Before you choose a major, read 80,000 Hours

If you’re a young Muslim, especially if you come from an Arab family, I really encourage you to read the 80,000 Hours career guide before you choose your college major.

The name comes from a simple estimate: 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year, for 40 years. That’s about 80,000 hours spent working. If you’re going to give that much of your life to a career, spending a few hours thinking carefully about your choice makes sense. The career guide is free to read online.

If you’d rather watch first, here’s my video summary of the book.

I’ve noticed pressure to become a doctor, lawyer, or engineer among friends, in my surroundings, and in my own family. All my friends want to be doctors. In Arab families, it’s common to hear the advice to become a doctor because it means good money and a comfortable life. This isn’t every family, and I’m sure other cultures experience it too. But it’s familiar enough that I want young people in our community to think about it early.

It’s hard to question a path when your friends are choosing it and your family respects it. Still, medicine is a job with daily tasks and responsibilities. The promise of an easy life doesn’t tell you whether you care about that work or want to learn to do it well.

There’s nothing wrong with those careers. If you enjoy the work, can become good at it, and it fits the life you want, go for it. That includes the income you need and the hours you’re willing to work. My concern is choosing a career mainly because other people respect the title.

Find out what the work is actually like

A family can want the best for you and still push you towards something that doesn’t suit you. They didn’t intend to set you up for disappointment. But good intentions don’t answer the questions you need to ask before committing years of your life.

You can spend years studying, studying, studying, possibly taking on student debt, without much experience of the work you’re preparing to do. Then you finally get there and think, “Maybe this isn’t what I wanted.”

That’s why I want young people to investigate before choosing a major. Talk to people who do the work. Ask about an ordinary working day, including the parts they dislike. Where possible, shadow someone, try an internship, or do a small project related to the field. You don’t need your whole life figured out. You need more to go on than a title and an imagined salary.

What makes a job worth doing?

The guide points to five things: engaging tasks, helping others, work you can become good at, supportive colleagues, and avoiding serious drawbacks such as unfair pay or hours that clash with your personal life.¹

It also discusses finding a level of challenge you can handle, with enough support to grow. A job being easy isn’t enough to make it fulfilling.

That gives you more useful questions to ask about a career:

• Would I enjoy the daily tasks?
• Could I develop the skills?
• Would the schedule work for me?
• Who would I be helping?

Money belongs in that conversation. You need to cover your expenses and responsibilities. But I wouldn’t base a career choice on the biggest salary alone.

The guide gives a useful example of diminishing returns: each doubling of household income was associated with a similar, modest increase in reported life satisfaction.²

These are historical US household figures in 2009 dollars, not a current salary target or a guarantee about what a pay rise will do for you. But they give you a reason to look carefully at what you’re giving up for higher pay.

The part I care about even more is positive affect: the positive feelings people experience in everyday life. In this study, researchers combined reports of happiness, enjoyment, and smiling or laughter the previous day. Life satisfaction asks you to evaluate your life overall. Positive affect gets closer to what I mean when I ask, “Am I actually enjoying my days?”

That matters to me when choosing a career. A salary or a respected title might make me feel successful when I look at my life on paper. But I also want to care about the work and feel good during the days I spend doing it. Both measures matter; for this question, everyday experience is the one I want young people to pay more attention to.

Look at the highlighted line around $50,000, $60,000, and $70,000. It’s already much flatter than at lower incomes. The older study found positive affect largely levelled off around $75,000, even while life satisfaction kept rising.³ Those percentages describe average positive responses to the survey questions, not how happy your life is out of 100.

I wouldn’t treat $75,000 as a magic cutoff. A 2021 study found that everyday emotional wellbeing and life satisfaction kept rising above that level.⁴

A 2023 reanalysis found that the pattern differed depending on how happy people already were. A plateau appeared mainly among the least happy group; wellbeing continued rising with income for happier people.⁵

So more money can improve wellbeing, but doubling your salary doesn’t double your happiness. These studies show associations, not a guarantee that taking a higher-paying job will make you happier. I want young people to consider salary alongside the work itself, their lifestyle, and the good they can do.

How I connect this to Islam

As a Muslim, I want seeking Allah’s pleasure to come first in how I think about my career. The Quran describes life and death as a test of who does best in their deeds.

This reminds me to think about what I’m doing with the years I have.

Intention matters here. The Prophet ﷺ taught:

For me, that means asking why I want a particular career and what I intend to do with what I earn.

If you’re good at a high-paying job, care about the work, and it fits your lifestyle, there’s no problem with wanting that opportunity. You might want to support your family and have more to give.

In the same narration, the Prophet ﷺ also instructs people to begin with their dependents.

I also want to take the work itself seriously.

Scholars differ over this narration’s grading.⁶ I take it as encouragement to work with care and develop my ability. A respected title wouldn’t be enough for me if I didn’t want to do the actual work well.

And helping people isn’t limited to one profession or to giving money.

That gives me a reason to look broadly at where I can be useful.

You can give without changing careers

The guide also explains how you can help others without changing jobs, including by giving to effective charities.⁷ It points readers towards GiveWell, which evaluates charitable programs using research and evidence about their results. Its recommended programs include malaria prevention through medication and mosquito nets. GiveWell publishes its evidence and estimates of cost-effectiveness, so you can investigate what your donation could achieve.⁸

I find that useful even for someone who already has a career. You can care about the work you do and think carefully about where your charity goes.

The Quran gives this example of spending in Allah’s cause:

That is an encouragement to seek His reward through giving.

Wanting good in this life can sit alongside wanting good in the Hereafter. The Quran includes the prayer for both:

My hope is that young Muslims will bring that intention to their choices early, ask Allah for guidance, and take the time to learn about the work they are considering.

Give this decision a few hours

Start with the free online guide, especially the chapter on what makes a fulfilling job. If you prefer a physical copy, you can buy the paperback below.

You can begin in a few minutes, but set aside a couple of hours for the guide rather than expecting to finish it in one short sitting.

If you haven’t chosen your major yet, this is a good time to read it. Before committing years to preparing for a career, spend a little time finding out whether it’s work you want to do and how you hope to benefit people through it.

How I wrote this article

I dictated my thoughts using speech-to-text. AI helped me clarify them through follow-up questions, organize the structure, edit the wording, and format the article. It also helped check references and create the chart from the guide’s figures. I reviewed and revised the draft throughout the process. The personal experiences, opinions, and recommendation to read the guide are mine.

References