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Helping students find, launch, and thrive in their career
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Helping Students Find, Launch, And Thrive In Their Career
Helping Students Find, Launch, And Thrive In Their Career
Helping Students Find, Launch, And Thrive In Their Career
Helping Students Find, Launch, And Thrive In Their Career
Research shows that overall happiness and well-being is largely dependent on two factors: what you do (career) and who you do it with (relationships). Act One has spent four years researching the critical components of a good career and how the decisions you make in college and your 20s help or hinder long-term flourishing.
In our first four years, Act One has...
Reviewed over
20,000
pages of literature (studies, psychology, self-help, neurobiology, and philosophy)
Authored
19
original research memos on the foundations of your 20s—from finding meaningful work to avoiding the risks of
languishing, and much more
Interviewed professionals from over
50
distinct career fields about their gifts, where they find flow, and their career decision-making story
Talked with students at
40
universities about their career anxiety, worries, and aspirations
Worked with
38
students across the last four years
Developed
196
original “teaching points”—lessons young people should know about their career
Our Latest Insights
Our 2025/26 Work
Building a Core Career Curriculum
Set to launch in late 2025, our program seeks to take students through a rigorous, 0 to 100, career curriculum, which begins with the principles of how to find and choose a career, and ends with tactical coaching on how to actually land the job.
Explore Curriculum
◈ Managing your 20s to maximize happiness and satisfaction
◈ How to choose the right career—and avoid the wrong one
◈ The most common mistakes ambitious students make
◈ Who thrives in ambitious careers—and why?
◈ Navigating the intensity of competitive recruiting cycles
◈ Making sense of grad school: who it's for, and when it's worth it
◈ Understanding the impact of AI on young people
Meet The Act One Team
Though a melting pot of different majors, backgrounds, and target careers, every Act One team member has something in common: a spirit of generosity and a capacity to conceive of, and commit to, forceful ideas. Together, we believe we can change how students approach careers and their life.
Our Collective Knowledge
Our network of team members and alumni have worked in, or secured internships at, some of the world's most competitive firms. This has given our team a rich body of collective knowledge on some of the most competitive firms in the world and what it takes to succeed in them.
Founding Letter
Launching Act One
~ David G. Bradley ~
"Now 71, I look back on the longest career launching research companies (CEB and the Advisory Board Company) and owning media properties (the best known of them, The Atlantic). Across almost 50 years, I've worked with over 5,000 young colleagues - recent college graduates - navigating their 20s. This is an easy decade to love. Even when fearful, 20-somethings enjoy that once-in-lifetime prospect of becoming whatever they want to become. Life narrows soon enough. But, in your 20s, the aperture is wide.
Like others who have worked beside young professionals, I've done some untold amount of graduate school counseling, career counseling, and on occasion, existential-larger-purpose-in-life counseling. I take these conversations seriously, doing the best I can. But, surely, there is better and deeper wisdom than I bring to bear.
In the fall of 2021, I recruited a dozen Princeton undergraduates to launch an ongoing research project on the largest issues facing young people in their 20s. Though the composition of the group evolves as some students graduate, the project continues. And, the research findings are substantial. I've led research companies since my own mid-twenties. The work being done by these students is serious and fruitful."
Join Our Briefing
As our research evolves, we share what we’re learning each Friday—original findings, compelling ideas, and practical wisdom. Curated by our team, our briefing is designed to bring our best thinking about life, career, and relationships right to you.