essay a job you think is rewarding

How to Write an Essay about Why You Deserve a Job

If you’re preparing for a job application or interview, knowing how to express why you deserve a role is essential. This tutorial will guide you in crafting an effective essay to convey this message.

Writing about why you deserve a job allows you to spotlight your skills, experiences, and alignment with the company’s mission. I will walk you through the process in five straightforward steps, incorporating a sample essay for clearer understanding.

Step 1. Plan the word count for your essay’s paragraphs.

Proper planning simplifies your writing process. Decide the word count for each paragraph – the introduction, three body paragraphs, and the conclusion.

So, if you want to write a 300-word essay, you can distribute 300 words across five paragraphs thus:

That’s all you need for your essay — five short paragraphs.

Step 2. Select your main idea and supporting points.

Start by identifying a central idea to serve as your essay’s framework. To do this, consider why you believe you’re the right fit for the job. Reflect on your unique skill set, experiences, and how your values align with the company’s mission.

In our sample essay, the main idea could be: “My technical skills, leadership experience, and passion for innovation make me the ideal candidate for the software engineering position.”

Let’s use the Power of Three to break one big idea into three smaller points. The Power of Three is a three-part structure that helps you come up with your body paragraphs.

Let’s employ the Power of Three to divide this main idea into three supporting points:

• My technical skills align with the job requirements.
• My leadership experience allows me to manage projects effectively.
• My passion for innovation drives me to constantly learn and grow.

With our main idea and supporting points, we can start crafting our essay!

Step 3. Write the introductory paragraph.

To write an introductory paragraph , follow the diagram below:

Begin with an engaging opening that sets the context for your essay. Include your thesis and the three supporting points.

Introductory Paragraph:

“In the ever-evolving field of software engineering, technical aptitude, leadership, and a constant drive for innovation are critical. I believe my skill set, experience, and passion align perfectly with the role. My technical abilities meet the job’s requirements, my leadership experience equips me to manage projects, and my passion for innovation motivates my professional development.”

Step 4. Write the body paragraphs.

Our essay will have three body paragraphs – each devoted to a supporting point.

Each body paragraph should expand on a supporting point. Begin with a topic sentence summarizing the paragraph, then elaborate with examples.

Paragraph 1:

“My technical skills, honed over years of study and practice, make me a strong fit for the software engineering role. I have a strong grasp of multiple programming languages and am adept at problem-solving, often developing efficient solutions to complex coding issues.”

Paragraph 2:

“Leadership is not just about directing; it’s about supporting a team to achieve common goals. My experience leading a software development team has honed my ability to coordinate projects, handle conflicts, and facilitate collaboration.”

Paragraph 3:

“Passion for innovation is the lifeblood of a successful software engineer. I’ve always been eager to learn new technologies and methodologies to improve efficiency and stay ahead of the curve. This mindset has led to several successful projects and recognition within my previous roles.”

Step 5. Write the concluding paragraph.

To wrap up, paraphrase your points from the introduction. Don’t copy it word for word – use different language to express the same ideas.

Conclusion:

“Software engineering requires technical skills, leadership abilities, and a constant quest for innovation – all of which I possess. My technical expertise aligns with the job’s requirements, my leadership background ensures effective project management, and my passion for innovation fuels continuous learning and professional growth.”

And there you have it! A structured essay that effectively communicates why you deserve the job. I hope you find this tutorial helpful in your writing journey. Good luck!

Tutor Phil is an e-learning professional who helps adult learners finish their degrees by teaching them academic writing skills.

Recent Posts

How to Write an Essay about Why You Want to Become a Nurse

If you're eager to write an essay about why you want to become a nurse, then you've arrived at the right tutorial! An essay about why you want to enter the nursing profession can help to...

How to Write an Essay about Why You Want to Do Something

If you're exploring ways to pen down an essay on why you want to do something, you've come to the right tutorial! Writing an essay about your motivations can be an excellent opportunity to express...

MockQuestions

Teamwork-Related Mock Interview

To help you prepare for your job interview, here are 25 interview questions that are focused on your teamwork skills.

Teamwork was updated by Rachelle Enns on February 23rd, 2021. Learn more here.

Question 2 of 25

Tell me about the most rewarding experience you have had, working in a team environment. What made it so rewarding?

How to answer, answer example.

Community Answers

The interviewer wants to hear that you feel accomplished through teamwork. Talk about a time when you felt fulfilled through a team setting or project collaboration. An example may be a time when you worked on a team project in University, a recent work collaboration, or possibly an extracurricular experience such as coaching a little league team. Discuss the positive results of the teamwork and how you attained a positive outcome as a group.

"The most rewarding teamwork experience that I have had was in my last year of university. We had a project due, in teams of 4, which accounted for quite a large part of our grade. I believe everyone pulled more than their weight because so much was at stake. Teamwork is very rewarding when everyone has something significant to win, or lose."

"One of my most rewarding teamwork experiences was while I was attending University. I learned so much by working with my classmates. I gained new problem-solving skills and learned a lot from their research preferences."

"My business development team was not getting along, so I collaborated with a team-building service, where we had a day full of development exercises, meant to draw our team closer to each other by developing a sense of trust and camaraderie. This experience was incredibly rewarding because I saw relationships and bonds quickly form. I had a plan in place for keeping the momentum over time, which also worked well."

"Our marketing team recently worked on a major campaign for a well-known brand. It was by far the biggest project in my portfolio. I was the junior copywriter on the project and delivered amazing work, not just because I always strive to do my best, but because the more senior members of the team believed in my work. Their encouragement and faith in my work were all I needed to elevate my work even further."

"Last Christmas, we were short staffed, and run off of our feet during the biggest shopping season of the year. The struggle, the overtime hours, but also the excitement of huge sales numbers, put our team on a type of high that I had not seen before. It was pure adrenaline and super exciting. This experience is by far the best team environment in which I have ever worked. I loved the excitement and the way we all banded together to ensure the success of our store."

