80,000 Hours

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LLM Summary:80,000 Hours is the largest EA career organization, reaching 10M+ readers and reporting 3,000+ significant career plan changes, with 80% of $10M+ funding from Coefficient Giving. Since 2016 they've prioritized AI safety, shifting explicitly to AGI focus in 2025, providing career guidance through their guide, podcast (315+ episodes), job board (10K+ monthly clicks), and one-on-one advising.

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QualityRated 45 but structure suggests 100 (underrated by 55 points)
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Quick Assessment

Dimension	Assessment	Evidence
Scale	Largest EA Career Organization	10M+ website readers; 400K+ newsletter subscribers
Primary Focus	AI Safety Careers	Top priority since 2016; explicit AGI focus since 2025
Key Outputs	Career Advice + Research	Problem profiles, career reviews, podcast, job board
Impact Metric	Career Plan Changes	3,000+ self-reported significant changes
Funding Model	Philanthropic Grants	80% from Coefficient Giving; 20% from other donors
Cumulative Funding	$10M+	Primarily from Coefficient Giving
Independence	Newly Independent	Spun out from Effective Ventures in April 2025
Target Audience	Analytical Altruists	College-educated, 18-45, English-speaking, impact-focused

Organization Details

Attribute	Details
Full Name	80,000 Hours
Type	Nonprofit career guidance organization
Founded	July 2011
Founders	Benjamin Todd, William MacAskill
Origin	University of Oxford; student society → nonprofit
Current CEO	Niel Bowerman (since January 2024)
President	Benjamin Todd
COO	Brenton Mayer (as of 2025)
Staff Size	≈25 FTEs (as of 2022; grown from 14 in 2020)
Primary Funder	Coefficient Giving (formerly Open Philanthropy)
Former Parent	Effective Ventures Foundation (until April 2025)
Legal Status	Independent nonprofit (post-spinout)
Headquarters	London, UK
Website	80000hours.org
Job Board	jobs.80000hours.org
Y Combinator	2015 cohort (one of first nonprofits in YC)

Overview

80,000 Hours is the leading career guidance organization in the effective altruism movement, providing research-backed advice to help people find careers with maximum positive impact. The organization’s name refers to the approximately 80,000 hours a person spends working during their career—and the premise that this represents one of the most significant resources individuals can direct toward solving global problems.

Founded in 2011 by Benjamin Todd and William MacAskill at the University of Oxford, 80,000 Hours evolved from a student lecture series to one of the most influential career resources for impact-focused professionals. The organization became one of the first nonprofits accepted into Y Combinator’s startup accelerator in 2015, signaling its innovative approach to the traditionally underserved space of career guidance for social impact.

As of 2025, 80,000 Hours has reached over 10 million website readers, maintains a newsletter community of over 400,000 subscribers, and reports that more than 3,000 people have made significant career changes they attribute to the organization’s guidance. Their free resources include an in-depth career guide, problem profiles ranking global issues by importance, career reviews for specific paths, a curated job board, and one-on-one advising for selected applicants.

The organization has prioritized AI safety as their top recommended problem area since 2016. In early 2025, they announced an explicit strategic shift to focus more specifically on “helping people work on navigating the transition to a world with powerful AGI,” reflecting their assessment that transformative AI may arrive within the decade and represents the most pressing challenge of our time.

History and Evolution

Timeline

Year	Event	Significance
2011	Founded at Oxford	Benjamin Todd and William MacAskill start 80,000 Hours as a student project
2012	First full-time staff	Organization professionalizes; begins systematic research
2012	Co-founded EA movement	Helped establish effective altruism alongside Giving What We Can, CEA
2015	Y Combinator acceptance	One of first nonprofits in YC; gained startup methodology and credibility
2016	AI safety becomes top priority	Identified risks from AI as most pressing problem area
2016	Published career guide book	80,000 Hours: Find a fulfilling career that does good
2017	Podcast launch	Rob Wiblin begins hosting The 80,000 Hours Podcast
2020	Reached 14 FTEs	Steady organizational growth
2022	Leadership transition	Benjamin Todd moves from CEO to President; Howie Lempel becomes CEO
2022	Reached 25 FTEs	Organization nearly doubles in size
2024	New CEO appointed	Niel Bowerman becomes CEO (former FHI Assistant Director)
2025	Strategic shift to AGI	Announced focus on navigating transition to powerful AGI
2025	Spin-out from Effective Ventures	Became independent nonprofit (April 1, 2025)

