I don’t know about impactful paths related to art and music. Have you considered asking 80,000 hours for a free careers advising call? https://80000hours.org/speak-with-us/
From my perspective, I wouldn’t worry too much about what A-levels you choose at this stage. You’re not going to pigeonhole yourself by just choosing what you find interesting and are likely to succeed in—maybe try and pick a range of humanities and sciences to cover your bases.
I’d say if you’re really unsure then try and pick something broad like international politics (or geography; where you could specialise into x-risks, AI safety, climate change or any other global problem), physics (which gives you broad science/maths skills you can apply to a range of cause areas), maths, statistics, or philosophy (which definitely has broad applications, but maybe more debatable transferrable skills). This applies to doing a degree too, and what A levels you did won’t matter very much after you do the degree.
After following the second link I found a useful interview with Maria Gutierrez, a Costa Rican artist who is doing projects for charities to help with marketing and image and is considering a career in art dealing in order to earn to give. This interview demonstrates how there are many avenues you can follow to do good no matter your skill set.
As far as A-levels go, I think I will choose Product Design as a fairly broad subject I enjoy which could be carried forward as well as Maths as a useful skill, German as I am good at it and it opens up opportunities and either Art or Music as something I enjoy to drop later.
I don’t know about impactful paths related to art and music. Have you considered asking 80,000 hours for a free careers advising call? https://80000hours.org/speak-with-us/
There’s also some useful content on the 80,000 hours website on impactful careers in arts: https://80000hours.org/topic/careers/other-careers/art-entertainment/
From my perspective, I wouldn’t worry too much about what A-levels you choose at this stage. You’re not going to pigeonhole yourself by just choosing what you find interesting and are likely to succeed in—maybe try and pick a range of humanities and sciences to cover your bases.
I’d say if you’re really unsure then try and pick something broad like international politics (or geography; where you could specialise into x-risks, AI safety, climate change or any other global problem), physics (which gives you broad science/maths skills you can apply to a range of cause areas), maths, statistics, or philosophy (which definitely has broad applications, but maybe more debatable transferrable skills). This applies to doing a degree too, and what A levels you did won’t matter very much after you do the degree.
Thanks, this is really helpful.
After following the second link I found a useful interview with Maria Gutierrez, a Costa Rican artist who is doing projects for charities to help with marketing and image and is considering a career in art dealing in order to earn to give. This interview demonstrates how there are many avenues you can follow to do good no matter your skill set.
As far as A-levels go, I think I will choose Product Design as a fairly broad subject I enjoy which could be carried forward as well as Maths as a useful skill, German as I am good at it and it opens up opportunities and either Art or Music as something I enjoy to drop later.
Thanks for your input, much appreciated.
No problem :)
Best of luck with your A-levels!