3>\n<p>Your Plan A is your best guess at the route you&#8217;d most like to pursue.<\/p>\n<p>This could be a particular vision you&#8217;re going to bet on, and the next step that would imply.<\/p>\n<p>For example: <em>Try to become an academic economist who works on global priorities research or AI policy (vision) by studying these extra maths courses at undergrad (next step).<\/em><\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re more unsure about your vision, you could also plan to try out several longer-term paths, by taking a couple of carefully ordered next steps, as we covered in the article on <a href=\"\/career-guide\/personal-fit\/#exploration\">personal fit<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Or your Plan A could be just to build some valuable transferable career capital (e.g. learn people management, get a degree in statistics), and then reevaluate your plan later.<\/p>\n<h3><span id=\"plan-B\" class=\"toc-anchor\"><\/span>2. Plan B: nearby alternatives<\/h3>\n<p>These are promising alternatives that you could switch to if your Plan A doesn&#8217;t work out. Writing them out ahead of time helps you to stay ready for new opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>To figure out your Plan B, ask yourself:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What are the most likely ways your Plan A wouldn&#8217;t work out? If that happens, what will you do? <\/li>\n<li>What other good options are there? List any promising nearby alternatives to Plan A, which may be other promising longer-term paths, or different entry routes to the same paths. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Then come up with two or three alternatives. For instance:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If you&#8217;re already in a job and applying to master&#8217;s programmes, one possibility is that you don&#8217;t get into the programmes you want. In that case, your Plan B might be to stay in your job another year and to assess later, or to apply for a master&#8217;s in another discipline.<\/li>\n<li>If your Plan A is to work in policy by getting a job in the executive branch, your Plan B could be to try think tank internships or working on a political campaign.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span id=\"plan-Z\" class=\"toc-anchor\"><\/span>3. Plan Z: if it all ****s up, this is your temporary fallback<\/h3>\n<p>Your Plan Z is what you&#8217;ll do if this all goes wrong.<\/p>\n<p>In other words, if your A and B plans don&#8217;t work out, what will you do to pay the bills until you get back on your feet?<\/p>\n<p>Having a Plan Z can not only help you avoid unacceptable personal outcomes, but it can help you get more comfortable with taking risks \u2014 knowing you&#8217;ll ultimately be OK makes it easier to be ambitious.<\/p>\n<p>Your Plan Z can be very short if you&#8217;re comfortable with the risk you&#8217;re taking, or are in a secure position. If you&#8217;re in a higher-stakes situation (e.g. you have dependents) you might want to do more careful planning.<\/p>\n<p>Some common examples are sleeping on a friend&#8217;s sofa while paying the bills through tutoring or working at a caf\u00e9, living off savings, going back to your old job, moving back in with your family, or taking a job you find relatively undemanding.<\/p>\n<p>It could even be something more adventurous, like going to teach English in Asia &#8212; a surprisingly in-demand, uncompetitive job that lets you learn about a new culture.<\/p>\n<p>Then ask yourself: &#8220;Is this Plan Z acceptable?&#8221; If not, you might need to revise your Plan A, or prioritise building your safety net for a while.<\/p>\n<div class=\"panel clearfix \">\n<h4>Optional: further ways to reduce risk<\/h4>\n<p>Sometimes you need to take risks in order to have a big impact. Thinking about them ahead of time can make this easier.<\/p>\n<p>First, clarify what a realistic worst-case scenario really is if you pursue your Plan A. It&#8217;s easy to have vague fears about &#8220;failing,&#8221; and research shows that when we think about bad events, we bring to mind their worst aspects, while ignoring all the things that will remain unchanged. This led Nobel Laureate <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/save\/https:\/\/www.edge.org\/response-detail\/11984\">Daniel Kahneman to say<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\n  Nothing in life is as important as you think it is, while you are thinking about it.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Often, when you think through the worst realistic scenario, you&#8217;ll realise it&#8217;s not so bad, and is something you could overcome in the long term.<\/p>\n<p>The risks to pay most attention to are those that could <em>permanently reduce your happiness or career capital<\/em>, such as burning out, getting depressed, or ruining your reputation. You might also have dependents who rely on you.<\/p>\n<p>Second, is there anything you could do to make sure that the serious risks don&#8217;t happen?<\/p>\n<p>Many people think of entrepreneur college dropouts like Bill Gates as people who took bold risks to succeed. But Gates worked on tech sales for about a year part-time as a student at Harvard, and then negotiated a year of leave from study to start Microsoft. If it had failed, Gates could have gone back to study computer science at Harvard &#8212; in reality, he took hardly any risk at all. Usually, with a bit of thought, it&#8217;s possible to avoid the worst risks of your plan.<\/p>\n<p>Third, make a plan for what you&#8217;d do if the worst-case scenario <em>does<\/em> happen. Think about what you&#8217;ll do to cope and make it less bad (as well as having a fallback Plan Z, as above).<\/p>\n<p>If it helps, remember you&#8217;ll probably still have food, friends, a soft bed, and a room at the perfect temperature &#8212; better conditions than most people have faced in all of history.