To choose the path
Join the fight for animal rights through a career that matters
Whether you choose to work directly in animal advocacy or plant-based food companies, or seek out a high-paying job and donate a significant part of your income to the cause, your career can have a lasting impact on animal welfare.
Effective career
Ana Barreiro, Animal Advocacy Careers Marketing Manager
May 4 2023
You may have a passion for helping animals and making the world a better place for them. But did you know that one of the most impactful ways to make a difference for other living beings is through your career? After all, your career will probably take up a large portion of your time and energy, making it a powerful tool for creating positive change.
Think about it: if you are in the middle of your career you still have about 40,000 hours of work — 40,000 hours you can spend making a difference for animals. Imagine how much you can achieve for animals with all this time!
Whether you choose to work directly in animal advocacy or plant-based food companies, or seek out a high-paying job and donate a significant part of your income to the cause, your career can have a lasting impact on animal welfare.
But what is the most effective career path to have a long-term, positive impact on animals? Read on to find out.
How to have an effective career helping animals
A career that allows you to make a positive impact for farmed and wild animals can be both fulfilling and rewarding. However, not all career paths are equally effective in achieving this goal. It is essential to understand which actions can have the most impact and to focus your efforts on the ones that have the greatest potential for positive change.
Defining impact and effectiveness
Impact refers to the positive effects of your actions. For farmed animals, this could include improving their living conditions or reducing the number of animals born into horrendous circumstances. Our impact for animals becomes more effective when we can help a larger number of animals, or help them more, with the same or fewer resources, such as time or money.
Your career can have an impact on animal welfare
What career is the most impactful?
Some careers have a much greater potential for impact than others. It is crucial to resist the temptation to view all career paths that could be good for animals as equally effective. A career that helps 1,000 animals per year is less impactful than one that helps 100,000 animals to a similar extent.
To have the greatest impact, it is essential to understand what the animal movement looks like and what types of work can contribute most effectively to its goals.
Choosing the Right Career Path
Even if you have a good understanding of the animal advocacy movement and the most effective types of work, it is still not easy to choose a career path. There are so many options!
Consider researching different careers, such as working in animal advocacy organisations, plant-based food companies or policy and lobbying. Determine which one aligns best with your skills and has the greatest potential for impact.
In our animal charity jobs article, we explain how to choose work that you have a good personal fit with, and what are the key bottlenecks in the movement: the areas that are most difficult to hire for at animal advocacy organisations. It might be relevant for you to focus on these areas because:
1) you can have a higher advantage over other candidates if you have the right skills and
2) you can have a higher impact for animals since there aren’t a lot of good candidates in these areas within the movement.
Earning to Give: A High-Impact Option for Animal Advocacy
Another effective career option for those who want to help animals is earning to give. This approach involves choosing a career that allows you to earn a significant income so that you can donate a substantial portion of it to effective animal advocacy organisations. By choosing a high-earning career, you can have a significant impact on animal welfare even if you don't work directly at an animal organisation.
It is essential to research the organisations you are considering supporting and to ensure they align with your values and have a track record of effectiveness. This approach allows you to support the work of organisations that are focused on the most effective ways to help animals and ensure that your resources are being used in the most impactful way.
Ready to change the world for animals?
In conclusion, choosing a career that helps animals can be one of the most impactful ways to make a difference for other living beings. Whether it's through direct animal advocacy, working in plant-based food companies, or earning to give, the key is to understand what the animal movement looks like, what types of work can contribute most effectively to its goals, and to choose a career path that aligns best with your skills and has the greatest potential for impact.
It is not an easy decision, so don’t feel bad if you’re not yet ready to change your career. You can start deepening your knowledge of this topic by taking Animal Advocacy Careers’ online course. It will give you lots of ideas on how to start testing different career paths that will help you become more confident in choosing a career path that can have a tremendous long-lasting impact for animals.
Ready to start looking for a job to help animals? Visit Animal Advocacy Careers’ job board and sign up for weekly updates to get notified about new roles.
Ana Barreiro
Animal Advocacy Careers Marketing Manager
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