“Building an EA-aligned career from an LMIC” by Rika Gabriel

This is Part 1 of a multi-part series, shared as part of Career Conversations Week. The views expressed here are my own and don't reflect those of my employer.

TL;DR:

Building an EA-aligned career starting from an LMIC comes with specific challenges that shaped how I think about career planning, especially around constraints:

• Everyone has their own "passport"—some structural limitation that affects their career more than their abilities. Reframing these from unfair barriers to data about my specific career path has helped me a lot.
• When pursuing an ideal career path, it's easy to fixate on what should be possible rather than what actually is. But those idealized paths often require circumstances you don't have—whether personal (e.g., visa status, financial safety net) or external (e.g., your dream org hiring, or a stable funding landscape). It might be helpful to view the paths that work within your actual constraints [...]

---

Outline:

(00:21) TL;DR:

(01:27) Introduction

(02:25) My EA journey so far

(03:18) Sometimes my passport mattered more than my competencies, and thats okay

(04:43) Everyone has their own passport

(06:19) Realistic opportunities often outweigh idealistic ones

(08:04) Importance of a fail-safe

(08:37) Playing the long game

(09:44) Adversity quotient seems underrated

(10:13) Building resilience through adversity

(11:22) Pivot into recruiting

(12:11) Building AQ over time

(14:02) Why AQ matters in EA-aligned work

(15:01) Closing thoughts

---

First published:

July 28th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/3Hh839MaiWCPzyB3M/building-an-ea-aligned-career-from-an-lmic

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

---

Images from the article:

Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.