Founding Story

80,000 Hours began as a collaboration between two Oxford students who would become central figures in the effective altruism movement. Benjamin Todd was completing his studies at Oxford when he partnered with William MacAskill, a philosopher who was simultaneously co-founding Giving What We Can (a pledge-based donation community) and developing the philosophical foundations of effective altruism.

The initial concept emerged from MacAskill’s academic work on “replaceability”—the question of whether taking a job prevents someone else from doing the same work, and thus whether the marginal impact of career choices differs from their apparent impact. This led to the core insight that guides 80,000 Hours: career choice may be the single largest lever most people have for positive impact, yet receives remarkably little systematic attention.

The organization grew from a lecture to a student society to a professional nonprofit, with Todd managing this evolution while MacAskill focused on academic philosophy and other EA projects. By 2022, 80,000 Hours had raised over $10 million in funding and employed 25+ staff.

The Effective Ventures Relationship

Until April 2025, 80,000 Hours operated as a project within Effective Ventures—the umbrella organization that also housed Giving What We Can, the Centre for Effective Altruism, and several other EA-affiliated projects. This structure provided administrative support and legal infrastructure but limited operational flexibility.

The 2025 spin-out established 80,000 Hours as an independent legal entity, giving the organization greater control over its systems, benefits, and strategic direction. This change reflected broader restructuring across the EA ecosystem following the 2022 FTX collapse and subsequent organizational reforms.

Career Guidance Approach

Core Framework

80,000 Hours structures career advice around three key questions:

Question	Framework	Key Insight
What problems should I work on?	Problem profiles	Scale × Neglectedness × Tractability
What career paths can address these problems?	Career reviews	Direct work, earning to give, research, advocacy
How should I plan my career?	Career strategy	Explore → Build career capital → Apply to pressing problems

Problem Prioritization Framework

The organization evaluates global problems using the ITN framework (Importance, Tractability, Neglectedness):

Criterion	Definition	Application
Scale/Importance	How big is the problem? How many affected, how deeply?	AI risk: potentially all humans; existential
Neglectedness	How much attention/resources does it receive?	AI safety: ≈$100M/year vs $14B AI investment
Tractability	Can additional effort make progress?	Can you find leverage points for intervention?

Career Capital Emphasis

A distinctive feature of 80,000 Hours’ advice is emphasis on “career capital”—the skills, connections, credentials, and resources that increase future impact potential:

Career Capital Type	Examples	Strategic Value
Skills	ML/AI, economics, policy analysis, operations	Directly applicable to priority problems
Connections	Networks in relevant fields, mentorship	Access to opportunities and information
Credentials	PhD, government experience, tech company tenure	Credibility and option value
Runway	Savings, financial security	Ability to take risks, switch paths
Character	Integrity, resilience, judgment	Long-term effectiveness

Target Audience

80,000 Hours explicitly defines their target audience:

Characteristic	Description
Education	College degree (or pursuing one)
Age	18-45 years old
Geography	Primarily US and UK; English-speaking countries
Motivation	Want to make impact a significant career focus
Approach	Analytical, willing to consider unconventional paths
Privilege	Have options for how to spend their careers

They estimate their target audience at approximately 100,000 people—roughly 10x larger than the core EA community—indicating their goal of reaching beyond the existing movement.

AI Safety Focus

Strategic Priority

AI safety has been 80,000 Hours’ top-ranked problem area since 2016, and in 2025 they announced an explicit strategic shift:

“We believe that AGI by 2030 is plausible — much sooner than most would have predicted five years ago — based on analysis of current inputs into AI development and the speed of recent AI progress.”