"The position I am currently in has been my first experience leading a team. We have knocked some seriously crazy numbers out of the park, becoming the pacesetters for many product launches. It's been exciting to see everyone flourish. I love to see everyone succeed. It's encouraging and exhilarating."

"I approach many class projects as team-based efforts, putting students into groups with kids they may not normally choose to work alongside. It is highly rewarding to see new friendships develop while helping my students to expand their views of who they can, and should, be friends with."

Anonymous Answer

Alexandra's Feedback

Jaymie's Feedback

Next Question

How to Answer: Tell me about the most rewarding experience you have had, working in a team environment. What made it so rewarding?

2. tell me about the most rewarding experience you have had, working in a team environment. what made it so rewarding.

Written by Rachelle Enns

Written by Rachelle Enns on October 9th, 2020

Anonymous Interview Answers with Professional Feedback

• Search Search Please fill out this field.
• Career Planning
• Finding a Job
• Interview Strategies

How to Answer "What Was Most and Least Rewarding About Your Last Job?"

What the Interviewer Wants to Know

How to answer the question, tips for giving the best response.

• What Not to Say
• Possible Follow-Up Questions

Interview questions about what was most rewarding and least rewarding about your previous job can be tricky. While it's important to be honest, it's equally important to be diplomatic and smart in your response. 

Interviewers ask this question to get a sense of the tasks you enjoy and do not. Say you're interviewing for a role in operations that involves a lot of paperwork. If you respond to this question by mentioning that paperwork was the least rewarding part of your last job, interviewers will know you might not be a good fit for the position. 

Along with getting a sense of your general likes and dislikes as an employee, this question can also reveal a lot about your attitude. 

Interviewers will be looking to see how you deal with unrewarding aspects of work. After all, any job comes with some less-than-lovely bits. Interviewers want to know if you're low-key or accepting about unrewarding aspects, or inclined to complain. 

When interviewing, always be cognizant of the job you are interviewing for and tailor your response accordingly. For example, if the last job you had involved extensive customer service telephone work that you hated, and if being on the phone doing something similar is even a minor part of the new job, don't mention it. 

No matter the question, do not give a wholly negative answer. You don't want to be construed as someone who is negative about work in general. If you can think of any small silver lining related to the least rewarding part of your job, be sure to mention it. If you can't, perhaps this isn't the right issue to bring up in an interview. 

If there is something about the new role or company you're interviewing with that will make your least rewarding situation unlikely to arise, it's a good opportunity to point out that out as part of  what interests you about this job  or to tie it into your answer to the question on  why you want to work here .

It's beneficial if you can connect your most rewarding experience with the responsibilities involved in the job at hand. 

Examples of the Best Answers

Example answer #1.

One of the most rewarding experiences I had at XYZ Company was tracking down the cause of the buggy behavior in a customer's XYZ product. I could hear the frustration in the customer's voice on the phone, so I arranged for a callback. It took two tech people, but finally, we figured out the issue. It was so satisfying to call back the customer with a resolution to his issue.

Why It Works: This response shows how the candidate transforms frustrations into motivations to resolve issues. 

Example Answer #2

We used to have a real issue with internal communications. My boss and I launched an internal newsletter to share information, and at a holiday party, one of the executive board members mentioned to me how helpful this monthly email was.

Why It Works: This is a solution-oriented way to discuss an unrewarding aspect of a job. 

Example Answer #3

I view myself first and foremost as a problem solver. So the most rewarding aspect of my last job was helping clients resolve their issues. When the same issues come up again and again, it feels frustrating to me. And of course, it reflected poorly on Company ABC's product. With help from my manager, we developed a database of these ongoing problems. Some, but not all of them, have been resolved since we started that initiative. 

Why It Works: This candidate shows real self-awareness and how an important skill (problem-solving) helps them both in day-to-day responsibilities and when responding to work frustrations. 

• Make a list of the qualifications the employer is seeking. Then, be sure the  responsibilities you mention as most rewarding are a match . Make sure you explain why they are most rewarding and use the opportunity to highlight specific skills or talents and the impact you were able to have, whether it was on colleagues, clients, or the company itself.
• Highlight non-essential items for the least rewarding portion of your response. Mention something that won't be required in the new job and always end your answer on a positive note. You could frame it as something that was the least rewarding as compared to the most rewarding activities. For example, if you're switching from a customer support job to a receptionist role, you could mention that you found email communication to be less enjoyable than chatting with people, so you're thrilled this new position involves more time on the phone. 
• Consider focusing on solutions.  In a perfect world, the thing you found least rewarding about your previous job was something you and your manager were able to fix. Even if they weren't implemented, it's worth mentioning any possible solutions that you came up with to fix what was wrong. Doing so will show you to be solutions-driven and positive. And just because the solution wasn't implemented at your last job doesn't mean this company won't consider it, should the same situation arise.

What Not to Say

• Don't talk negatively about people.  Even if your colleagues or manager were the worst part of your last job, don't say that. You can discuss the way working with those people was problematic. For example, let's say you had a situation where your former colleague was especially disorganized and you were stuck doing all the documentation. One way to mention this is to say that your old job required so much paperwork that you were unable to focus on the core tasks of the job itself. This conveys unhappiness over a situation that kept you from excelling at your job instead of annoyance with a colleague. Rather than complaining about people, neutrally discuss circumstances and tasks. 
• Don't brag.  When it comes to the most rewarding aspect of your role, you want to ideally mention an accomplishment—making an annual quota, closing a deal, managing a project successfully, etc.—without becoming boastful. 
• Don't complain.  You don't need to pretend that everything at your last job was amazing, but an interview isn't the time to air all your grievances. Mention only the issues you can put some sort of positive spin on, whether it's a silver lining you found or a solution that was implemented. 

