It was 2012, and I was in my final year of university. I had been defaulting towards academia before I encountered the Effective Altruism movement, which encourages us to use reason and evidence to determine how we can use our resources to help others most.

Ultimately, it feels to me like I have made a moral compromise: I do less good for the world, but at lower cost to myself, and I have to live with that.

Encouraged by discussions with other Effective Altruists, I was already donating 10 per cent of my student income to pay for deworming treatments and the distribution of anti-malaria bed nets, two of the most cost-effective charitable causes. But to many of us it seemed obvious that we could do even more good by seeking out a well-paying job and increasing our donations that way.

Over the course of three years, my wife and I gave away over £20,000 – enough to treat more than 10,000 people.

The hours were long and tough, regularly staying in the office beyond midnight. Sunday evenings came to be filled with dread, as I felt the shadow of a new week of work looming. The longer I stayed, the older I would be when it came to the inevitable step of starting again in a new field.

Read the full article on a high-paying job for charity by Aveek Bhattacharya at New Statesman