Written in May 2025.

I reached these conclusions after multiple conversations with founders, students, heads of behavioral science at popular firms, in academia, industry, and social sector:

• Most social science jobs in India will leave you with very less savings that are simply not enough to be financially stable.
• Soc sci jobs on average have much lower pay and future-proofing than jobs in engineering, especially software engineer.
• The salaries in soc sci have not increased commensurately with the increase in inflation and cost of living.
• And you CAN have social impact without working in the development sector or working as a therapist (extremely low salary and low future-proofing. Not recommended unless you’re rich. Here’s how to have social impact in these roles: No matter your job, here are 3 evidence-based ways anyone can have a social impact)
• You’ll have more social impact by working in a high-paying role outside India (India’s work environment is too toxic) that future proofs you and donating a meaningful portion of that income and/or volunteering your time.
• You can apply BeSci to any role! Know more about that here → Intro to/Course in Behavioral Science (BeSci)/How to Apply BeSci
• Roles
  • Product Manager/UX Researcher (best if Quant, but mixed or Qual is okay too) at MAANG (Meta Microsoft Amazon Apple Netflix Google)
  • Management Consultant at MBB (McKinsey BCG Bain)
  • Remember that everything is learnable. No one was born knowing all this.
• How to get them:
  • If you have the money, do a useful master’s (focuses on quant skills, as that’s what most employers look at) in the US/UK (most reputed unis are here) and then try to move to those countries and do future-proof roles for social sci grads
  • If you don’t have the money, do a fully-funded master’s (like the Erasmus Mundus master’s in Europe) and then try to move to those countries in future-proof roles for social sci grads.
  • MAANG and MBBs have offices all over the world. Even if you don’t get a visa in the country in which you studied, you can always go to Europe or UAE, etc.
  • This is where you can compare salaries: www.levels.fyi

Remember, this is my thought process based on my research.

It may or may not work for you. Take informed decisions.

And here’s a guide that a Humanities PhD from Stanford who is now a consultant at Bain wrote: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1J6FhGNxZV4oXPZN-hn6PcYl6IdwpLTOsmnVXwECUJSY/edit?tab=t.0

Remember, You can apply BeSci to any role! Know more about that here → Intro to/Course in Behavioral Science (BeSci)/How to Apply BeSci