Possible Follow-Up Questions

• What are your strengths and weaknesses?— Best Answers
• Do you work well with other people?— Best Answers
• What can we expect from you in the first 60 days on the job?— Best Answers

Key Takeaways

• Be strategic in your response—you'll want to know which skills and qualifications are most crucial for success and shape your answer accordingly. 
• Keep it positive, and don't vent about colleagues or supervisors. Make an effort to end your response on a positive note. 
• When you talk about the least rewarding aspect, consider weaving in how you worked to improve the situation. 

The Secret to Happiness at Work

Your job doesn’t have to represent the most prestigious use of your potential. It just needs to be rewarding.

“ How to Build a Life ” is a weekly column by Arthur Brooks, tackling questions of meaning and happiness.

E very year, Gallup asks a sample of American adults what might seem to be a rather loaded question: How much do you like your job? The results may surprise you. The portion who say they are “completely satisfied” at work has risen dramatically over the past two decades, from 41 percent in 2001 to 55 percent in 2019. In 2020, despite the fact that millions of Americans had shifted to remote work, 89 percent said they were either “completely” or “somewhat” satisfied.

I teach graduate students who have carefully envisioned their ideal career, many of whom are training to enter jobs in business or government. They find this statistic surprising because, like so many of us, they generally assume that to be satisfied, you must hold your dream job—one where your skills meet your passions, you make good money, and you are excited to get to work each day. No way 89 percent of people have this, right?

But this belief is based on a misunderstanding of what brings job satisfaction. To be happy at work, you don’t have to hold a fascinating job that represents the pinnacle of your educational achievement or the most prestigious use of your “potential,” and you don’t have to make a lot of money. What matters is not so much the “what” of a job, but more the “who” and the “why”: Job satisfaction comes from people, values, and a sense of accomplishment.

Want to stay current with Arthur's writing? Sign up to get an email every time a new column comes out.

N o doubt a substantial chunk of the job-satisfaction percentage is due to the fact that having any job at all makes people happier. Unemployment is one of the biggest sources of unhappiness people can face. Using data from the General Social Survey , I found that American adults who reported that they were “very” or “fairly” likely to lose their job in 2018 were more than three times more likely to say they were “not too happy” with their life than people who felt they were “not likely” to be let go. Several studies have linked a country’s unemployment level with suicide-rate increases. In 2014, economists found that a one-percentage-point increase in unemployment lowers national well-being by more than five times as much as a one-point increase in the inflation rate.

When one has a job, the factors that most affect satisfaction have little to do with the line of work. First, there are the uncontrollable variables: One study in the Journal of Applied Psychology of identical twins reared apart found that about 30 percent of job satisfaction is genetic. Then, there are the practical variables: Economists have found that wage increases raise job satisfaction, but only in the short term. The effect decays quickly as time passes. In all careers, regular wage increases are better for happiness than infrequent, larger raises.

Read: The new economics of happiness

Some of the squishiest aspects of a job are also the ones that make it most rewarding: the values held by your company and your co-workers. Research has shown , for example, that all over the world job satisfaction depends on a sense of accomplishment, recognition for a job well done, and work-life balance. Teamwork, too, has a strong influence in collectivist cultures, but less so in individualist ones . The late Harvard psychologist Richard Hackman found that job satisfaction was strongly, inversely tied to leader-centricity: In one of his studies, musicians who worked in symphony orchestras , where many conductors rule with an iron fist, were 21 percent less satisfied with their growth opportunities than players in leaderless string quartets.

Listen as Arthur Brooks and Jenn Lim, the CEO of Delivering Happiness, analyze the barriers to feeling that your work serves a higher purpose.

Listen and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Googl e | Pocket Casts

Decades of studies have shown that the people most satisfied with their work are those who find a fundamental match between their employer’s values and their own. This is especially true when the values have special moral, philosophical, or spiritual significance. For example, a 2012 study on Iranian nurses found that the happiest ones believed their work was “a divine profession and a tool by which they could gain spiritual pleasure and satisfaction.” Many of my colleagues feel the same way about the vocation of higher education, and as the late philosopher Michael Novak wrote , that sense of a calling can be found in business as well.

Read: Four rules for identifying your life’s work

Researchers who have looked for clear relationships between job satisfaction and the actual type of job one holds have overwhelmingly struck out. CareerBliss, a company dedicated to helping people find greater happiness at work, has published survey results of the “happiest jobs” and the “unhappiest jobs,” as rated by those who hold them. Its most recent rankings, from 2018, show the happiest jobs to be quite disparate: teaching assistant, quality-assurance analyst, net developer, marketing specialist. The unhappiest jobs are similarly grab-baggy, and fairly unrelated to education and income: accountant, security guard, cashier, supervisor.

W hen my graduate students ask me for advice on choosing a job or career path, I don’t tell them to find the best possible fit between their interests and specific job duties. Obviously, they shouldn’t sign up for something they hate. But I tell them that satisfaction can be found in all sorts of vocations. After all, how many kids say, “When I grow up, I’m going to be a quality-assurance analyst”? Rather than relentlessly pursuing a “perfect match” career that they’re sure will make them happy, a better approach is to remain flexible on the exact job, while searching for the values and culture that fit with theirs.

Whatever job they end up in, finding a sense of accomplishment within it is crucial for job satisfaction. It helps to set goals in one’s work, such as increasing skills or responsibility. Some goals lead to more happiness than others , however. While pay increases push up satisfaction temporarily, money as a career goal does not. Volumes of research show that pursuing extrinsic rewards for work, such as money, actually hurts your interest in that work. For real satisfaction, you should pursue intrinsic goals —two in particular.

Read: Are you dreaming too big?

The first is earned success . You can think of it as the opposite of learned helplessness , a term coined by the psychologist Martin Seligman to denote the resignation that people experience when they repeatedly endure unpleasant situations beyond their control. Earned success instead gives you a sense of accomplishment (which Seligman has shown is a source of happiness, and which strongly predicts happiness at work) and professional efficacy (the idea that you are effective in your job, which pushes up commitment to your occupation, also a good measure of job satisfaction). Employers who give clear guidance and feedback, reward merit, and encourage their employees to develop new skills are the most likely to give you those feelings. Look for a boss who acts that way—and if you have the opportunity, be that kind of boss.

The second goal worth pursuing at work is service to others —the sense that your job is making the world a better place. That doesn’t mean you need to volunteer or work for a charity to be happy (my own research has shown that nonprofit work is not more inherently satisfying than working for a for-profit or for the government). On the contrary, you can find service in almost any job. One of my students made this point better than I can, in an op-ed he wrote to explain why he had forgone jobs in his field of academic study to become a waiter in Barcelona. As he put it in Spanish, his customers “are all important and equal. They are the same at the table and must be the same in the eyes of the waiter … It’s great to be able to serve the politician on the front page of the newspaper just as well as the kid browsing the news while waiting for his girlfriend.”

G iven that job satisfaction depends on fairly amorphous criteria such as people and values instead of concrete characteristics such as job duties and money, it’s worth noting that a good job can become a bad one without any changes that would be obvious to an outsider.

From the April 2016 issue: Quit your job

One of the most famous examples of this comes from the first story in the Bible. In the second chapter of the Book of Genesis, God—who had recently created Adam and deemed his creation “very good”—gives Adam a blessed vocation that pleases both of them: He “put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” One chapter later, after the unpleasantness with the snake and the apple, God casts Adam and Eve out of Eden, cursing them: “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground.”

The research above sheds some light on all of this: Adam and Eve were still farmers in both cases, but you might say their relationship with the boss had soured, and they went from earning their success to dragging themselves to work to pay the bills.

From the July 2019 issue: Your professional decline is coming (much) sooner than you think

Okay, saying that job dissatisfaction is the price of the fall of man might be a little much, but it is pretty bad. And while a good job might not be quite as idyllic as the Garden of Eden, when we know the secrets to a career that is truly satisfying, work really can be a joy.

Why I Love Being a Nurse

This blog has been updated on March 22, 2023.

Learn more about Carson-Newman's online FNP nursing programs .

Nursing is one of the most professionally, personally, and spiritually rewarding careers there is.

People are driven to a career in nursing for a variety of reasons. Carson-Newman wanted to better understand and document some of these reasons, which is why we reached out to 15 registered nurses, including three of our own FNP students, to get their perspectives on a simple question: What do you find most rewarding about a career in nursing ?

Read on to discover some of the responses we received and compare these answers to your own experience.

Earn Your MSN-FNP Part-Time For Less than $30k

Nancy brook, rn, msn, cfnp.

'One of the most rewarding aspects of a career in nursing is the ability to connect with our patients on such an intimate level. While we often meet under very difficult circumstances—being present as people face serious health challenges or injuries, witnessing the moment of birth or the end of life—we get to know our patients very quickly and have the opportunity to play an important role in their lives.

"I became a nurse so that I could have an impact on the lives of others and have a career that felt very meaningful . After 25 years of helping patients and their families navigate cancer and mentoring new nurses, I believe that at the end of the day, no matter how challenging, I have impacted someone’s life for the better."

Catherine Burger, RN, MS, MSOL, NEA-BC

"What I find to be the most rewarding about being a nurse is the numerous career paths that are available within the profession. For example, in my nearly 30-year career I have been blessed to work in labor and delivery, the Intensive Care Unit, home health, informatics, leadership, clinical practice, and ambulatory care. As a contributing writer for registerednursing.org, I now get to educate my colleagues and future nurses on current events and issues.

"I initially chose a nursing career just out of high school as I wanted to work in the field of medicine, and I knew I could complete the degree within two years. After many years and many advanced degrees, I still love being of help to people at all stages of life. I am very proud of my nursing profession and I love that nurses are still the most trusted profession to the public: a responsibility we should never take for granted."

Elizabeth Mason, RN, MSN - Carson-Newman FNP Student

"After working for a while, I went back to school and became a nursing instructor in the classroom and clinical. It is the perfect balance of hands-on patient care and teaching the next generation of nurses. I love [when] my students have that “ah-ha” moment as they put together the big picture of the patient, their diagnosis, medications, and treatment plans. I love seeing the growth of new nursing students to their preceptorship. It is always a blessing to see them in the hospital later as nurses succeeding at their calling."

Sandy Griffin, LPN, CHPLN

"I really love going to bed knowing I made a difference. As an LPN at a hospice, that difference is usually making sure our patients are as comfortable as possible, but we often have the opportunity to help the patients’ families too. It’s satisfying to know they feel more at ease after they see the care we provide.

"I chose a nursing career partially because I loved biology and anatomy and partially to have a career with which I could support myself and be independent. The further I got into my nursing education, I realized how rewarding it was to be able to make people who are sick and uncomfortable feel better, even if it’s just a little. Treating people with kindness and respect goes a long way. I found my nursing career home in hospice. It hasn’t always been easy, but it has always been worth it.

"I have loved empowering and supporting patients and families to know that they are able to get through anything. Working for a hospice agency, I have been able to help patients have dignity at some of the most vulnerable times in their lives. Being with patients and their families at the end of life is a privilege. It has been an honor to have been with so many at that time.

"I also love the pride I feel in my work. Being a nurse is one of the most challenging jobs someone could do. It’s physically and mentally demanding at times. However, at the end of the day, you feel amazing satisfaction and pride. Being able to help those in need for a living is unlike any other profession."

MaryAnn Ciambriello, RN, BSN

"The most rewarding thing about being a nurse is making a difference in the lives of others. It may be your patients, their families, or your students. Nursing offers us so many arenas to practice in. As an RN, I have worked in the delivery room, in home care, in a prison, as a high school nurse, and as the director of nurses in assisted living facilities. Now, I am the owner of a few businesses.

