It’s not always about what you’re doing. It’s more about how you’re going about it.
You could be working at a nonprofit for a great cause, but if all you’re doing is data entry – you’re not going to feel engaged.
Feedback loops are all about who you’re interacting with and what you’re getting from the interaction.
Do you enjoy the interaction?
Do you care about helping the person?
Are you learning and improving?
Can you see the fruits of your labor?
From personal experience – I founded a nonprofit, worked at it for 5 years, then switched over to technology – literally the meme of selling b2b SaaS. Given these two starkly different experiences, I realized that the feeling of impact is not inherently tied to what work you’re doing.
The times that felt the best in both fields were when I had the richest feedback loops. In nonprofits it was mostly talking with students, designing programs, implementing them, getting their feedback and improving. In tech, it was when I was talking to customers, teaching them about our product, helping them understand how to make their vision a reality, bringing their feedback to our team and seeing the product improve.
On the flip side, the least engaging, fulfilling times were when I was disconnected from customers, or stakeholders. I was going through the motions, doing work that was essential to the job, but didn’t expose me to any meaningful feedback. Designing programs can be fun, just like writing blog posts and building webpages can be fun. But when the programs, or web pages don’t reach real people, it’s hard to continue feeling motivated.
So rather than imagining jobs or industries where you might feel engaged, start first with the kinds of feedback loops you want to engage with a on daily basis, then figure out where you can find them.