I am passionate about electronic music, growth, consciousness, adventures. Yet I didn’t become a DJ, coach, scientist, or travel guide. Why not? Two reasons: First, I tried some of them, and quickly found out that I am either worse than the competition at them or just wouldn’t enjoy them. Second, I read up on what actually makes for a career I’d enjoy long-term and followed that advice. This is my 80/20 take on that advice, mixed with my personal experience.
Super excited that I got to speak to Nina Friedrich, Executive Director of High Impact Professionals on what makes for a fulfilling job. Nina has advised many mid-career professionals on career shifts for more impact and purpose. She shared her learnings for what works and what doesn’t, her personal journey from software developer to director, and why community is so central to HIP’s work.
How to find work you will enjoy
Maximize upsides
Apart from looking for opportunities that uniquely match your personal fit and skills (upcoming post), the evidence suggests there are three things to look out for.
Growth: If you only take one thing away, take this one: Always try to find opportunities in fast-growing markets and fast-growing companies. You will grow faster, achieve more, and have more fun.
Engaging work: Work where you have freedom to decide how to do it, clear tasks with well-defined start and end, variety in tasks, and feedback on how you are doing on the tasks. Together this can put you in a flow state, similar to games.
Supportive colleagues: To quote 80,000 Hours: “It may sound obvious, but if you hate your colleagues and work for a boss from hell, you’re not going to be satisfied.” Lots of evidence for that.
Minimize downsides
Even the highest-growth, most-gamified, great-team job can be a dud if some hygiene factors aren’t taken care of:
Commute time: Long commutes can have strong effects on life satisfaction. Remote work can fix this if you have a sufficient social life outside of work. If that’s not an option try to make your commute as pleasant as possible.
Hours worked: The evidence for this is interesting: Satisfaction mostly depends on preferred hours vs actual hours and follows a U-shape with a drop at more than 9h/day and very steep drop over 12h/day. Culture (eg EU vs US) plays a role.
Financial downsides: Unfair pay or job insecurity are also linked to low job satisfaction. Importantly, the perception of being paid unfairly seems to be more important than the actual pay.
Match your values
All the above factors can look great and we can still feel miserable. Nina Friedrich explained that this can be due to cognitive dissonance: When we actively work against our values. Finding a job that matches your values has a few caveats though:
Meaning isn’t happiness: Similar to having children, work can give you meaning, but might not maximize happiness. For example, working on catastrophic risks can be psychologically taxing. We’ll cover other paths to meaning in later posts.
Felt impact might not be real impact: In a simplified view, an NGO creates impact and the donor “buys” that impact. As an employee you are working for the donor, not for the beneficiary except when you implicitly donate your salary.
If you can’t find meaning, find money: For many it won’t be feasible to find jobs fully aligned with your values. A more general proxy is money earned. High salaries suggest that society values that skill. It doesn’t work for net-harmful jobs.
Three things to start finding your perfect job
Apply to high-growth opportunities. Commit to sending one application per week.
Review your current work and work with your manager to make it more engaging.
Identify the biggest downside of your job and explore ways to minimize it.
Quick question
We are exploring how we can support y’all more in making changes towards a fulfilling life. Here are a few options, could you please hit reply on your email or email us at christoph@euzoia.org if you are interested in any of these?
Accountability buddies: You get paired with another Euzoia reader and you can hold each other accountable on changes you want to make (eg through WhatsApp)
Peer coaching: With an easy-to-use coaching framework you coach each other on things you’re working on, either in pairs or rotating partners.
Mastermind groups: Weekly or biweekly calls for groups of 6-8 people where in each call a few people can present something they want advice on and the group brainstorms together. Optional group accountability as well.
Let us know by replying to the email / emailing christoph@euzoia.org if you’d be interested in any of these!