"What motivated me to be an RN? My dad chose my profession for me. I was studying business in college and he thought that I should become an RN. So, like any good daughter, I dropped my business studies and became an RN; however, I did go back to complete two business degrees.

"What do I love about nursing? I love that this profession allows us the opportunity to work in so many diverse areas. We are not pigeonholed into just the hospital—the sky's the limit in this profession.

"In nursing, you just have to follow your passion and purpose and stay true to yourself. Always remember to have empathy and to give the best care possible."

Shantay Carter, RN, BSN

"Knowing that my care, touch, voice, and time can help a patient make it through the night is one of the most rewarding feelings. Sometimes, it's the little things that you do for your patient that make a difference. The nursing profession has opened so many doors for me. It has allowed me to become an author and run a successful non-profit organization that addresses the needs in my community. My specialty is orthopedics and trauma, and I love working in this area."

Lauren Mochizuki, RN, BSN

"What I find most rewarding about my career as a nurse is that I have the opportunity to help people in their most vulnerable, and unexpected, moments. For some, coming to the emergency department can be one of the worst days of their lives. As their nurse, my job is to make them feel safe, comfortable, and cared for.

"There are many things that motivated me to choose nursing as a career. First, I love people. I love chatting with them, being around them, and taking care of them—it is very fulfilling to my soul. The second reason is that the schedule is wonderful for being a mother. I now have the opportunity to work per diem and work around my husband's schedule so I can spend lots of time with our children.

"Lastly, I love that it provides great compensation so that I can contribute to my family financially. Five years ago, my husband and I paid off $266,000 of debt, and I am so thankful for my various nursing jobs that allowed me to work to reach this goal. I also love the culture of nursing in my emergency department. It feels like we understand each other, like we can look at each other in a certain way and know what we are thinking. We can sense when something is wrong in each other or celebrate our personal victories. I have the privilege to work among great nurses and that makes the entire shift more enjoyable."

Cynthia Attaway, RN, MSN - Carson-Newman FNP Student

"I am a part time nursing instructor for a community college, and the first to be allowed in the acute hospital setting. The human connection cannot be experienced in simulation and observing the science of human caring was emotional during the pandemic.

"Nursing is the best—high technology, and high touch."

Chris Caulfield, RN, NP-C

"As a nurse, I have a flexible career that allows me to pursue my passions while also having a significant positive impact on patients at need. I was initially attracted to the nursing profession as I loved working with the elderly and had a strong interest in human physiology. There were flexible nursing programs in my local area that were affordably priced, so it was easy for me to start my RN program. I was also very excited by the opportunities to obtain advanced practice certifications and licenses through distanced-based programs that were flexible and could work around my personal commitments.

"Throughout my nursing career, I’ve had the great opportunity to work in many different fields including long-term care, psychiatric nursing, urgent care, labor relations, and nursing informatics. As you work in different specialties, your knowledge continues to grow and your ability to think outside the box increases. As an advanced practice nurse (FNP-C), I’ve gained a deeper understanding of the health care system, which had a significant contribution in leading me to success in my most recent venture-backed technology startup. I’ve been able to take this knowledge and create a system that focuses on allowing nurses to work a flexible schedule via their mobile app, while also helping to address the staffing shortage crises experienced in long-term care facilities.

"Over the past three years, I’ve had over 10,000 nursing professionals join my organization to pick up shifts on the side. With almost unlimited opportunities, I continue to recommend the nursing profession to countless numbers of family members, friends, and acquaintances. I’ve yet to find another career choice that allows the flexibility and options that nursing does."

Tina Baxter, APRN, GNP-BC

"As a nurse, I have the privilege of helping others when they are the most vulnerable. I witness some of their greatest triumphs and their greatest defeats. There is nothing better than attending a birth, holding the hand of someone who is dying, or helping someone achieve a better life through improving their health. It is a legacy that will live on long after you are gone. The patients and families will remember your warm smile, your gentle touch, the knowledge you shared, and the fact that you cared for them.

"As a student in health care, I realized I was more concerned about how a person got ill and how to prevent it, rather than just how to treat it. I wanted to understand how I could help a person not only get healthy but stay healthy. That’s what nurses do. We teach our patients to take care of themselves and to optimize their health.

"One of the things I love about being a nurse is that this career is flexible . I have been a bedside nurse, a nursing professor, a mentor, a supervisor/manager/charge nurse, an entrepreneur, a nurse scientist, a nurse educator, a legal nurse consultant, a wellness practitioner, a nurse practitioner, and coming soon, a nurse author with my first book. I would say that being a nurse is pretty fabulous."

Andrea Tran, RN, IBCLC

"The most rewarding thing I have found about being a nurse is the personal connection that I am able to make with patients. No matter how long it has been, a patient remembers their nurse. They may or may not remember the nurse’s name, but they remember if they were kind and compassionate. A good nurse always is.

"I became a nurse in response to nothing short of “a calling.” I was visiting my grandmother with my mother. She had gone into another room to visit with someone else she knew, and I went to get her. I noticed that the other patient in the room was in a lot of pain, and I had such a strong and deep desire to help them. I decided then and there that I would become a nurse.

"I have spent my entire career with women during the childbearing period. It is mostly wonderful, but when it is not, it is terrible.

"Getting to share in the joy of a new family creates so much happiness. Helping new parents step into their new world with education and support puts me in my happy place."

Nancy Congleton, RN, Author

"What initially motivated me to become a nurse was that my husband and I were sinking financially. We both worked full time, our home was small and affordable, our vehicles were not brand new, and yet we were barely making it. At a young age I found myself intrigued by the medical profession and, after discovering that I could have my associate’s degree in nursing and become an RN in approximately three years, I went for it. What started as a financial necessity has become so much more. I thoroughly enjoy caring for my patients and love mentoring new nurses.

"The things I love most about being a nurse include the variety of areas to practice in, the constant opportunities to focus on others, and those 12-hour shifts! If I had to go back to a Monday–Friday schedule, I don't know if I'd survive!"

