Many of you may dream of meaningful work, but did you know that meaningful jobs are actually good for your career?
You don’t have to suffer in a job you hate believing that you’re doing what’s best for your career. You actually can have meaningful work and get ahead at the same time.
I know from talking to many of you that you’d love to do something that means something to you. That can mean different things to different people. For some, it means helping people in some way. For others, it’s a certain cause they want to get behind. For more of you, you just want to feel you’ve made an impact on something that counts for something at the end of the day, rather than just built spreadsheets, had meetings or shook a lot of hands.
I’ve created a quiz that can help you pinpoint more of what “meaningful” means to you. You can take it here: Career Change Quiz
Whatever it is, even if you don’t know what it is, you dream of leaving work satisfied that something is better because you were there and did your work that day.
Meaningful jobs are out there. They need you – your talent, your skill and your passion. And guess what? There’s a lot of them that are willing to pay for it. You just have to look.
Three Reasons Meaningful Jobs Are Good For Your Career
You do better work when you’re passionate. It’s the bottom line. When was the last time you got into doing something and time just flew?
For me, when I’m talking to one of my favorite clients we have to really watch the time, because we run out of it so fast in our sessions – the time just goes. When I’m writing, an hour literally feels like 10 minutes.
When you’re passionate about something, even if you’ve never experienced the Twilight Zone time warp I’m describing, you get all fired up and you care about the outcome of that work. When you care about what you’re doing, you’ll have better outcomes, and better outcomes lead to good things for your career.
Meaning filled companies do better financially. B-Corps, socially responsible companies, mission driven companies do better financially. It’s actually been studied. companies with a mission and culture to care thrive, while companies doing business in the old way are getting left behind. Which bus do you want to be on?
The YouConomy. More and more, artificial intelligence (AI) is replacing people in jobs. What that means for you is that you’ll get paid only for work where you can add value that a computer can’t. That means you need to bring your creativity and compassion to work. Whether you’re an engineer, an accountant, a marketer or an artist, there’s room for creativity and compassion in your work – but you need to find a company that values it.
A company that has you building widgets will announce one day that it’s going out of business, while you never got the chance to use your creative muscles. Take a small chance now and branch out. Look for meaningful jobs where you can use the full range of your capabilities and be paid and valued for it.
Where To Find Meaningful Jobs
Meaningful jobs are literally everywhere. You need to know first what has meaning to you, and what kind of company culture excites you to work at.
Meaning-filled companies might include non-profits, B-Corps, socially responsible or mission driven companies, or startups. However, the list might even include larger companies. If you enjoy the culture and the work you’ll be doing, and you feel like you buy into the overall company mission, you might find your meaningful work there.
It just depends what is meaningful to you.
I’ve created a quiz that can help you pinpoint more of what “meaningful” means to you. You can take it here: Career Change Quiz
The truth is, when faced with a need for a career or job change, there are many ways to solve the problem that don’t involve you ending up in a worse situation than you are in now. You only need to look inside to see what is right for you, and look around to see how you might be able to make an impact that has meaning for you.
Meaningful Jobs – What Holds You Back?
I’m curious to hear from you. What holds you back when it comes to looking for a meaningful job?
- Do you not know what’s out there?
- Do there not seem to be any companies that would work for you?
- Does nothing match your expertise?
- Do you not know what’s meaningful to you?
- Do you fear you’d make way less money?
- Or something else?
I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!