Last week, I participated in Animal Advocacy Careers’ Impactful Policy Careers programme. Below I’m sharing some reflections on what was a really interesting week in Brussels!
Please note I spent just one week there, so take it all with a grain of (CAP-subsidized) salt. Posts like this and this one are probably much more informative (and assume less context). I mainly wrote this to reflect on my time in Brussels (and I capped it at 2 hours, so it’s not a super polished draft). I’ll focus mostly on EU careers generally, less on (EU) animal welfare-related careers.
Before I jump in, just a quick note about how I think AAC did something really cool here: they identified a relatively underexplored area where it’s relatively easy for animal advocates to find impactful roles, and then designed a programme to help these people better understand that area, meet stakeholders, and learn how to find roles. I also think the participants developed meaningful bonds, which could prove valuable over time. Thank you to the AAC team for hosting this!
On EU careers generally
- The EU has a surprisingly big influence over its citizens and the wider world for how neglected it came across to me. There’s many areas where countries have basically given a bunch (if not all) of their decision making power to the EU. And despite that, the EU policy making / politics bubble comes across as relatively neglected, with relatively little media coverage and a relatively small bureaucracy.
- There’s quite a lot of pathways into the Brussels bubble, but all have different ToCs, demand different skill sets, and prefer different backgrounds. Dissecting these is hard, and time-intensive
- For context, I have always been interested in “a career in policy/politics” – I now realize that’s kind of ridiculously broad. I’m happy to have gained some clarity on the differences between roles in Parliament, work at the Commission, the Council, lobbying, consultancy work, and think tanks.
- The absorbency is super high, especially at the Commission, and many people can probably find a way to flourish and be impactful in Brussels (though it might take some time)
- It’s hard to get the specific role you want, especially early in your career
- But by being very intentional and leveraging your network strategically, you can get a long way. I hate that this is how it works, but it’s so true. If you’re trying to enter the bubble, check your LinkedIn to see who in the bubble you know, and ask them for help!
On EU careers – EA specific
- Firstly, there’s a small yet supportive network of aligned EA folks that were incredibly friendly and willing to help
- They give sometimes niche but very valuable advice, such as about this specific exam that you need to pass to be invited for many roles at the Commission:
- The exam is quite easy to pass, but it’s difficult to get invited to take it. However, as a lot of roles at the Commission require the exact same exam, consider applying to lots of roles even if you wouldn’t take them, just to get invited to the exam. You’ll be a lot more hireable (for the roles you actually want) after.
- They give sometimes niche but very valuable advice, such as about this specific exam that you need to pass to be invited for many roles at the Commission:
- I arrived thinking that important topics (specifically in politics, I’m not sure to what extent this applies to other work) would be ‘covered’ by semi-aligned folk (e.g. “Green politicians are doing a good job already, there’s little marginal impact to be had there”). That in turn made me think that taking strategic angles on topics tangentially related to what we want (e.g. working on trade instead of live animal transport, working on the CAP instead of slaughterhouse conditions) or working with less progressive parties would be a more fruitful approach, as you could maybe insert animal-relevant points there instead of replacing people already doing good work.
- But it turns out that the most important (animal) topics are covered by people who don’t seem scope sensitive and seem at least somewhat unwilling to think in terms of trade-offs. For example, I was (maybe naively!) surprised to learn that one of the leading MEPs on animal welfare didn’t know about the small body problem and didn’t seem to have thought much about whether insects could suffer. As such, I think there’d be a lot of scope for people to join ‘aligned’ politicians as parliamentary assistants (assuming they’d be a good fit) and push strategic agendas.
