Career Dilemmas

Which is more important: Working for a cause you believe in, or enjoying the nature of your work?

Often, the two don’t exactly coincide. To use an extreme example, many people would agree that helping out starving children in poor developing countries is a worthwhile cause, but most would not actually venture out into the harsh conditions of sub-Saharan Africa to work for this cause. On the flip side, you may enjoy working in the luxury of an air-conditioned office building in mid-town Manhattan, but the thought of helping others trade securities for a living isn't aligned with your life goals.

One way of finding what you "believe in" is to think about what you believe will add value to society. Sometimes, this is not easy to gauge. Adding value itself is a very subjective term to begin with, as there is really no concrete way to measure value. In the end, it has to do with your own perceptions of what will make a positive impact. To some, adding value could be something as simple as creating a useful smartphone app for a small group of users. For others, it may mean conducting research on potential treatments for a widely prevalent disease.

Nature of the work refers to what you do on a day-to-day basis and encompasses all the practical aspects of work that may affect your quality of life, such as work environment, salary, and the types of people you interact with. These are not directly related to the ideas or content of the work, but are nevertheless important because they directly affect how we feel physically and emotionally.

Career dilemmas are often the result of a conflict between the two, and a decision has to be made which compromises one aspect. Sometimes, one aspect will clearly triumph over the other. For example, in rare instances, you may feel so strongly about a cause that you are willing to endure any hardships or inconveniences in the nature of your work in order to achieve your goal. On the other hand, if you have non-work related goals that you value more, then your career decision may be driven more by the nature of work that gives you the lifestyle you want and allows you to pursue activities that are important to you, such as raising a family or spending time on hobbies.

More often though, finding the right career is a balance of the two.  Imagine a two-by-two matrix, like the one shown below. Your career options can be divided into four quadrants based on where they fall in terms of the two aspects: For example, those ideal careers in which you both believe in the cause and enjoy the nature of the work would fall in the upper right. Where you end up in the matrix depends on what is most important to you at the moment, and many people end up somewhere near the center.

One last thought: Where does interest come into play here? The answer is, in both. Interest could refer to interest in the idea behind the product or service you are working on, or it could refer to interest in the day-to-day tasks the work requires. For example, ideally a software engineer would have an interest in the ideas and potential impact of the product he is developing, but in addition, also have an interest in the day-to-day coding and algorithm development.