you first have to take care of yourself and family before you can start fretting about if your working life is saving the world!
that a lot of work is actually make-work, where we keep each other busy by
Currently, there is so much wrong in the world that it may be hard to commit to one specific thing. I feel this problem very strongly myself
You might get paralyzed thinking about all these problems at the same time, and end up picking none of them and achieve nothing. You might also get somewhat messed up if you try take all the worldâs problems on your shoulders. Ask me how I know. There are however some ways in which you could be useful for all these problems at the same time, for example by becoming an (investigative) journalist. This in theory would allow you to educate people and expose problems in many fields, without (really) having to commit to anything specific.
some of the very successful journalists I know wonder if their work has any impact at all.
But, as with journalists, know that even many senior politicians struggle to truly move the needle. If it were easy, we would not be in this situation.
Also, politics is a meat grinder in many places right now (more about this later).
political parties are a kind of casino. You could hit it off and become important, and it could even be that your chosen political party is successful. Or you could end up being an ignored part of a political party in opposition. Or the party might turn out to be awful, and that could stick to you and harm your future prospects.
If you havenât worked in (local) government, nor know anyone there, you may have a somewhat caricature-like picture of what it is like to work in the public sector.
At some point in your life, your value may shift from personally doing things to being an example or providing âleadershipâ.
Many people have joined big corporations and then taken a few years to figure out that the whole âcarbon zero programâ is a fake paper exercise which, while fully certified, does nothing.
There are ways in which you might think youâve squared the circle, some useful sounding job, decent pay, socially attractive employer etc. But you might actually be joining a corporate responsibility circus.
expensive consultancies are not charities, and they tend to produce outcomes that their customers like.
You wonât create a just world through McKinsey. Sorry.
thing. While working on a project with a worthy goal, even internal deadlines or milestones can feel like worthy achievements. And maybe it doesnât pan out, but your time was probably not wasted - the knowledge gained does not disappear.
What can I say. I love science, I love research, I love teaching. But if you follow academics on Twitter or elsewhere, it is currently not a happy place. Even successful scientists spend an inordinate amount of time getting grants, pleasing committees, reformatting papers to ever changing standards and doing free labor for extortionate publishers.
Personally, Iâd love to do more teaching there. I could do a lovely job educating computer science people about biology, but because I never graduated, Iâm not allowed to do that, even though Iâm a published & cited scientist.
Perhaps work is where you make money (and perhaps have fun coworkers), and you could find purpose in volunteering for more useful things. It doesnât all have to come from work, and perhaps that is even a naive expectation.
do consider how much value you add to the world by being there for any children you might have or other people around you.
If you feel you need change, go actually do it. Over time it gets ever harder to change jobs, careers or fields. The âright momentâ will likely never arrive.
It does however pay to really think it through and figure out if your potential new role actually gets you out of bed in the morning, and if what you could achieve there is what you think it is.
do you want to make the jump to government, charity, NGO, think tank or academia? Know that the grass may appear greener on the other side, but that things could be very different in reality.
you first have to take care of yourself and family before you can start fretting about if your working life is saving the world!
that a lot of work is actually make-work, where we keep each other busy by
Currently, there is so much wrong in the world that it may be hard to commit to one specific thing. I feel this problem very strongly myself
You might get paralyzed thinking about all these problems at the same time, and end up picking none of them and achieve nothing. You might also get somewhat messed up if you try take all the worldâs problems on your shoulders. Ask me how I know. There are however some ways in which you could be useful for all these problems at the same time, for example by becoming an (investigative) journalist. This in theory would allow you to educate people and expose problems in many fields, without (really) having to commit to anything specific.
some of the very successful journalists I know wonder if their work has any impact at all.
But, as with journalists, know that even many senior politicians struggle to truly move the needle. If it were easy, we would not be in this situation.
Also, politics is a meat grinder in many places right now (more about this later).
political parties are a kind of casino. You could hit it off and become important, and it could even be that your chosen political party is successful. Or you could end up being an ignored part of a political party in opposition. Or the party might turn out to be awful, and that could stick to you and harm your future prospects.
If you havenât worked in (local) government, nor know anyone there, you may have a somewhat caricature-like picture of what it is like to work in the public sector.
At some point in your life, your value may shift from personally doing things to being an example or providing âleadershipâ.
Many people have joined big corporations and then taken a few years to figure out that the whole âcarbon zero programâ is a fake paper exercise which, while fully certified, does nothing.
There are ways in which you might think youâve squared the circle, some useful sounding job, decent pay, socially attractive employer etc. But you might actually be joining a corporate responsibility circus.
expensive consultancies are not charities, and they tend to produce outcomes that their customers like.
You wonât create a just world through McKinsey. Sorry.
thing. While working on a project with a worthy goal, even internal deadlines or milestones can feel like worthy achievements. And maybe it doesnât pan out, but your time was probably not wasted - the knowledge gained does not disappear.
What can I say. I love science, I love research, I love teaching. But if you follow academics on Twitter or elsewhere, it is currently not a happy place. Even successful scientists spend an inordinate amount of time getting grants, pleasing committees, reformatting papers to ever changing standards and doing free labor for extortionate publishers.
Personally, Iâd love to do more teaching there. I could do a lovely job educating computer science people about biology, but because I never graduated, Iâm not allowed to do that, even though Iâm a published & cited scientist.
Perhaps work is where you make money (and perhaps have fun coworkers), and you could find purpose in volunteering for more useful things. It doesnât all have to come from work, and perhaps that is even a naive expectation.
do consider how much value you add to the world by being there for any children you might have or other people around you.
If you feel you need change, go actually do it. Over time it gets ever harder to change jobs, careers or fields. The âright momentâ will likely never arrive.
It does however pay to really think it through and figure out if your potential new role actually gets you out of bed in the morning, and if what you could achieve there is what you think it is.
do you want to make the jump to government, charity, NGO, think tank or academia? Know that the grass may appear greener on the other side, but that things could be very different in reality.
