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The Toughest Career Decisions I Made - and the Tools That Helped
13 min readMar 3, 2025
• Big career decisions are rarely clear-cut—trade-offs, mixed feelings and uncertainty are inevitable
• Decision-making tools (cost-benefit analysis, weighted factor model, structured mentorship) can provide clarity
• Seeking advice from mentors, peers, and career resources is invaluable, but you ultimately own the decision and its consequences
• Career and life values can help you make better decisions, but they also evolve—what feels right now may change over time
• Long-term impact matters more than short-term outcomes; a decision's true value often becomes clear only in hindsight
• Taking calculated risks, paired with backup plans, can open up unexpected opportunities.
Having written this post and reflected on my journey, I can't help but be grateful for the work of some amazing meta charities that made my decisions more informed. Their work can be invisible sometimes, but it is vital for ensuring our community continues to make more impact. As you can see in my decisions below, the more help and information I got, the better my decisions became. Here are some of the charities that helped me in the order of my engagement with them:
• Animal Advocacy Careers (AAC)
• 80,000 Hours (80k)
• Magnify Mentoring
• Centre for Effective Altruism (EAG conferences)
• LEAD for Farmed Animals
• EA UK
Also many thanks to Toby Tremlett and Kevin Xia for reading over the initial draft of this post and providing valuable suggestions!
In this post, I'm sharing my personal decision-making journey and the tools that worked for me. I'm not claiming my choices were perfect or that you should follow the same approach—these decisions were shaped by my unique circumstances and priorities. There's always more context behind each decision than I can fully capture here, so I've aimed to keep things succinct while sharing what I feel comfortable with.
Before learning about factory farming, I was building a startup to help non-native English speakers improve their pronunciation and grammar. In 2017, this was an emerging field and such solutions were pretty innovative. I had paying customers following my method, investor interest, and even won a startup idea competition.
However, once I learned about factory farming, I lost my motivation to work on the business and pivoted entirely to focus on getting a role tackling factory farming directly. I lacked decision-making frameworks, mentors, or an EA community to guide me. Had I known about resources like 80,000 Hours or Giving What We Can, I might have considered earning to give and continued with my startup longer.
At the time, I thought the only way to help animals was through direct vegan-related work—at a sanctuary, a plant-based business, or a charity (my knowledge of charities in the space then was very limited). I didn't know much about charity entrepreneurship back then - otherwise I'd have started a charity. So, I set out to find a job in the movement.
Looking back, this decision might not have been the best counterfactual choice.
1. Continue with ed-tech startup
2. Pivot to animal advocacy work (the decision I took)
The decision was emotionally challenging but morally clear. While I had invested significant time and energy into my startup and saw its potential, learning about factory farming created an urgent sense of moral responsibility that overshadowed my entrepreneurial ambitions. I felt both excited about contributing to animal advocacy and anxious about leaving a promising business venture.
Primary Risks:
- Financial: Moving from a revenue-generating business to nonprofit work
- Career: Shifting to a completely new field without relevant experience
- Opportunity Cost: Potentially giving up a successful tech business opportunity
- Built some savings before making the switch
- Lowered my expenses while I searched for the right opportunity
- Retained some customers and took some other jobs while I focused on searching for a movement job
- Stable business potential vs. uncertain nonprofit impact
- Financial growth vs. direct impact potential
In hindsight, my impact journey has turned out well because I'm happy with where I am now. However, given how underfunded the farmed animal advocacy space is, having a financially successful business could have allowed me to contribute significantly through monetary or labour donations. While my business provided some income, it wasn't at the scale where earning to give would have been the most effective path. Could my business have succeeded if I had pushed on for a few more years? I'll never know. But I do think I could have made a more informed choice by using decision-making tools.
This first transition taught me valuable lessons about following my moral convictions, but it was just the beginning. My next decision would challenge me to leave something I truly loved for the potential of greater impact.
A year after I stopped working on my start-up, I joined Veganuary in 2018 and worked there happily until 2022. It was my first job making an impact for animals, and I loved it—I genuinely thought I’d stay forever. But in 2021, I took the 80,000 Hours career planning course, which helped me reflect on my personal strengths and long-term potential. As I grew in my role, it became easier but also offered fewer opportunities for further development.
1. Stay at Veganuary
2. Get another role in an animal advocacy or alt-protein organization
3. Start a charity through an incubator (the decision I took)
4. Start a charity independently
1. Quadrant of Costs and Benefits (Most Helpful)
- Created detailed comparison of staying vs. leaving
- Listed specific advantages and disadvantages
- Highlighted most salient decision factors
Here is a replica of my quadrant as much as I can remember it:
Option | Benefits | Costs |
| Stay at Veganuary | - Loved the team and work culture - Stable job with secure funding - Possible promotion in 1-2 years - Less risk, predictable future | - Opportunity cost: might make a bigger impact elsewhere - Growth could be slower - May miss out on new experiences or salary increases |
| Leave | - Potential for greater impact in a new role - Broader network and new experiences - Possible higher salary - Faster professional growth | - Less stability, uncertain future - Risk of next job not being a good fit - Leaving a great team and organization |
Once you’ve filled out your quadrant, you’ll likely have conflicting information. Highlighting the most significant points can help— for me, the high opportunity cost of staying stood out. This tool is especially useful when both options have pros and cons, making it hard to choose a clear winner. Visually mapping them out helps clarify what matters most.