Megan McHatten, RN, BSN, CNOR

"As an operating room nurse at a trauma center, there are times that can be pretty stressful and fast paced. Recently, a trauma was called and about six of us rushed to the OR to set up. All we typically know during these events are the very basics, and in this case, a motor vehicle accident had occurred, and we needed to do an exploratory laparotomy. Within about two minutes, we had the supplies and instruments opened, scrub techs were setting up, and anesthesia was getting ready. I looked around and was so proud to be a part of a team that could, within minutes, be ready to potentially save someone's life. Those are times when I am proud to be a perioperative nurse and I find them especially rewarding.

"What motivated me to choose this career? High demand, good pay, multiple specialties to work in, the ability to move forward with my career if I choose (i.e. nurse practitioner, administration) and the feeling of making a difference.

"I love the feeling when our team has a great surgical case, and everyone is working together like a well-oiled machine. I love knowing that many of my patients will begin their healing journey in my OR. I love the endless amount of learning and science that the health care field offers."

Maria Kindrai, RN, MSN - Carson-Newman FNP Student

"As a nurse, I have learned to appreciate every moment spent at the bedside of a patient.  Caring for others has always been a priority but during a pandemic it has been heightened.  This one on one time with someone is certainly time when both the patient and the nurse have the opportunity for growth and to learn from one another."

Donna Mathezing, RN

"30 years of being a nurse and I have never had a regret about my career choice. I knew when I was five years old that helping people and talking with them was what I was meant to do.

"I have worked in all critical care areas from emergency to the cardiovascular ICU to the general systems ICU; I now work in the post-operative care unit and have 10 years of experience flying with our air ambulance service in a helicopter. I get to make a profound difference every single day. That profound difference is different for every patient, depending on what they need from me at their time of need. That could be something simple like holding a hand, letting them cry on my shoulder, giving pain medications so their loved one is comfortable, or just reassuring them that we will take care of them!

"Being with people at what is sometimes the worst moments of their lives or the best moments (diagnosis is negative or the birth of a baby) is a privilege and one I take very seriously. Being with a family as their loved one is passing away is the ultimate compliment for a nurse. Death is a sacred and scary time for many, and to be allowed within that sacred circle to offer support and comfort is what is rewarding about nursing.

"If I can walk away after my shift knowing that I have eased a person’s worry or fear and brought some sort of peace to them, then my day is fulfilled. And the best part of that is that I get many opportunities every day that I work."

Learn more about Carson-Newman's online nursing programs for registered nurses with their bachelor's or master's.

Request your free program brochure, about carson-newman’s online fnp programs.

Founded in 1851, Carson-Newman is a nationally ranked Christian liberal arts university. An online, yet personal, learning environment connects you with fellow students, faculty, and staff. Faith and learning are combined to create evidence-based online graduate nursing programs designed to transform you into a more autonomous caregiver.

Through its online program and student-centric curriculum, Carson-Newman provides a life-changing education where students come first. Designed for working nurses, Carson-Newman’s affordable FNP programs feature 100% online coursework with no mandatory log-in times, clinical placement service, and exceptional individualized support that prepare graduates to pass the FNP licensure exam.

If you’re ready for the next step in your nursing career, consider the online Master of Science in Nursing – Family Nurse Practitioner offered by Carson-Newman University and accredited by the CCNE.

For those who already hold an MSN degree, consider pursuing a Post-Master’s FNP Certificate to enjoy all the leadership opportunities, job satisfaction and autonomy of a family primary care provider. For more information, visit onlinenursing.cn.edu.

Request Information

Download Brochure

Carson-Newman University • 1646 Russell Ave. Jefferson City, TN • © Copyright 2024 Carson-Newman University. All rights reserved. • Sitemap • Privacy Policy | California Privacy Notice

• Data, AI, & Machine Learning
• Managing Technology
• Social Responsibility
• Workplace, Teams, & Culture
• AI & Machine Learning
• Diversity & Inclusion
• Big ideas Research Projects
• Artificial Intelligence and Business Strategy
• Responsible AI
• Future of the Workforce
• Future of Leadership
• All Research Projects
• AI in Action
• Most Popular
• The Truth Behind the Nursing Crisis
• Work/23: The Big Shift
• Coaching for the Future-Forward Leader
• Measuring Culture

The spring 2024 issue’s special report looks at how to take advantage of market opportunities in the digital space, and provides advice on building culture and friendships at work; maximizing the benefits of LLMs, corporate venture capital initiatives, and innovation contests; and scaling automation and digital health platform.

• Past Issues
• Upcoming Events
• Video Archive
• Me, Myself, and AI
• Three Big Points

What Makes Work Meaningful — Or Meaningless

New research offers insights into what gives work meaning — as well as into common management mistakes that can leave employees feeling that their work is meaningless.

• Workplace, Teams, & Culture
• Leadership Skills
• Managing Your Career
• Talent Management
• Organizational Behavior

Meaningful work is something we all want. The psychiatrist Viktor Frankl famously described how the innate human quest for meaning is so strong that, even in the direst circumstances, people seek out their purpose in life. 1 More recently, researchers have shown meaningfulness to be more important to employees than any other aspect of work, including pay and rewards, opportunities for promotion, or working conditions. 2 Meaningful work can be highly motivational, leading to improved performance, commitment, and satisfaction. 3 But, so far, surprisingly little research has explored where and how people find their work meaningful and the role that leaders can play in this process. 4

We interviewed 135 people working in 10 very different occupations and asked them to tell us stories about incidents or times when they found their work to be meaningful and, conversely, times when they asked themselves, “What’s the point of doing this job?” We expected to find that meaningfulness would be similar to other work-related attitudes, such as engagement or commitment, in that it would arise purely in response to situations within the work environment. However, we found that, unlike these other attitudes, meaningfulness tended to be intensely personal and individual; 5 it was often revealed to employees as they reflected on their work and its wider contribution to society in ways that mattered to them as individuals. People tended to speak of their work as meaningful in relation to thoughts or memories of significant family members such as parents or children, bridging the gap between work and the personal realm. We also expected meaningfulness to be a relatively enduring state of mind experienced by individuals toward their work; instead, our interviewees talked of unplanned or unexpected moments during which they found their work deeply meaningful.

We were anticipating that our data would show that the meaningfulness experienced by employees in relation to their work was clearly associated with actions taken by managers, such that, for example, transformational leaders would have followers who found their work meaningful, whereas transactional leaders would not. 6 Instead, our research showed that quality of leadership received virtually no mention when people described meaningful moments at work, but poor management was the top destroyer of meaningfulness.

We also expected to find a clear link between the factors that drove up levels of meaningfulness and those that eroded them. Instead, we found that meaningfulness appeared to be driven up and decreased by different factors. Whereas our interviewees tended to find meaningfulness for themselves rather than it being mandated by their managers, we discovered that if employers want to destroy that sense of meaningfulness, that was far more easily achieved. The feeling of “Why am I bothering to do this?” strikes people the instant a meaningless moment arises, and it strikes people hard. If meaningfulness is a delicate flower that requires careful nurturing, think of someone trampling over that flower in a pair of steel-toed boots. Avoiding the destruction of meaning while nurturing an ecosystem generative of feelings of meaningfulness emerged as the key leadership challenge.

The Five Qualities of Meaningful Work

Our research aimed to uncover how and why people find their work meaningful. (See “About the Research.”) For our interviewees, meaningfulness, perhaps unsurprisingly, was often associated with a sense of pride and achievement at a job well done, whether they were professionals or manual workers. Those who could see that they had fulfilled their potential, or who found their work creative, absorbing, and interesting, tended to perceive their work as more meaningful than others. Equally, receiving praise, recognition, or acknowledgment from others mattered a great deal. 7 These factors alone were not enough to render work meaningful, however. 8 Our study also revealed five unexpected features of meaningful work; in these, we find clues that might explain the fragile and intangible nature of meaningfulness.

1. Self-Transcendent

Individuals tended to experience their work as meaningful when it mattered to others more than just to themselves. In this way, meaningful work is self-transcendent. Although it is not a well-known fact, the famous motivation theorist Abraham Maslow positioned self-transcendence at the apex of his pyramid of human motivation, situating it beyond even self-actualization in importance. 9 People did not just talk about themselves when they talked about meaningful work; they talked about the impact or relevance their work had for other individuals, groups, or the wider environment. For example, a garbage collector explained how he found his work meaningful at the “tipping point” at the end of the day when refuse was sent to recycling. This was the time he could see how his work contributed to creating a clean environment for his grandchildren and for future generations. An academic described how she found her work meaningful when she saw her students graduate at the commencement ceremony, a tangible sign of how her own hard work had helped others succeed. A priest talked about the uplifting and inspiring experience of bringing an entire community together around the common goal of a church restoration project.

2. Poignant

The experience of meaningful work can be poignant rather than purely euphoric. 10 People often found their work to be full of meaning at moments associated with mixed, uncomfortable, or even painful thoughts and feelings, not just a sense of unalloyed joy and happiness. People often cried in our interviews when they talked about the times when they found their work meaningful. The current emphasis on positive psychology has led us to focus on trying to make employees happy, engaged, and enthused throughout the working day. Psychologist Barbara Held refers to the current pressure to “accentuate the positive” as the “tyranny of the positive attitude.” 11 Traditionally, meaningfulness has been linked with such positive attributes.

Our research suggests that, contrary to what we may have thought, meaningfulness is not always a positive experience. 12 In fact, those moments when people found their work meaningful tended to be far richer and more challenging than times when they felt simply motivated, engaged, or happy. The most vivid examples of this came from nurses who described moments of profound meaningfulness when they were able to use their professional skills and knowledge to ease the passing of patients at the end of their lives. Lawyers often talked about working hard for extended periods, sometimes years, for their clients and winning cases that led to life-changing outcomes. Participants in several of the occupational groups found moments of meaningfulness when they had triumphed in difficult circumstances or had solved a complex, intractable problem. The experience of coping with these challenging conditions led to a sense of meaningfulness far greater than they would have experienced dealing with straightforward, everyday situations.

3. Episodic

A sense of meaningfulness arose in an episodic rather than a sustained way. It seemed that no one could find their work consistently meaningful, but rather that an awareness that work was meaningful arose at peak times that were generative of strong experiences. For example, a university professor talked of the euphoric experience of feeling “like a rock star” at the end of a successful lecture. One actor we spoke to summed this feeling up well: “My God, I’m actually doing what I dreamt I could do; that’s kind of amazing.” Clearly, sentiments such as these are not sustainable over the course of even one single working day, let alone a longer period, but rather come and go over one’s working life, perhaps rarely arising. Nevertheless, these peak experiences have a profound effect on individuals, are highly memorable, and become part of their life narratives.

Meaningful moments such as these were not forced or managed. Only in a few instances did people tell us that an awareness of their work as meaningful arose directly through the actions of organizational leaders or managers. Conservation stonemasons talked of the significance of carving their “banker’s mark” or mason’s signature into the stone before it was placed into a cathedral structure, knowing that the stone might be uncovered hundreds of years in the future by another mason who would recognize the work as theirs. They felt they were “part of history.” One soldier described how he realized how meaningful his work was when he reflected on his quick thinking in setting off the warning sirens in a combat situation, ensuring that no one at the camp was injured in the ensuing rocket attack. Sales assistants talked about times when they were able to help others, such as an occasion when a customer passed out in one store and the clerk was able to support her until she regained consciousness. Memorable moments such as these contain high levels of emotion and personal relevance, and thus become redolent of the symbolic meaningfulness of work.

