Hey Antonia—thanks for the thoughtful questions!
First, your vet experience is likely way more expansive than you think. I suspect you're not fully accounting for some critical aspects of your work: you've been doing project management, people management, and administrative work this entire time, even if you haven't been calling it that. Every treatment plan is essentially a complex project with multiple stakeholders (e.g. owner, specialists, staff), budget constraints, timeline pressures, and success metrics. I’m sure you've been analyzing data, communicating technical information to non-experts, managing resources, and supervising people. These are important skills that research orgs and think tanks need. Your challenge is drawing that clear, credible line between what you've actually been doing and what these job descriptions are asking for. Don't make hiring managers do the translation work—spell it out for them.
At the same time, there genuinely aren't really shortcuts to getting jobs you're not demonstrably qualified for, especially at the senior level where organizations are understandably risk-averse. But you can (somewhat, and maybe) help bridge experience gaps by your alignment with the org's mission and values. If you can show a deep, specific understanding of why their work matters (not just "I care about animals" but "I've seen how X policy gap affects animal welfare outcomes in ways that your Y initiative directly addresses"), hiring managers may become more confident that you'll spin up quickly.
There aren't secret entry-level roles floating around, but many orgs do closed recruitment rounds where they only invite people already on their radar. The way onto that radar isn't mysterious—if you volunteer with target organizations, show up to EAGs, join relevant communities, and submit thoughtful applications even when you don't get the role, your name is more likely to percolate and stick. The goal is becoming someone they think of when the right opportunity emerges.
As for proper framing, a common missed opportunity I've noticed is writing resumes that list responsibilities instead of highlighting impact on the organization's mission, e.g. "Implemented protocols that reduced average treatment time by 15%" over "responsible for patient care". I’d also recommend resisting the everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach—craft something lean where every single line directly supports your case for a specific role. For me, at least, an exaggerated, 10-page resume inflates away credibility rather than establishes it.
Your clinical background is genuinely valuable here, you just need to translate it in ways that make the value obvious to people who've never worked in veterinary medicine. Animal Advocacy Careers will prove to be a very useful resource here!
Hey Micah! Thanks for the helpful context. I’ll address your questions below in the order you’ve posed them:
Hi there, ElectricSheep! This is a good question—thanks for asking.
To my mind, your question boils down to the following: "How can folks who want to maximize their impact build towards an intentional, impact-focused career?"
I realize that phrasing strips away some of the details you shared about your own personal situation (e.g. that you're completing a PhD in Maths, that you're not interested in AI, etc.), but my advice is the same: leverage career guides (e.g. 80,000 Hours and Probably Good), be attentive to aligned job boards (again 80,000 Hours and Probably Good), build career capital (e.g. by volunteering with related orgs, getting involved with local or virtual EA groups), and talk to people (e.g. through participating in AMAs!).
I'll end there, since I know you posted this on the Career Advisors AMA and think this question is a good fit for that conversation.
Thanks for your thoughts and questions, Andrew! I’ve not addressed everything you touched on, but here are my quick takes: