In the unit “PICK YOUR CAREER GOALS” you picked your top 3 “Big Goals” you would like to work on. You also picked 3 “Small Goals” within each of the 3 “Big Goals”  It is now time to think about specific careers working within those “Small Goals”.  As an example lets say one of your “Big Goals” was “Global Health” and one of the “Small Goals” was “Ridding The World Of Malaria”.  Many different careers can be contained within “Ridding The World Of Malaria”.  Below are just 5 of the many careers potentially contained within the “Small Goal” of “Ridding The World Of Malaria”:

Non-Profit Founder – You could start a non-profit that distributes malaria nets

Researcher – You could look to find a cure for Malaria

Ground Staff – You could physically work in and with malaria inflicted populations

Lawyer/Lobbyist- You lobby governments and private organizations to create policies and initiate action plans to “Rid The World Of Malaria”.  Initiating legal action if deemed necessary

Investment Banker – Your work has nothing to do with malaria eradication.  However, your job pays well.  You have made the “Giving What You Can” pledge discussed in previous unit and donated 15% of your yearly salary to rid the world of malaria

EXAMPLE:  SURGEON & FUNDRAISER COMPARISON

Jessica goes to a party with her significant other.  Let’s call him John.  Jessica and John approach another couple named Bill and Suzy. The two couples strike up a nice conversation and eventually the topic leads to what sort of work they do.  Bill is a relatively well known heart surgeon that does numerous monthly life saving operations.  Suzy is a fundraiser for an international non-profit.

They are riding home from the party and they have the conversation below:

John says:  “I was really impressed with Bill.  What amazing and life saving work he does. “

(Jessica has just started this eCourse and her response is)

Jessica says: “I was also impressed with Bill.  He is doing great work.  However, if you are looking at someone who is truly making a profound impact on the world and saving significantly more lives-Suzy is the one”

John says: “Come on Jessica, she is just a fundraiser.  There are a million of them.  Bill went to school for like a gizzillion years and is one of the best heart docs in the city.  He is well respected and definitely does life saving operations almost daily”

Jessica says: “Well John, lets do some simple math.  I talked with Suzy at length.  She really did her research before working at Against Malaria .  She spent a significant amount of time researching non-profits.  Her mission was to fundraise for a non-profit that was the most effective.  Non-profit effectiveness is often simply defined as spending the smallest amount of money to save a human life.  She found several non-profits in which the average cost to save a human life is around $3000 USD.  She choose this organization because if you spend $3000 USD on mosquito nets it will save one human life.  She found organizations that statistically and objectively measure the impact of a non-profit donation.  Below is the same link we discussed in the  previous unit.

LIST OF EFFECTIVE CHARITIES

Her job is to fundraise for Against Malaria

We discussed this charity in a previous unit.  She seeks donations from both corporations and individuals.  After deducting her salary she nets $1,600,000 a year in donations for Against Malaria.  So lets do the math.

Suzy:  Raises $1,600,000 a year- Costs $3000 USD to save 1 life= 533 lives saved per year

Bill:  10 life saving operations per month= 120 lives saved per year

Suzy saves 4-5 times more lives than her husband.  One could also argue that the delta could be higher.  Suzy is willing to work for a low salary, is very good at her job, and not many people want her job.  If the non-profit loses Suzy they might not be able to replace her.

Bill is working in a job that may have a  higher level of “replaceability”.  Meaning that if I needed heart surgery there are surgeons to pick from that are as skilled as Bill.  If Bill left the field of cardiology one could argue there would be minimal lives lost because if you look out into the marketplace his services are relatively easy to replace

Earning To Give Concept:

The  “Earning To Give” WAS discussed in the previous unit  “$3000 USD IS PROVEN TO SAVE THE LIFE OF 1 CHILD”

Let’s assume Bill and Suzy were willing to donate part of their salary to charity.

Giving What We Can

Both are willing to donate 20% of their gross salary.  They committed themselves to do this by signing a donation pledge through Giving What We Can.

Let’s assume they are both giving to the anti-malaria charity mentioned in previous example:

Bill has a salary of $450,000 X 20% = $90,000

$90,000/$3000 cost per life saved= Bill saves 30 lives per year

Suzy has a salary of $60,000 X 20% = $12,000

$12,000/$3,000 per life saved= Suzy saves 4 lives per year

This simple math shows the impact of having a high paying career and choosing to donate to a highly effective charity.  For some that have the interest and potential to earn high salaries the “Earning To Give Model” can be more effective in increasing the life quality of others as compared to a specific career within a mission.  You can exponentially expand “The Earning To Give Model” by advocating on behalf of your mission.  Specifically convincing others to donate to high impact missions.  The money raised by being an advocate can often times be higher than the money you alone are able to donate.

You can also combine working a career in a much needed mission AND earning a high salary.  As my eCourse states, you are going to develop a “rare and important skill” over time.   Typically an employer within your chosen mission will pay you a high salary due to your “rare and important skill”.  With a high salary you have the ability to make substantial charitable donations while simultaneously having a career of impact within a worthy mission.

In a future unit “CAN MONEY BUY ME HAPPINESS?” you will read about empirically proven studies that state a majority of people increase their  happiness level when donating a portion of their income to charity as opposed to spending it solely on themselves

Review Of Picking A Career Within Your Career Goal

You can work within your career goal in the following 4 ways.  You can also work simultaneously in more than one approach.

4 Approaches

Earning To Give – Giving a portion of your salary to your goal

Advocacy – Advocate solutions to pressing problems. Advocate others to donate money to your goal

Research – You specifically research and create solutions to positively impact your goal

Direct Work – You directly work within your goal. Your aim is to work or start an organization that works on innovative, neglected solutions to pressing problems. If you’re a good fit for one of these, and they’re finding it hard to hire your specific skill set, then direct work can be a good option.

ACTION ITEM 1:

In a previous module, “Your Career Guide”  you were assigned to review the links below that discuss choosing a high impact career that will help solve one of the world’s most pressing causes.  You may want to review it one more time along with the 5 minute career quiz

LINK TO HIGH IMPACT CAREERS

Below Is Video Contained In Above Link:

Below is a 5 minute quiz that will give you some career ideas.

5 Minute Career Quiz