<\/p>\n<p>Fourth, if at this point the risks are still unacceptable, then you may need to change your Plan A. For instance, you might need to spend more time building your <a href=\"\/2015\/11\/why-everyone-even-our-readers-should-save-enough-to-live-for-6-24-months\/\">financial runway<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Going through these exercises makes risk less scary, and makes you more likely to cope if the worst does happen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2><span id=\"set-a-review-point\" class=\"toc-anchor\"><\/span>Set a review point<\/h2>\n<p>Your plan should change as you learn more, but it&#8217;s very easy to get stuck on the path you&#8217;re already on. Not changing course when a better option exists is one of the most common <a href=\"\/articles\/4-biases-to-avoid-in-career-decisions\/\">decision-making mistakes<\/a> identified by psychologists, and can be caused by the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sunk_cost#Fallacy_effect\"><em>sunk cost fallacy<\/em><\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Status_quo_bias\"><em>status quo bias<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>To help avoid this mistake, you need to set a review point. Here are two options:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Pick a timeframe to review your plan<\/strong>, typically 6\u201324 months. (Go for shorter timeframes when you&#8217;re more uncertain and learning a lot, and longer ones when you&#8217;re more settled.) Around the new year is often a nice time. We made an <a href=\"\/career-planning\/annual-career-review\/\">annual career review tool<\/a> to make this easy.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Review your plan when you next gain significant information about your career.<\/strong> For example, publishing lots of papers in top journals is key to advancement in academic careers, so you could commit to reassessing whether you want to be an academic if you don&#8217;t publish a certain number of papers by the end of your PhD.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When you do the review, the most important question to ask is: what have I learned since I last made a plan, and what might that imply about which longer-term paths and next steps are best?<\/p>\n<p>Then go and discuss your thinking with someone else. Other people are better able to spot the sunk cost fallacy, and having to justify your thinking to someone else <a href=\"\/2012\/10\/sunk-costs-in-careers\">has been shown<\/a> to reduce your degree of bias.<\/p>\n<p>If you have more time, it can be helpful to start from a blank slate: if I were making a career plan today, which vision and next steps would seem best? This can help you step out of your current situation and see things afresh.<\/p>\n<div class=\"panel clearfix \">\n<h2><span id=\"apply-this-to-your-own-career\" class=\"toc-anchor\"><\/span>Apply this to your own career<\/h2>\n<p>Bringing all this advice together, here are the seven steps to building your own career plan:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>What&#8217;s your career stage?<\/strong> Exploring, building career capital, or deploying your existing career capital?<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>What&#8217;s your vision?<\/strong> If you haven&#8217;t already, sketch out your best-guess shortlist of longer-term roles to aim towards and global problems to work on: your vision.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Now clarify: what&#8217;s the very next decision you need to make? Then <strong>generate a big list of ideas for next steps<\/strong>. You should already have some ideas from the <a href=\"\/career-guide\/career-capital\">article on career capital<\/a>. Lean towards including more rather than less, including some that seem like a stretch.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Work backwards: what steps would most accelerate you towards your vision?<\/li>\n<li>Work forwards: what other interesting opportunities are you aware of?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Now, make an initial guess at which 5\u201310 next steps are most promising.<\/strong> If you&#8217;re struggling to narrow them down, you can also use our <a href=\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/career-decision\/article\/\">decision process<\/a> to help. Look at the lists of questions for comparing options <a href=\"\/career-guide\/career-capital\/#career-capital-questions\">in terms of career capital<\/a> and <a href=\"\/career-guide\/personal-fit\/#personal-fit-questions\">in terms of personal fit<\/a> from earlier in the guide.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Then make an initial guess at your:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Plan A<\/strong>: your top longer-term plan<\/li>\n<li><strong>Plan B<\/strong>: nearby alternatives<\/li>\n<li><strong>Plan Z<\/strong>: fallback options<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>What are your most pressing <em>key uncertainties<\/em> about all the above?<\/strong> We introduced the idea of a key uncertainty in the article on <a href=\"\/career-guide\/personal-fit\">personal fit<\/a>, but it can be applied to all aspects of your plan &#8212; vision, strategy, next steps, and A\/B\/Z options. What information would most change your rankings of options or your Plan A?<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>How might you best resolve those key uncertainties?<\/strong> If you have time, go and do that. Ideally keep investigating <a href=\"\/2023\/04\/how-much-should-you-research-your-career\/\">until your best guesses stop changing<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>At this point, often what seems best is to simply pursue your list of next steps, and then reevaluate your plan after you have concrete options on the table. We&#8217;ll talk about how to get jobs in <a href=\"\/career-guide\/how-to-get-a-job\/\">the next article<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Now is also a good time to consider <a href=\"\/speak-with-us\/\">applying to speak to our team one-on-one<\/a>. They can help you check your plan, decide which next steps to prioritise, and start toward them.<\/p>\n<p>Once you have concrete job offers on the table, you can use our <a href=\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/career-decision\/article\/\">career decision process<\/a> to choose between them. It&#8217;s the same process for comparing longer-term paths, but it can also be applied to next steps.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, once you start your job, set a review point. (When you do your review, consider using our <a href=\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/career-planning\/annual-career-review\/\">annual career review tool<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>It could well be worth spending a whole weekend on career planning. If you&#8217;d like to do that, we&#8217;ve created a planning worksheet covering all the key exercises from the guide so far. If you fill it out, you&#8217;ll have a complete career plan. (Try getting a friend to do it with you for moral support and to discuss options.)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/career-guide-template\/\" class=\"btn btn-primary\">Get our planning worksheet<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"well bg-gray-lighter margin-bottom margin-top padding-top-small padding-bottom-small\">\n<h2 class=\"no_toc\"><small>Read next:<\/small> Part 11: All the best advice we could find on how to get a job<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/career-guide\/how-to-get-a-job\/\" class=\"btn btn-primary\">Continue &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Or <a href=\"\/career-guide\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">see an overview<\/a> of the whole career guide.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"well visible-if-not-newsletter-subscriber margin-bottom margin-top padding-top-small padding-bottom-small\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col-sm-7 col-lg-8 margin-top-smallest pr-sm-0\">\n<h2><span id=\"want-to-come-back-later-get-the-guide-as-a-free-book\" class=\"toc-anchor\"><\/span><small>Want to come back later?<\/small> Get the guide as a free book<\/h2>\n<p>Sign up to our newsletter, and we&#8217;ll mail you the entire career guide as a book.<\/p>\n<form data-80k-object-id=\"\" data-80k-form-action=\"newsletter__subscribe\" action=\"\/\" method=\"post\" class=\"form-newsletter-signup form-newsletter-signup-step-1 margin-bottom-smallest margin-top-smaller\">\n<div class=\"mc-field-group input-group compact-input-group \"> <input type=\"email\" value=\"\" name=\"email\" required class=\"form-control email\" placeholder=\"Email address\" id=\"input_email\"\/> <span class=\"submit input-group-btn input-group-btn-right\"> <input type=\"submit\" id=\"mc-embedded-subscribe\" value=\"GET THE GUIDE\" class=\"btn btn-primary \" \/> <\/span> <\/div>\n<div> <input name=\"_eightyk_action\" value=\"mailchimp_add_subscriber\" type=\"hidden\"\/> <input name=\"redirect_path_after_step_2\" value=\"\/newsletter\/welcome\/\" type=\"hidden\"\/> <\/div>\n<div style=\"position: absolute; left: -5000px;\"> <input type=\"text\" name=\"b_abc12f58bbe8075560abdc5b7_43bc1ae55c\" tabindex=\"-1\" value=\"\"\/> <\/div>\n<\/form>\n<p class=\"smallest\">You&#8217;ll be joining over 450,000 people who receive weekly updates on our research and job opportunities. <a href=\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/free-book\/#giveaway-terms\">T&#038;Cs here<\/a>. You can unsubscribe in one click.  <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"col-sm-5 col-lg-4 hidden-xs pl-0\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Screen-Shot-2022-02-10-at-11.37.12-AM.png\" alt=\"The 80,000 Hours career guide\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":81687,"parent":0,"menu_order":7,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1315],"class_list":["post-4941","careerguidepage","type-careerguidepage","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-career-planning"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How to do career planning properly - 80,000 Hours<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Detailed long-term career plans can be harmful, but it&#039;s still good to have some idea where you&#039;re going. Here&#039;s how to write out your plan.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/career-guide\/career-planning\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to escape the career planning paradox\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You need a plan, but your plan is almost certainly going to change. How can you balance flexibility and having definite goals? Here, we&#039;ll explain how.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/career-guide\/career-planning\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"80,000 Hours\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/80000Hours\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-09-03T18:27:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/careerplanning.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"731\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"406\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"How to escape the career planning paradox\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"You need a plan, but your plan is almost certainly going to change. How can you balance flexibility and having definite goals? Here, we&#039;ll explain how.