Maximize the Kingdom Impact of Your Career: Our 10-minute Guide

January 15 2024 (updated June 22 2024)

In this guide, we cover:

Based on 5 years of prayerful consideration and research alongside academics at Oxford. More about us here.

Tip #1: Don’t follow your passion:

Instead, tackle a pressing problem near God’s heart.

In scripture, we don’t see God’s call following people’s passion:

  • Moses did not have a passion for public speaking when God called him to stand up to Pharaoh.

  • Jonah had no desire to carry out his vocation in Nineveh.

Instead, God invites people to be a part of His redemptive plan.

We encourage our readers to take a problem-first approach, looking past yourself (including one’s passions, skills, and pride), and looking first toward God and the problems He wants you to solve.

We’ve prayerfully and carefully researched 8 global problems we believe God might be calling you to tackle:

1. Spiritual Darkness🌑

Over a billion people do not know Jesus.

2. Extreme Poverty💔

Over 600 million people live in extreme poverty.

3. Disease 🦠

About 5 million children die of preventable diseases every year.

4. Nuclear War☢️

The risk of nuclear war is currently at its highest in decades.

5. Pandemics 💉

Tens of millions of people can die to a single novel pandemic.

6. Climate Change🌏

Hundreds of millions of people could become newly exposed to climate-related risks and poverty.

7. Animal Cruelty🐖

Billions of animals suffer in US factory farms, even though God commanded stewardship and kind treatment

8. Policy 🏛️

There exist massive bipartisan opportunities to pass laws that spread justice and kindness (Micah 6:8).

Why these 8?

Scripture shows that each of these problems is massively important to God. But what’s unique about these is that each is:

  • Relatively neglected (given the size of the issue)

  • Solvable (There are clear things you can do to impact them with your career)

This means you could have an outsized impact by working to reduce one of these problems.

Tip #2: Create a career model:

We encourage our readers to pursue a career for maximum impact for God’s kingdom.

We think this generally involves gaining experience and skills to perform high-impact roles to leverage effective interventions addressing pressing problems.

This is represented below:

Our practical career model has five parts, which you can try to map onto your current or future career plans:

  1. Identify one or two key problems

    This is what your career will ultimately tackle.

    If you’re unsure where to start, we recommend one of our eight problem areas. You can also compare problem areas using this framework. We designed question 1 in our Reach Exercise to help you prayerfully consider what problems God wants you to tackle.

  2. Research effective interventions and organizations

    There are lots of ways you can do good with your career. Some ways are 10-100x as impactful as others, so it’s worthwhile to try and find especially impactful solutions and organizations to work for. We highlight several in each of our problem profiles.

  3. Learn about high-impact roles and resources

    Some problem areas primarily need more talented people. Others need more funding. Try learning from experts (such as on our podcast) about what matters most for your problem(s).

  4. Identify necessary skills

    These are the aptitudes and abilities needed for high-impact roles. For a list of commonly-needed skills, see 80,000 Hour’s skills guide.

  5. Identify relevant experience

    This includes things like internships, education, or other experiences to help you identify your personal talents and fit.

This is not the only viable career model, but it’s one that has helped our career mentees in the past.

We encourage you to revisit your career model and pray over it frequently.

Tip #3: Surrender everything to God:

Trust God with your future: where you will be, what you will have, and what you will do.

  • Trust God with your location🌐

Many high-impact careers require moving to a new city, or a even country. 

This is normal.

Jesus said “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” (Matt 8:20).

Jesus knew that no matter where he was, God was with him.

No matter where you go, God is with you, too.

And there is nothing you can do (or anywhere you can go) that will separate you from His love (Romans 8:39). 

So follow God boldly to wherever you can have the greatest impact for His kingdom. But don’t forget to pray with and ask for guidance from others at your church before making big decisions like this!

  • Trust God with your stressors🪢

    It’s normal to have anxiety thinking about your future career.

