It seems to me that you have boxed yourself into thinking along the common career paths only.
It happens occasionally that I hear a person asking something along the lines of "I want to help humanity, and, in my estimation, is the one with the most potential to do so, how do I best learn it to start realizing my dream?" The occupation in question I hear about is usually physics, nanotech or something along those lines. My first question usually is "are you any good at it?". The answer, more often than not, is "I don't really like physics that much, but I'm willing to make a sacrifice to achieve my ultimate goal, so I will work hard".
At this point I have little choice but to rain on one's parade. If you are not naturally good at something, you can still do well enough to get maybe into top 10% (I'm being generous here) in the field through hard work and dedication only, while hating your life along the way. If you find what you are best at (better than anyone you know personally is a good starting measure), and put all this hard work in, you are much more likely to be in the top 1% or better, while having fun along the way.
My point is that being one of the best in any field gives you more leverage than being one of many in a specific field. Do you have an area where you naturally blow everyone else out of the water without even trying? If nothing comes to mind, maybe you need to look harder and think out of the proverbial box. For example, maybe you can be the best mother in the world and contribute to humanity through raising the best children possible. Or maybe you have a writing talent that you don't give the time of day because it is not likely to provide the income you want. Maybe you are an excellent sharpshooter, but are repulsed by the idea of aiming your gun at people and so discard the possibility of it being used for good, not evil. Maybe public speaking is what you are best at.
Here is one example: I know a person in a country with huge corruption issues who accidentally became a realtor and a really good one. Just by dealing honestly, against rather grim odds, she probably improved (and likely saved) more lives than she would have in any other career. And guess what, she now has the disposable income to donate to causes she likes.
So, what are you really really really good at? Because nothing else is worth considering.
I'm really good at homemaking. I don't think anyone believes that me being really good at that is worth 2,500 lives.
I’m a utilitarian contemplating a career change. I currently give all my income to international development (which is possible because my husband supports us both financially). I don’t have any special gift for science, etc. that would help save the world, so I think donations are the best way I can help.
I’m 26 and halfway through social work school. I enjoy social work and am reasonably good at it, but the most I’ll ever earn is probably $80K/year. I’m now thinking more about the moral imperative to earn more and thus give more.
Most high-earning careers are not ones I think I would enjoy. That means I would be fighting burnout for the rest of my career. (I'm open to suggestions if you think otherwise.) The exception is psychiatry, which I do think I would enjoy and be moderately good at. But I would need about nine years of school and residency to become a psychiatrist.
If I go to medical school and become an average psychiatrist, I’d double my expected lifetime earnings compared to social work (even after paying for school). I could give about 2 million dollars more, which GiveWell thinks turns into about 2,500 lives saved. No amount of inconvenience on my part compares with that many lives.
So what I want to do is figure out whether I could be productive as a psychiatrist or some other profession, or whether there’s a good reason I should stay on my current course.
Some considerations:
I’m fairly smart but not competitive-natured. I think this would make me bad at a lot of careers that pay well but don’t require extra school, because there’s more competition for those jobs.
I’m not sure about my academic capabilities. I haven’t taken a real science course since high school. It’s also been a long time since I had to do the kind of rote memorization that I believe is needed in law or medical school. I’m worried that I would get into one of these and then find I wasn’t up to the work.
I have no interest in chemistry. Also, I don’t do well when sleep-deprived. Both of these might make me a terrible med student.
I’ve had bouts of depression in the past, but never ones that crippled my ability to study/work. If I were busier, they might cripple me more.
I would need at least a year of postbac science classes before I could go to medical school. This would bring the time to become a psychiatrist to nine years, plus at least a year to apply. That seems like forever, though I know when I’m older it won’t seem as long as it does now.
Investing that time in more school has an opportunity cost. If I stick with social work, I could start donating again in one year. If I become a psychiatrist, it would be more like twelve years before I could donate again. I don’t know what effect that delay would have. Psychiatry earnings would overtake social work earnings about 18 years from now.
I know I should count my useless undergraduate major and one year of social work school as sunk costs. But adding a lot more school on top of the eighteen years I’ve already done feels exhausting, and I think I’m more likely to fail now than I would have been if I’d started planning earlier.
Medical school would mean nine years of giving up many of the things I enjoy – spending time with my husband, cooking, gardening, reading. This gives me an incentive to burn out, because it would mean I could do those things again.
I’m married. I don’t want to believe it applies to us, but statistically, me going to medical school would increase our risk of divorce. This study says 51% of married psychiatry students divorce during or after medical school (about double our current statistical risk). I don’t think my marriage is more important than 2,500 people’s lives. But I do think seeing it die would make me much worse at school. Even if we didn’t actually divorce, I would expect our relationship to be significantly stressed because I would be gone or busy so much of the time.
If I quit or fail out of medical school, I’ve wasted a lot of time and money.
If my coworkers are high earners, convincing any of them to donate effectively would have a larger impact than convincing social workers to do the same. However, I’ve had zero luck persuading anyone I know (except my husband), so this may be irrelevant.
The questions
Do you have advice on powering through an unpleasant experience for a good cause? Is nine years too long to power through? Are there other careers I should be considering?
Update, May 2012: I decided not to try medical school, because I thought I would hate it. I finished social work school and am looking for jobs in psychiatric social work, which I was doing this last year and really enjoyed.