More and more people want to make a real-world difference with their career. Very few of them do. Why are careers in consultancy or finance still so much more mainstream than careers tackling the world's biggest problems?
In this episode, we talk with Jan-Willem van Putten, co-founder of the School for Moral Ambition, an organization that is building clear pathways for people who want to do work that actually changes the world.
We discuss:
Timestamps:
0:00 Cold open
2:12 From thesis on talent waste to joining consultancy: Jan-Willem's journey
4:29 Why did you step away from management consulting?
6:35 Focusing on impact vs. status: can you persuade people?
8:40 What is the School for Moral Ambition?
11:58 Is there now a real field for impact-driven careers?
12:58 Cause areas: food transition and tobacco control
17:10 How to prioritize problems to work on: the Triple-S framework
21:11 Next cause areas: tax fairness and democracy
23:00 What does the fellowship journey look like?
25:06 The profile of an ambitious idealist: startup drive meets activist values
27:43 Noble losers: why social movements fail
30:56 Is moral ambition only for the privileged?
36:04 How to cultivate a higher level of ambition in society
40:31 Feeling hopeless about big problems? New tools change the game
42:19 What holds people back from making the leap to meaningful work
46:12 What do fellows find most rewarding?
47:32 What does success look like in 10 years?
51:25 Where to start if you want to shift to a career that makes a difference
55:28 Best advice ever received: the case for taking action