How to Build a High-Impact Career That Actually Matters

Devon Fritz had his midlife crisis early. After spending his 20s building tax software and checking off conventional life milestones — house, kids, financial security — he realized he was on track for a future that felt hollow. Looking around at colleagues in stable but unfulfilling jobs, he questioned whether he had missed the point entirely.

This sense of disconnection led Fritz to explore ways to create meaningful impact beyond personal success. His search took him from volunteering with refugee-aid groups during the 2015 migrant crisis in Germany to discovering effective altruism at a conference in Oxford, England. Effective altruism, which emphasizes using evidence and reasoning to maximize the good one can do, became the foundation for his new approach to career and life.

Fritz eventually channeled his insights into a book, The High-Impact Professional’s Playbook, which offers practical strategies for people in conventional jobs to generate outsized positive impact. Drawing from case studies and principles of effective altruism, the book outlines five key ideas for making a difference without requiring drastic life changes.

Counterfactual Impact: Did You Really Make a Difference?

One of the book’s central concepts is counterfactuality — asking what would have happened if you hadn’t taken a particular action. Fritz argues that many well-intentioned efforts have less impact than assumed because someone else would have stepped in to do similar work. Haindavi Kandarpa, a former Boston Consulting Group employee working on public health projects in South Asia, realized her role was easily replaceable. After asking the counterfactual question, she left to join a charity startup incubator where her contributions were less likely to be duplicated.

This insight challenges conventional career advice: instead of competing for elite positions at high-visibility organizations, Fritz suggests seeking roles where your presence makes a unique difference — even if the organization is less prominent or ranked lower on effectiveness lists. The status trade-off, he argues, is worth it for genuine impact.

Money as a Tool for Impact

Fritz emphasizes that how you use your income can be as consequential as how you earn it. Citing a 2024 analysis by GiveWell, he notes that donating just $3,000 to a highly effective charity can statistically save one human life. Shifting just 10% of charitable giving from average to evidence-backed organizations can increase impact up to 100-fold for the same cost.

This approach requires no career change — only redirecting existing donations. Fritz recommends starting small, such as giving 1% of income, and using trusted evaluators like GiveWell to identify high-impact charities. The low barrier to entry makes this one of the most accessible paths to meaningful action.

Leveraging Your Workplace

Many overlook their workplace as a site for systemic change. But employees with influence over hiring, procurement, retirement plans, or corporate philanthropy can steer significant resources toward effective causes. A mid-level manager who convinces their company to adopt a default workplace-giving program supporting effective charities, for example, could direct more funds in a single policy shift than they could donate personally over a decade.

Nonprofits Need Your Professional Skills

Fritz highlights trusteeship and advisory work as surprisingly impactful paths. Many nonprofits are staffed by passionate individuals who lack expertise in areas like finance, operations, or human resources. Professionals from corporate backgrounds — accountants, lawyers, HR specialists — often fill critical gaps simply by serving on boards or advising NGOs.

Luciana Vilar, a case study in the book, transitioned from corporate finance to nonprofit board service and frequently found herself the only person in meetings capable of building a realistic budget. Fritz notes that even a few hours per week of such skilled volunteer work can unlock organizational capacity that money alone cannot buy.

Your Network Is a Force Multiplier

Perhaps Fritz’s most striking claim is that your personal network may be your most powerful tool for impact. Spending an hour identifying and recommending qualified candidates from your circle for a role at an effective charity can yield outsized results — especially if the hire would not have occurred otherwise.

Fritz applies this principle through High Impact Professionals, an organization he founded that places mid-career workers into higher-impact roles while rigorously measuring counterfactual impact. When a candidate takes a job through the network, the group asks employers how strong the next-best alternative was; if the difference is small, they count less impact. The same logic applies to fundraising: encouraging friends to donate to effective charities instead of giving gifts can amplify small efforts into significant contributions.

In a world where global problems can feel overwhelming and individual action insignificant, Fritz insists the opposite is true. “There are big problems,” he said. “But that means it’s a great time to jump in and try to solve them.” The bar for being useful, he argues, is lower than most people believe — and the levers for change are often already in hand.