This assessment has led to significant changes in organizational priorities:

Change	Description
Content focus	Raising bar for non-AI content; AI safety becomes first priority
Resource allocation	Shifting staff capacity toward AI-related guidance
Problem coverage	Maintaining diverse topics where AI intersects with other risks (e.g., biosecurity)
Explicit messaging	Framing mission as “navigating the transition to powerful AGI”

AI Career Paths

80,000 Hours identifies multiple high-impact career paths for AI safety work:

Path	Description	Difficulty	Impact Potential
Technical AI Safety Research	Developing solutions to prevent dangerous AI behavior	Very high (PhD-level)	Very high
AI Governance and Policy	Shaping regulations and international coordination	High	Very high
AI Evaluations	Assessing AI capabilities and risks	High	High
Operations at AI Safety Orgs	Enabling researchers to be more effective	Medium	Medium-high
AI Journalism/Communications	Informing public and policymakers	Medium	Medium

Key AI Safety Resources

80,000 Hours maintains extensive AI safety career resources:

Resource	Description
Problem Profile: Risks from Power-Seeking AI	Comprehensive analysis of existential AI risk
Problem Profile: Catastrophic AI Misuse	Analysis of AI-enabled harm by malicious actors
Career Review: AI Safety Technical Research	Guide to becoming a safety researcher
Career Review: AI Governance and Policy	Guide to AI policy careers
AI Safety Syllabus	Curated reading list for self-study
Technical AI Safety Upskilling Resources	Practical guides for skill-building
AGI Career Guide	How to use your career to mitigate AI risk

Comparison with Other Problem Areas

Problem Area	80,000 Hours Assessment	Relative Priority
Risks from Power-Seeking AI	Top priority; potentially existential	Highest
Catastrophic AI Misuse	Major concern; exacerbates other risks	Very high
Preventing Catastrophic Pandemics	Significant; intersects with AI biosecurity	High (AI intersection prioritized)
Nuclear Security	Important; less neglected than AI safety	Medium (AI intersection prioritized)
Building Effective Altruism	Meta-priority; talent pipeline	Medium
Climate Change	Important but less neglected	Lower priority for 80K resources

Key Products and Resources

Career Guide

The flagship product is a free, research-backed career guide developed over 10+ years:

Component	Description
Core Guide	Multi-chapter introduction to high-impact career planning
Problem Profiles	Deep dives into priority global problems
Career Reviews	Analysis of specific career paths
Planning Process	Step-by-step framework for career decisions
Advice by Expertise	Tailored recommendations for specific backgrounds

The 80,000 Hours Podcast

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The podcast has become one of the most influential long-form interview shows in the effective altruism and AI safety space:

Metric	Value
Episodes	315+ (as of 2025)
Format	Long-form interviews (typically 2-4 hours)
Primary Host	Rob Wiblin (Director of Research)
Co-Host	Luisa Rodriguez
Growth	60% higher listenership in 2025 vs 2024
Notable Guests	AI researchers, policymakers, EA leaders, scientists

Job Board

The 80,000 Hours Job Board curates high-impact opportunities:

Metric	Value
User Engagement	670+ hours per month browsing
Click-throughs	10,000+ monthly clicks to employer sites
Focus Areas	AI safety, biosecurity, EA organizations, policy
Curation	Handpicked for alignment with priority problems
Features	Filters by cause area, job alerts, career capital roles

One-on-One Advising

80,000 Hours provides free personalized career advising to selected applicants:

Aspect	Description
Cost	Free
Selection	Competitive; based on fit with priority problems
Format	Video calls with trained advisors
Scope	Career strategy, networking, job search support
Cumulative	5,000+ people advised (as of 2024)

Impact Metrics

Key Statistics (as of 2024-2025)