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/careerplanning.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@80000hours\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"23 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/career-guide\/career-planning\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/career-guide\/career-planning\/\",\"name\":\"How to do career planning properly - 80,000 Hours\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/career-guide\/career-planning\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/career-guide\/career-planning\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/EA9ZQNi1_2x-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-08-17T22:12:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-09-03T18:27:58+00:00\",\"description\":\"Detailed long-term career plans can be harmful, but it's still good to have some idea where you're going. Here's how to write out your plan.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/career-guide\/career-planning\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/career-guide\/career-planning\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/career-guide\/career-planning\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/EA9ZQNi1_2x-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/EA9ZQNi1_2x-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1758},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/career-guide\/career-planning\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Part 10: How to make your career&nbsp;plan\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/\",\"name\":\"80,000 Hours\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/#organization\",\"name\":\"80,000 Hours\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/og-logo_0.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/og-logo_0.png\",\"width\":1500,\"height\":785,\"caption\":\"80,000 Hours\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/80000Hours\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/80000hours\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/eightythousandhours\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How to do career planning properly - 80,000 Hours","description":"Detailed long-term career plans can be harmful, but it's still good to have some idea where you're going. Here's how to write out your plan.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/career-guide\/career-planning\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How to escape the career planning paradox","og_description":"You need a plan, but your plan is almost certainly going to change. How can you balance flexibility and having definite goals? Here, we'll explain how.","og_url":"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/career-guide\/career-planning\/","og_site_name":"80,000 Hours","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/80000Hours","article_modified_time":"2024-09-03T18:27:58+00:00","og_image":[{"width":731,"height":406,"url":"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/careerplanning.png","type":"image\/png"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"How to escape the career planning paradox","twitter_description":"You need a plan, but your plan is almost certainly going to change. How can you balance flexibility and having definite goals? Here, we'll explain how.","twitter_image":"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/careerplanning.png","twitter_site":"@80000hours","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"23 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/career-guide\/career-planning\/","url":"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/career-guide\/career-planning\/","name":"How to do career planning properly - 80,000 Hours","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/career-guide\/career-planning\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/career-guide\/career-planning\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/EA9ZQNi1_2x-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2014-08-17T22:12:59+00:00","dateModified":"2024-09-03T18:27:58+00:00","description":"Detailed long-term career plans can be harmful, but it's still good to have some idea where you're going. Here's how to write out your plan.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/career-guide\/career-planning\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/80000hours.org\/career-guide\/career-planning\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/career-guide\/career-planning\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/EA9ZQNi1_2x-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/EA9ZQNi1_2x-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":1758},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/career-guide\/career-planning\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Part 10: How to make your career&nbsp;plan"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/","name":"80,000 Hours","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/#organization","name":"80,000 Hours","url":"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/og-logo_0.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/og-logo_0.png","width":1500,"height":785,"caption":"80,000 Hours"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/80000Hours","https:\/\/x.com\/80000hours","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/eightythousandhours"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/careerguidepage\/4941"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/careerguidepage"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/careerguidepage"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/careerguidepage\/4941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}