- In general I’m pretty excited about the impact potential of APAs (weirdly pronounced “ahpah” instead of “a-p-a”). One lobbyist said “it’s insane, the power in the hands of 24 year olds”, while someone at the Commission complained that “a 200-page report that an expert at the Commission worked on for two years is at equal footing with what an MEP [plausibly with support of their APAs] came up with in a few days”
- One friend commented on my draft for this post: “yes, and what about becoming an MEP instead of APA, a bit harder but not impossible (→ join a political party)”
- (Commission-specific) Some of the somewhat abstract career strategizing / optimizing I was doing is less relevant if it’s so hard to get in. One approach that was advised is to “get in, then reshuffle”
- Shuffling around seems common at the Commission. That also means that it’s not impossible for someone with a background in biology to switch to full-time work on AI after just two years at the Commission. I don’t think that’d be a very plausible path in industry or at NGOs!
Some miscellaneous notes
- This was the first time that I really felt that my career plans are subject to my AI timelines – I concluded that building career capital at the Commission for (a hyperbolic) 20 years before switching to a role with real impact wouldn’t work for me
- Being part of a structured program is great and probably much better than just trying to arrange your own visit. You get access to lots of experts, but still have the flexibility to dip out and meet people independently.
- So consider applying to the next round of the Impactful Policy Careers accelerator. There’s also the Talos Fellowship, focused on EU AI policy (applications are now open)
- If you’re interested in joining the Commission, reach out to your country’s permanent representation in Brussels. Most of them have staff dedicated to helping nationals get into EU institutions
- If you’re trying to passively learn more about the EU bubble, subscribe to the Brussels Playbook newsletter by Politico
- And if you’re interested in EU careers, get in touch with EAs in Brussels!
Thanks Vasco – I really appreciate the thoughtful engagement. I think there are a few different things getting a bit mixed together here, so I’d love to tease them apart and explain where I still see things differently.
You mentioned that the key is the difference in impact, not concern about animals. But I’d argue that this concern does in fact translate to impact, especially when we’re thinking in terms of counterfactuals and replaceability. For example, if someone applies for a role at SWP, their counterfactual impact is likely just the difference between them and the next-best candidate—who is almost certainly also deeply concerned about shrimp welfare. But in an EC role, the counterfactual is likely that the position goes to someone who wouldn’t raise animal issues at all. So the marginal impact is potentially much greater, even in junior positions.
We’ve already seen specific examples, particularly in the UK, where junior staff inside government have been able to push for progress on animal welfare that would never have happened through lobbying alone. These aren’t abstract hypotheticals. Another specific i found out yesterday, someone was able to pass something through their local gov that led to 400 million animals being spared that wasn't even on the radar before they entered. It seems extremely unlikely that this kind of leverage and counterfactual would be the case for the best vs. next best candidate in an NGO.
2. Hierarchy matters, but so does initiative, positioning, and timing.
Yes, the Commission is large and hierarchical. But so is almost every institution with leverage over major policy. What we’ve seen that once someone is in, they can navigate toward departments and roles where they’re better positioned to influence change. That’s part of what this program is about: helping people enter the system with the long game in mind.
It’s not a passive process—it requires individuals to actively find their leverage points and pockets of influence. A lot depends on the individual’s initiative and ability to spot opportunities—but that’s true in any sector, whether in NGOs or in policy. I would say though if that doesnt appeal its a sign working in civil service is not a good fit.
You noted that lobbyists can reach many policymakers, which is true. But that doesn’t mean they’re more impactful than internal actors—it’s highly dependent on context. And critically, lobbyists themselves will tell you (and did on our programme) that what they need most are credible insiders who understand the system, have networks, and can champion ideas from within.
3. External lobbying vs. insider influence is a false binary.
We often hear people argue for becoming a lobbyist instead of going into the system. But I think this skips a vital step: the most effective lobbyists often were insiders first. Without that institutional knowledge, they lack the credibility and relational capital that drives real traction on issues that aren’t already politically salient—like shrimp welfare, for example.
So to me, the idea that someone without any government experience should just jump into policy advocacy seems less plausible than a pathway that starts inside the system, builds knowledge, and later leverages that from a lobbying or NGO position if that’s where personal fit leads.
So overall, I’d say the value of this programme comes not from comparing against some hypothetical “random” NGO role, but from offering people a realistic path into a system that’s historically been quite closed off to animal advocates and an opportunity to build essential career capital to be a more effective advocate in the future.