Metric	Value	Source
Website Readers	10+ million	80,000 Hours
Newsletter Subscribers	400,000+	80,000 Hours
Significant Career Plan Changes	3,000+	Self-reported surveys
One-on-One Advising Sessions	5,000+	Cumulative through 2024
Podcast Episodes	315+	As of 2025
EA Community Source	Largest single source	EA Survey data

Plan Change Methodology

80,000 Hours tracks “significant plan changes”—when someone reports changing their intended career path in a way they believe increases their impact:

Criterion	Definition
Threshold	Change credence in pursuing a path by 20%+
Attribution	Person attributes change to 80,000 Hours
Plausibility	80,000 Hours plausibly caused the change
Impact Weighting	Rated 0.1, 1, or 10 based on estimated counterfactual impact

Historical plan change data:

Year	Plan Changes	Notes
2015	≈300	Early growth phase
2016	1,400+ (900+ impact-adjusted)	4x increase from 2015
2016 Cumulative	1,854 total (1,505 impact-adjusted)	Through November 2016
2024	3,000+ total	Cumulative “significant” changes

Notable Outcomes

Examples of impact attributed to 80,000 Hours:

Outcome	Description
Organization Founding	≈10 new organizations founded by advised individuals
Policy Influence	Advised individuals in government and policy roles
Research Careers	Researchers at AI safety labs, academia
Donation Commitments	$10M+ in pledged donations to high-impact charities
Animal Charity Evaluators	Helped create organization researching factory farming
Earn to Give	Individuals like Matt Wage (featured in NYT) donating 50%+ of income

Funding and Structure

Coefficient Giving Grants

80,000 Hours receives approximately 80% of its funding from Coefficient Giving:

Grant	Amount	Year	Purpose
General Support	$1,125,000	2016	Staff, operations, initial marketing
General Support	$1,250,000	2022	Core operations
Marketing	$1,000,000	2022	Advertising and outreach
Marketing	$1,492,000	2023	Advertising and outreach
General Support	$1,600,000	2022	Multi-year support
General Support	$1,250,000	Various	Ongoing operations
Marketing	$1,700,000	2025	Advertising and outreach
Cumulative	$10M+	2016-2025	Total Coefficient funding

Funding Model

Source	Share	Notes
Coefficient Giving	≈80%	Primary funder
Other Donors	≈20%	Individual and foundation support
Earned Revenue	Minimal	All services provided free

Budget Estimate

Based on fundraising announcements, approximate annual budget:

Component	Estimate	Notes
General Operations	≈$1.6M/year	Based on $1.2M = 9 months
Marketing	≈$1.5-3M/year	Based on grant sizes
Total Annual	≈$1-5M	Rough estimate

Organizational Structure (Post-Spinout)

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Key Staff

Person	Role	Background
Benjamin Todd	President, Co-founder	Founded 80,000 Hours; led organization from student society to professional nonprofit
Niel Bowerman	CEO (since Jan 2024)	Physics PhD; former FHI Assistant Director; CEA co-founder
Brenton Mayer	COO	Operations leadership
Rob Wiblin	Director of Research	Genetics/economics background; podcast host since 2017
William MacAskill	Co-founder (not operational)	Oxford philosopher; author of What We Owe the Future; co-founded EA movement

Problem Profiles

80,000 Hours maintains detailed “problem profiles” ranking global issues:

Current Priority Rankings

Problem	Priority Level	Key Reasoning
Risks from Power-Seeking AI	Highest	Potentially existential; neglected relative to AI investment
Catastrophic AI Misuse	Very High	AI-enabled bioweapons, cyberattacks, manipulation
Preventing Catastrophic Pandemics	High	Existential risk; intersection with AI biosecurity
Nuclear Security	High	Catastrophic risk; less neglected than AI
Building Effective Altruism	Medium	Meta-priority; talent pipeline for other problems
Climate Change	Lower	Important but well-funded and well-known

AI Problem Profile Summary

The AI risk problem profile makes the following case:

Element	Assessment
Risk Level	2023 survey: median AI researcher estimates 5% chance of “extremely bad” outcome
Expert Concern	41% say alignment is “very important”; 13% call it “among the most important problems”
Institutional Recognition	2023 CAIS statement signed by top AI scientists and CEOs
Comparative Neglectedness	$100M/year safety funding vs. $14B AI investment
Tractability	Growing field with research progress; talent-constrained

Strengths and Limitations

Organizational Strengths

Strength	Evidence
Research Quality	10+ years of systematic career research; evidence-based approach
Scale of Reach	10M+ readers; largest source of EA community growth
Free Resources	All content, advising, and job board access completely free
Specificity	Detailed career reviews and problem profiles vs. generic advice
Network Effects	Job board connects talent to high-impact employers
Podcast Influence	Long-form interviews reach beyond EA community
Credibility	Y Combinator alumni; Oxford origins; Coefficient Giving backing

Known Limitations

Limitation	Description
Narrow Audience	Explicitly targets college-educated, English-speaking, 18-45
AI Focus Concentration	2025 shift may reduce coverage of other problems
Self-Reported Impact	Plan changes based on self-attribution, not verification
EA Association	Post-FTX reputational challenges for EA-affiliated orgs
Advice Uncertainty	Career advice inherently uncertain; recommendations may change
Counterfactual Questions	Would plan-changers have found impact anyway?

Criticisms and Controversies

Criticism	Description	Response
Earn to Give Concerns	Money-focused environments may reduce altruistic motivation	80K now de-emphasizes earn to give; focuses on direct work
Utilitarian Blindness	Focus on aggregate utility may neglect justice, rights	80K acknowledges philosophical diversity within EA
Elitism	Targets privileged individuals; ignores systemic change	Explicit about target audience; sees comparative advantage in analytical types
AI Overemphasis	May cause harm if AI timelines are longer than expected	Openly states uncertainty; maintains some problem diversity
Community Insularity	Risk of groupthink in EA career decisions	Published self-critical pieces; encourages independent thinking

Relationship with Effective Altruism

80,000 Hours sees itself as a project within effective altruism, focusing specifically on career impact while EA encompasses all ways of doing good (donations, volunteering, consumption, advocacy).

EA Ecosystem Position

Relationship	Organization	Description
Former Parent	Effective Ventures	Shared legal/admin infrastructure until 2025
Sister Project	Giving What We Can	Donation pledges; complementary to career advice
Sister Project	Centre for Effective Altruism	Community building; conferences
Primary Funder	Coefficient Giving	$10M+ cumulative; 80% of funding
Research Alignment	GiveWell	Evidence-based approach; different focus (charities vs careers)
Talent Pipeline	AI Safety Labs	Directs talent toward Anthropic, DeepMind, MIRI, etc.

EA Survey Findings

According to EA community surveys, 80,000 Hours is consistently the largest single source of people joining the effective altruism community, indicating significant influence on EA growth and composition.

Future Outlook

2025 Strategic Priorities

Priority	Description
AGI Focus	”Navigating the transition to powerful AGI” as primary mission
Capacity Building	Increase podcast team capacity given 60% listenership growth
Independence	Leverage new operational flexibility post-spinout
AI Intersection Coverage	Maintain coverage where AI intersects with biosecurity, nuclear

Key Uncertainties

Question	Implications
AGI Timelines	If AGI arrives by 2030, current strategy is well-calibrated; if later, may have overcorrected
Field Growth	Will AI safety field continue absorbing talent 80K directs?
Competitive Landscape	Will other career organizations emerge for different worldviews?
EA Reputation	How will post-FTX dynamics affect trust and reach?
Measurement Challenges	Can impact tracking become more rigorous than self-report?

Sources and Citations

Primary Sources

AI Safety Resources

Strategic Announcements

Funding Sources

Coefficient Giving: 80,000 Hours General Support
Coefficient Giving: 80,000 Hours Marketing 2025
Coefficient Giving: 80,000 Hours Marketing 2023
Coefficient Giving: 80,000 Hours Marketing 2022
80,000 Hours Spin-Out Announcement and Fundraising