Though the costs and benefits may seem repetitive, I’ve used this framework for multiple decisions and gained new insights each time. Seeing both sides side by side offers a fresh perspective, reveals patterns, and makes decision-making clearer.
2. 80,000 Hours Career Planning Template
- Provided high-level career view
- Helped narrow down best options
- Generated valuable peer feedback
3. Backup Plan Development
I came up with a few options I could immediately do if my next role didn't work out. I've found it quite comforting to know that I have options and it made risk easier to tolerate.
- Continuing to apply for high-impact roles
- Earning to give as product manager in IT
- Pursuing a master's degree
- Career in diplomacy (since I speak multiple languages and my degree is in International Relations and Mandarin)
4. Structured Mentorship through Magnify Mentoring (applications currently open!)
I was talking to my mentor (shout out to Alexandria!) about growth opportunities in my role and potentially getting other more senior roles, when she suggested I start a charity. I had never seriously considered it before then, so it made me more open to applying to an incubator to start a charity or starting it independently.
What makes a good mentor? Someone who has been there before you and is happy to share how they got there. For example, my mentor was a senior member of staff at The Humane League, so she knew the lay of the land and how things worked, and she is also good at spotting people’s potential. In my personal experience, the best mentors and advisors are about at least 2-5 years ahead of you, because they already made a few decisions and saw how they turned out. They are also usually better connected and have a good understanding of the movement.
How do you find a mentor? Programs like Magnify Mentoring are the easiest way to get matched with someone who is more likely to help you. In fact, the applications are open right now! The mentors in the program commit to 6 months of monthly conversations to help you build your confidence and find the next impactful opportunity.
If you don’t get into the program, or the it isn’t open right now, you can approach people for a one-off conversation about careers. The easiest way to do this would be to talk to Animal Advocacy Careers and 80k career advisors. If not, you can try approaching leaders in the movement with a question or ask for a one-off conversation at a conference or an online coffee chat. You can get good advice there and then, and if you get on well and the person has availability, they may be able to give you more advice further down the line.
5. Family and Friend Consultations
Surprisingly, they were all supportive because they saw my ambition to grow. It’s challenging to take family’s advice into account because at least my family aren’t familiar with EA principles and they tended to take my own interests into account more (or even their own idea of where I should be going in my career). This makes me think that it’s important to weigh family or friends' advice accordingly, and ensure that you get a variety of viewpoints, including critical feedback.
Leaving Veganuary felt wrong. I had built strong personal relationships with my team, and it was my first real movement job. Telling my team I was leaving was one of the hardest things I've ever done.
- My north star was to help animals in the most neglected areas
- I wanted to learn more and take on greater responsibility
- Limited senior role opportunities in current position
- Potential for higher impact in new venture
- Financial Stability: Delayed homeownership amid rising prices
- Free Time: Trading easy workload for more demanding schedule - three years later, I’m only just claiming my weekends and evenings back!
- Team Relations: Leaving trusted colleagues for uncertain new connections
Leaving a well-funded, reputable organization felt risky, but I was in my twenties, had no major commitments, and had saved enough to sustain myself for a few months while searching for my next opportunity.
It turned out to be a great decision in the long run. Although I didn't continue with the incubated project, the path led me to founding a charity later. The experience was invaluable - I expanded my network, built lasting relationships with other charity entrepreneurs, and gained crucial insights into starting organizations.
While leaving Veganuary was emotionally difficult, my next decision would test my ability to navigate uncertainty and rapid changes in an even more complex way.
After wrapping up a previous role, I took the opportunity to explore other career directions. Not having a job felt surprisingly empowering—it allowed me to reassess my priorities thoroughly. During this period, I worked as a contractor for Family Empowerment Media (FEM), applied for funding for Hive, and explored a role at Animal Advocacy Careers (AAC).
1. Continue working with FEM in fundraising/communications
2. Keep pursuing funding for my charity
3. Accept the AAC role (the decision I took)
I didn’t use it to choose between the three decisions above, but I did use it to narrow many options down to only a few, which has been very helpful. It is also great for comparing different roles in terms of impact. In this post I hardly touch on actual impact estimates of each option because there are few options and meta-impact is harder to put into numbers.
2. Cost-Benefit Quadrant (Most Helpful)
- Compared accepting AAC role vs pursuing other opportunities
- Listed specific advantages and disadvantages
3. Risk Analysis Framework
- Listed past role frustrations vs new expectations
- Identified key concerns and mitigation strategies
4. Backup Plan Development
- Included return to fundraising for Hive option
- Maintained previous B, C, D plans as safety net
5. Structured Mentorship (at that point I participated in the LEAD for farmed animals which isn’t running at the moment)
My mentor helped me prioritize career values and compare options using a structured template. First, he asked me to come up with my life priorities - see the actual table below (each time-related column could only contain 20 points).
