“Two months into EA: Why I’m rethinking my approach to impact” by Jessica Udeh

Summary:

Discovering EA recently has made me reconsider how I think about my career and impact. Instead of switching sectors entirely, I'm exploring how to bring EA principles into the work I'm already doing.

I stumbled onto EA about two months ago through a friend who kept mentioning "cost-effectiveness" in conversations about development work. Initially, I was skeptical, another framework claiming to solve everything? But the more I read, the more I realized I'd been wrestling with many of these questions without having the language for them.

What clicked for me

The biggest shift has been moving from "What sector should I work in?" to "How can I maximize impact wherever I am?" I've been working as a communication specialist for a religious organization for a while now, and my first instinct was to completely pivot toward a more obviously EA-aligned organization.

But when I started applying EA thinking [...]

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First published:

July 25th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/2wwt6PiuFNdxEcvix/two-months-into-ea-why-i-m-rethinking-my-approach-to-impact

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.