    Jesus invites us to surrender these burdens to Him (Matthew 11:28-30) 

    “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.” This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make plans. But it does mean that if we seek first God’s kingdom, God will provide for our needs (Matthew 6:25:-34).

    If you’re feeling stressed about your long-term career plans, give them to God. It might also help to try thinking shorter-term (e.g. next week or next month instead of the next 5 to 10+ years).

    If you’re suffering from a mental health issue, anxiety bipolar disorder, ADHD, depression, or something else — there is no shame. We strongly recommend speaking with a psychologist or psychiatrist.

  • Trust God with your money💵

God will not abandon us. So we can cling to Him rather than to our stuff (Hebews 13:5).

What does this mean for your career?

This could mean sacrificing a higher-paying career for a lower-paying one with more direct impact.

But this could also mean aiming for a high-earning career so that you can give more to the poor.

Radical and effective giving is the #1 way you can have a massive impact in almost any career.

It’s also a beautiful way to follow Jesus (Luke 12:33)

(We recommend that all our readers consider donating at least 10% to effective charities over their lifetime. The easiest way to do that is the Giving What We Can Pledge).

Tip #4: Put more weight on flexible career capital

Build up a broad set of skills, connections, credentials, character, and financial runway to position yourself for sustained long-term impact.

This is your career capital.

Here are a few things you can do to build more career capital:

  • Consider studying a quantitative, applied subject.

  • Build genuine networks in influential circles.

  • Focus on learning generally high-value skills.

    •  e.g. social intelligence, people management, public speaking, website creation.

  • Gain credentials and work experience that convey your work competence.

    •  e.g. working at high-performance organizations, studying at prestigious universities, etc.

  • Consider starting at a private company.

    • This is good for skill-building and it generally keeps your options open (here’s why that’s important). Many impact-minded Christians want to work at a nonprofit after university; however, it is usually easier to transition from a secular organization to a Christian one, and from a private company to a charity rather than vice versa.

Tip #5: Work at an evidence-based nonprofit

If you’re going to work at a charity, do your research first. Many charitable endeavors have the best intentions but little to no impact. Some even do harm.

Therefore, we strongly recommend you compare charities.

The details on how can be technical (we discuss in-depth on our podcasts with Brian Fikkert of When Helping Hurts here, with economist Paul Niehaus here, and with Liz Hixson here).

In short, if your goal is to work at a charity and have as great a direct impact as possible, you could do 10 - 100x as much good if you work for a charity that:

  • Is based on solid evidence.

  • Is willing to share about its effectiveness (i.e. cost per outcome produced).

  • Considers the good it does relative to the good that would happen if it did not exist.

  • Is willing to update its programs if it learns of more effective ones (like this one did).

  • Has room for growth.

    For a short list of charities we’ve researched and are excited about, see our recommendations in our problem profiles.

Tip #6: Honor other key areas in your life

To achieve a long-term impact through your work, you also need to consider supportive conditions and honor key relationships.

  • Health

Does your career path allow you to stay physically and mentally healthy? (1 Cor 6:19).

  • Relationships

Do your working conditions honor key relationships to family, friends, church, or spouse? (Exodus 20:12, Ephesians 5:21-33). While following Jesus requires uncompromising allegiance (Luke 14:26), your career can become an idol when you sacrifice key relationships in the name of “impact.”

  • Spiritual Growth

Does your career path allow you to lead a prayer-full life? (1 Thess 5:17). Beware of influences which might make you spiritually lukewarm (Revelations 3:15-16).

  • Personal Fit

Is your role motivating and enjoyable? Does it match your skills? Paul encourages us to “not grow weary of doing good” (Galatians 6:9). A basic enjoyment of what you do is probably necessary to do it well.

Tip #7: Seek wisdom and sound advice

“Listen to advice and accept discipline, and at the end you will be counted among the wise. Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails” (Proverbs 19:20-21)

There are thousands of places you could get career advice from the internet.

Much of it is very bad.