Then he gave me a template for comparing different roles and we discussed each of them and how I felt about them. Role A was AAC and role B was another charity.
I was apprehensive—this would be my third job in a year. I worried I'd abandoned fundraising for my own charity too quickly after one rejection. But the AAC role was exciting and ready to go, offering the high-level position I wanted in an area I'm passionate about.
The timing of receiving both the funding rejection and AAC offer in the same week influenced my decision. AAC was AIM-incubated and backed by major funders, suggesting similar impact potential to launching my own initiative. The role was ready, funded, and proven to create impact, plus I missed working with a team.
- Delayed starting Hive vs immediate impact
- Less autonomy vs existing organizational and team support
- Career stability concerns vs exciting opportunity
Main risks included perception of job instability and possibly giving up on Hive too soon. I mitigated these through a trial workday at AAC, detailed discussions about fit, and maintaining solid backup options.
The choice proved valuable—my time at AAC provided crucial insights into career change, meta-organizations, and movement infrastructure. Working at two AIM-incubated charities (AAC and FEM) before launching Hive helped shape our current approach. The only downside was delaying Hive's launch, though this delay ultimately helped build a stronger foundation through our newsletter audience.
As I was getting into my stride at AAC, an unexpected opportunity arose that would force me to make perhaps my most challenging decision yet.
As Hive grew, it demanded more of my time. My mental health suffered from long hours and pressure. I had to choose: hire someone to run Hive or leave AAC to focus on Hive full-time.
1. Abandon Hive: not a real option as it was going quite well and we started seeing the first impact indicators
2. Stay at AAC and hire for Hive
3. Split time 50/50: Not feasible—both roles were senior and required full attention
4. Leave AAC and go full-time at Hive (the decision I took)
1. Structured Mentorship (Most Helpful)
My mentor (shout out to Steven!) asked me if I would regret not going for this opportunity on my deathbed, and it was a clear “yes”. He challenged my assumptions and encouraged me to assess the risks more thoroughly, which led me to stop catastrophizing failure and come up with good backup plans.
2. Cost-Benefit Quadrant
- Compared both strong options
- Listed specific advantages/disadvantages
- Highlighted key decision factors
3. Backup Plan Development
- Included ETG and for-profit options
- Provided financial security planning
4. Stakeholder Consultations
- Co-founder discussions (both my co-founders thought I could do both jobs, but they weren't under the same mental strain as I was).
- Family input gathering
This was the hardest career decision I've ever made. The pressure was intense—Hive was growing faster than expected, and I was already exhausted and stressed. I felt guilty leaving AAC. It was a great fit, a role designed for me, and in a well-funded, impactful organization. Having multiple good options felt like an immense privilege—almost uncomfortably so.
I prioritize neglectedness and potential impact in my decisions. Despite extensive deliberation, it ultimately came down to this: Hive targeted a high-impact, low-hanging fruit opportunity that was outside AAC's theory of change. Replaceability was another factor—finding someone to run Hive at even 80% of my capacity would be difficult, while my AAC role could likely be filled by others (and it could give them a great opportunity to step up).
- Housing Security: Delayed house purchase by at least a year (again!)
- Financial Stability: Switched to more uncertain self-employment
- Impact Uncertainty: Moved to an intervention without a track record of impact
- Work-Life Balance: Increased stress and workload initially
This was my riskiest financial decision yet. My co-founder Constance offered to seed fund Hive for a year or until we got more stable funding, which was one of the reasons I could actually made this decision. However, after a few funding rejections for Hive earlier I was uncertain whether we'd get post-seed support later. To help me mitigate this risk, I had an emergency fund to sustain myself while securing long-term funding plus my expenses were relatively low at the time due to house-sitting. If I had to look for another opportunity a year later, I thought I'd have valuable experience and network to leverage.
It’s working out well. While it hasn’t been easy, I believe I made the right choice. Hive is thriving, and I’m more fulfilled than ever. Looking back, this decision was a pivotal moment—not just in my career, but in how I approach risk, uncertainty, and impact-driven work.
Positives:
- Strong impact indicators (80+ job/volunteer opportunities, new projects)
- Secured major funding (Open Philanthropy, EA Funds, etc.)
- Highest role satisfaction ever
- Growing community of 3500+ advocates
Negatives:
- More stressful than expected initially (I wrote about what my job was like then in this post)
- Long-term funding took longer than anticipated
- Came close to two-month runway before securing stable funding
Looking back, no single tool, mentor, or organization shaped my career decisions—but together, they created a support system that helped me navigate uncertainty. Meta-charities and career infrastructure played a key role at different stages, reinforcing the importance of a strong ecosystem for advocates making big career moves.
If you're facing a tough decision, know that uncertainty is normal—clarity often comes in hindsight. The key is to make the best choice you can with the information available, lean on the right support at the right time, and trust that each step contributes to your long-term growth.
What decision-making tools or support systems have helped you? I’d love to hear your experiences!
