Dahlia Bock

Finding fulfillment

I came across Penelope Trunk's announcement of a 'webinar or whatever you want to call it' talking about career fulfillment a few days ago and I decided, what the heck, let's find out what people think are steps toward achieving that seemingly unattainable quality of life. Not surprisingly, my pessimistic sentiments were justified, somewhat. Finding fulfillment in your job (or career, if you so prefer) is impossible. All you over-achieving college graduates out there, listen up and listen up quick. If you're setting out to find your life's dream fulfilled in a high-profile job with The Investment Bank or The Consulting Company or The World's Greatest Software Company, then I think you should rethink your strategy. I'm not disregarding striving towards a better career. All I'm saying is that it cannot be the sole source of fulfillment in life.

Apparently the admins who run Brazen Careerist aren't thinking about recording their webinars, so this is as much as I was able to write down while listening.

• 70% of  your sense of fulfillment is inborn, the rest is manageable. So this means that if you're innately a pessimist (like I am), you could still influence your sense of fulfillment with effort.
• Penelope listed 4 contributors to fulfillment. I could only remember 3.
  1. Personal relationships. Like it or not, they play a big role. The following example was given:
     If you were in love but had a crappy job and someone asked you how you were doing, you would say something along the lines of "I'm doing great!". But if you had just been dumped but had a great job going, you would probably talk about what happened to you and be very down. -- I'm not sure if I like the example entirely, but I think it has a ring of truth to it.
  2. Control over your environment. Penelope quotes that consultants and lawyers have the least control of their workload and hours and hence have the least fulfilling job. Planning for uncertainty is not one of human beings' greatest traits. -- Should I be concerned that my job has just been defined to be the least fulfilling?
  3. Challenging work. We all need a driving force to keep us going. Challenges keep us on our toes and curbs complacency.
• The best way to switch industries is to either:
  1. Work 2 full time jobs for a while
  2. Or go unpaid while you try out another job
• It's not safe to be a generalist for too long. If you're in your 40s and haven't specialized in something already, you're in trouble. Someone half your age could do your job for half the price. -- I don't think this view is entirely appropriate in the software industry. It's not a good idea for developers to limit themselves to a specific language or framework. The software world changes so fast and so much it's almost imperative for a dev to keep on learning new things or face extinction.