Make sure that when you consider career advice, you test them all; hold on to what is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:22)

We think the best advice is from Christians (or non-Christians who are aligned with God’s purposes) and:

  1. Is consistent with scripture (1 Timothy 3:16–17).

  2. References relevant academic research and evidence.

  3. Draws on relevant professional experience.

  4. Links to professional networks and relevant opportunities in the space.

Job Boards

Global health & development💔:

Climate change🌏:

Animal cruelty🐖:

Nuclear & Pandemics☢️:

Effective Altruism job boards (various causes):

We can't vet the impact of each job here, but we think these job lists (in addition to any lists given by the organizations we mention in our full reports) are an excellent starting place.

Mentorship and Startup Support

Startup support:

1-on-1 mentorship🌏:

Donation support:

Reach Exercise

3 Big Questions To Ask Yourself

We recommend taking some time to answer each of the following questions, and some of their subcomponents. Try writing out one-page per big question👇

    1. What does a flourishing world look like to you? How does scripture shape your vision?

    2. What do you think are the top 1-3 most pressing problems facing the world today? Try ranking problems according to importance, tractability, and neglectedness (explanation here).

    3. What 2-3 issues might be even more significant but about which you are unsure?

    Recommended resources:

    Prayer:

    Lord, thank You that one day You will wipe away every tear from our eyes and that death, grief, crying and pain will be no more (Revelation 21:4). Father, until that day comes, I want to be Your hands and feet on this earth. Please align my will with Yours, so that I may focus on the problems that are close to Your heart. Reveal to me the problem You created me to tackle, and give me the Spirit of wisdom and discernment to know what to do about it. Help me to seek Your Kingdom first in everything I do. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen. 

    1. What are the highest-impact ways to tackle the top problems you identified in Big Question 1?

      Try listing or making a table of the most effective interventions and organizations, or about 2-3, respectively, for each problem you identified.

    2. What additional research will you do to better understand the highest-impact interventions and organizations? Consider the resources identified in our problem profiles.

    3. What are the most-needed jobs for these high-impact solutions? What do specialists and experts in that area say?

    4. Which of these roles can you imagine yourself doing?

      Be sure to honor commitments to key relationships, family, your personal physical and mental health, and God’s calling.

    5. What degrees, skills, resources and networks do you need to get these jobs or to do them well? Are there any in common?

    6. How can you develop sufficient career capital for the role(s) you’d like over the short term (next 1 - 6 months), medium term (6 months - 5 years) and long-term (5+ years)?

      Try listing this out. Be as specific as possible. Include any people who will support you in this and how you might invite that support.

    Recommended resources:

    Prayer: 

    Lord, thank You that You are able to do immeasurably more than all I ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20) and that everything is possible for the one who believes (Mark 9:23). Increase my faith and help me not to limit You. Give me clear vision regarding my career and divine creativity to fulfil the tasks you’ve given me to do both now and in the future. Order all my steps, open the right doors, and put me in front of the right people. Help me to be diligent, resourceful, and bold. Please lead me, Holy Spirit, and highlight the opportunities I should or shouldn’t take. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

    1. What are your greatest key uncertainties?

    2. What information do you lack? Could you obtain it easily from asking others?

    3. What are you going to try to do (to learn), to improve your career plan?

    4. What learning goals are you setting for yourself?

    5. What deadlines are you setting for yourself?

    6. Does anything about your plan directly contradict scripture?

    7. When will you next review your plan?

    Recommended resources:

    Prayer: 

    Heavenly Father, thank You for Your peace that transcends all understanding (Philippians 4:6). Thank You that even though I am uncertain about my future career, I can rest in knowing that my future is in Your hands. Please help me to trust You wholeheartedly, and not to lean on my own understanding. Lord, please bring light and hope into the plans for my career that right now seem complicated and out of reach. Please also reveal to me any areas of my career plan that are not according to Your will and plan for me. Open my eyes to the things I need to consider and direct me to the right advice and information. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen. 

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