How to find a fulfilling career - no matter what you're into

At the end of every year I reflect on my life to consider where I am in life, where I want to go, and how those relate.

Work / career is a large part of that as I need money to live and it takes up a large portion of my week. I just turned 30 which feels like a bit of a turning point - I've been working professionally as a software engineer for ~8 years and it seems like a good time to consider what I want to do for the next 10.

In the process of this reflection I brushed up on some systems / rules of thumb that have helped me think about this and I thought it might help others / future me so sharing them here.

What should you work on in your life?

I think the answer to this question is going to be different for every person and their unique combination of values, histories, and genetics.

But the strategy itself remains the same - optimize for what calls to you. Your calling is likely where you will do your best work for the simple fact that you can't stop thinking about it so you're likely to pour more hours and brain cycles into it than anything else you might pursue. Now there are some caveats like dedicating your life to gaming or gambling typically has poor results but generally this seems to hold true.

Optimizing for your calling leans into the things you inherently enjoy which, long-term, has a good chance of being fulfilling, being something you're good at, and something you can be successful at.

How can you figure out your calling?

It's going to take time, iterations, and reflection.

Just because you like video games or soccer or skiing does not necessarily make it your calling. But if you find this domain to be enjoyable and fulfilling over a multi year period then it may be a reasonable candidate. I know this sounds a little woo woo and imprecise and that's cause it kinda is - it's a pattern that really only reveals itself after sufficient time / iterations with a pursuit to see if there's something there / it's a possible candidate.

For more practical advice - try investing in domains that interest you.

If they don't even interest you to start with then it's unlikely it's going to be a candidate for your calling. If they do interest you then it's a possible candidate and you won't regret pursuing them short-term anyway. For some anecdata: At Meta, they described strengths as areas you're interested in because long-term they found that your interests would develop into strengths simply because you would pursue them more over a given time horizon.

Personally I have found a few callings in my life like building systems and writing - these are hobbies / activities I've come back to over a decade of trying different things.

Does your calling need to be your job?

Your calling does not need to be your job but your job should support your calling.

In many ways your calling is something that you inherently want to do but that doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be something the outside world is willing to pay you for. Some common examples of callings that may not translate well into a job include theater, sports, and writing. Pursuing these callings as a means to make money may not lead to more fulfillment - they may pay less which may make the rest of your life hard or include activities that while related to your calling are not things you actually want to do.

Examples where making your calling your job may not make sense:

Theater - Perhaps you love theater. But maybe the lifestyle of a broadway performer or the role of a drama teacher does not mesh well with your interests. In that case it may make sense to get a job in a different domain and only interact with theater in ways you like (maybe improv or seeing more shows or writing critiques).
Sports - Only the very best athletes get paid enough to support themselves so pursuing this if you're not the very best may lead to insufficient money to support your basic needs which in turn leads to less fulfillment.
Writing - There are many kinds of writing. If you want to write fantasy novels but the only writing job you can get is as a journalist then you may find this is less fulfilling than getting a different day job and writing your novel on the side.

In general there are two paths to finding a job that optimizes for your calling:

Your job includes your calling - Thus you get paid to lean into your calling.
Your job supports your calling - Thus you are able to lean into your calling long-term because you can support / sustain yourself along the way.

Neither option is necessarily better than the other and often times you may end up with a mix of both.

As an example I kind of lean into both. I get paid to work as a software engineer so in some ways I get paid to build systems which is nice. But on the other hand many of the things I get paid to work on are not things I would've chosen to work on myself so I still lean into building systems and writing in my free time because that want is left unfulfilled.

For most of us a job is not optional so try to find a job that supports your calling as the calling is typically what's going to drive overall fulfillment, not professional successes.

How to find a fulfilling job

A good job can support your calling but a bad one can derail it.

So it's important to think a little bit about what kinds of jobs tend to be fulfilling so we avoid ones that would end up soul-sucking. The best resource I've found for this is 80_000 hours' what makes a dream job? post which lays out takeaways from various research studies on career fulfillment. In my mind optimizing for a calling is more important than career since you often can't fully connect the two but it's best if you can make your career fulfillment at least net neutral.

80_000 hours takeaways for a fulfilling career:

Work that's engaging
Work that helps others
Work you're good at
Work with supportive colleagues
Work that doesn't have major negatives
Work that fits with the rest of your life

I think this list is good but I prefer the similar but more general ikigai formula as I find it easier to conceptualize:

Solves a real problem
Something people want (and therefore use)
You're interested in
You enjoy doing
You can get paid for

The major difference is it focuses on interests / enjoyment as I think you can get good at most things if you are interested in them and you might as well try to enjoy the process since you're going to spend so much time at your job.

For my answers - building systems and writing seem to be recurring callings. Software Engineering seems to be a compatible job that sometimes aligns and sometimes doesn't. But even when it's not aligned, it usually is supportive and compatible enough to allow me to pursue my callings on the side.

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