4. Reflective

In the instances cited above, it was often only when we asked the interviewees to recount a time when they found their work meaningful that they developed a conscious awareness of the significance of these experiences. Meaningfulness was rarely experienced in the moment, but rather in retrospect and on reflection when people were able to see their completed work and make connections between their achievements and a wider sense of life meaning.

One of the entrepreneurs we interviewed talked about the time when he was switching the lights out after his company’s Christmas party and paused to reflect back over the year on what he and his employees had achieved together. Garbage collectors explained how they were able to find their work meaningful when they finished cleaning a street and stopped to look back at their work. In doing this, they reflected on how the tangible work of street sweeping contributed to the cleanliness of the environment as a whole. One academic talked about research he had done for many years that seemed fairly meaningless at the time, but 20 years later provided the technological solution for touch-screen technology. The experience of meaningfulness is therefore often a thoughtful, retrospective act rather than just a spontaneous emotional response in the moment, although people may be aware of a rush of good feelings at the time. You are unlikely to witness someone talking about how meaningful they find their job during their working day. For most of the people we spoke to, the discussions we had about meaningful work were the first time they had ever talked about these experiences.

5. Personal

Other feelings about work, such as engagement or satisfaction, tend to be just that: feelings about work. Work that is meaningful, on the other hand, is often understood by people not just in the context of their work but also in the wider context of their personal life experiences. We found that managers and even organizations actually mattered relatively little at these times. One musician described his profound sense of meaningfulness when his father attended a performance of his for the first time and finally came to appreciate and understand the musician’s work. A priest was able to find a sense of meaning in her work when she could relate the harrowing personal experiences of a member of her congregation to her own life events, and used that understanding to help and support her congregant at a time of personal tragedy. An entrepreneur’s motivation to start his own business included the desire to make his grandfather proud of him. The customary dinner held to mark the end of a soldier’s service became imbued with meaning for one soldier because it was shared with family members who were there to hear her army stories. One lawyer described how she found her work meaningful when her services were recommended by friends and family and she felt trusted and valued in both spheres of her life. A garbage collector described the time when the community’s water supply became contaminated and he was asked to work on distributing water to local residents; that was meaningful, as he could see how he was helping vulnerable neighbors.

Get Updates on Transformative Leadership

Evidence-based resources that can help you lead your team more effectively, delivered to your inbox monthly.

Please enter a valid email address

Thank you for signing up

Privacy Policy

Moments of especially profound meaningfulness arose when these experiences coalesced with the sense of a job well done, one recognized and appreciated by others. One example of many came from a conservation stonemason who described how his work became most meaningful to him when the restoration of a section of the cathedral he had been working on for years was unveiled, the drapes and scaffolding withdrawn, and the work of the craftsmen celebrated. This event involved all the masons and other trades such as carpenters and glaziers, as well as the cathedral’s religious leaders, members of the public, and local dignitaries. “Everyone goes, ‘Doesn’t it look amazing?’” he said. “That’s the moment you realize you’ve saved something and ensured its future; you’ve given part of the cathedral back to the local community.”

These particular features of meaningful work suggest that the organizational task of helping people find meaning in their work is complex and profound, going far beyond the relative superficialities of satisfaction or engagement — and almost never related to one’s employer or manager.

Meaninglessness: The Seven Deadly Sins

What factors serve to destroy the fragile sense of meaningfulness that individuals find in their work? Interestingly, the factors that seem to drive a sense of meaninglessness and futility around work were very different from those associated with meaningfulness. The experiences that actively led people to ask, “Why am I doing this?” were generally a function of how people were treated by managers and leaders. Interviewees noted seven things that leaders did to create a feeling of meaninglessness (listed in order from most to least grievous).

1. Disconnect people from their values. Although individuals did not talk much about value congruence as a promoter of meaningfulness, they often talked about a disconnect between their own values and those of their employer or work group as the major cause of a sense of futility and meaninglessness. 13 This issue was raised most frequently as a source of meaninglessness in work. A recurring theme was the tension between an organizational focus on the bottom line and the individual’s focus on the quality or professionalism of work. One stonemason commented that he found the organization’s focus on cost “deeply depressing.” Academics spoke of their administrations being most interested in profits and the avoidance of litigation, instead of intellectual integrity and the provision of the best possible education. Nurses spoke despairingly of being forced to send patients home before they were ready in order to free up bed space. Lawyers talked of a focus on profits rather than on helping clients.

2. Take your employees for granted. Lack of recognition for hard work by organizational leaders was frequently cited as invoking a feeling of pointlessness. Academics talked about department heads who didn’t acknowledge their research or teaching successes; sales assistants and priests talked of bosses who did not thank them for taking on additional work. A stonemason described the way managers would not even say “good morning” to him, and lawyers described how, despite putting in extremely long hours, they were still criticized for not moving through their work quickly enough. Feeling unrecognized, unacknowledged, and unappreciated by line or senior managers was often cited in the interviews as a major reason people found their work pointless.

3. Give people pointless work to do. We found that individuals had a strong sense of what their job should involve and how they should be spending their time, and that a feeling of meaninglessness arose when they were required to perform tasks that did not fit that sense. Nurses, academics, artists, and clergy all cited bureaucratic tasks and form filling not directly related to their core purpose as a source of futility and pointlessness. Stonemasons and retail assistants cited poorly planned projects where they were left to “pick up the pieces” by senior managers. A retail assistant described the pointless task of changing the shop layout one week on instructions from the head office, only to be told to change it back again a week later.

4. Treat people unfairly. Unfairness and injustice can make work feel meaningless. Forms of unfairness ranged from distributive injustices, such as one stonemason who was told he could not have a pay raise for several years due to a shortage of money but saw his colleague being given a raise, to freelance musicians being asked to write a film score without payment. Procedural injustices included bullying and lack of opportunities for career progression.

5. Override people’s better judgment. Quite often, a sense of meaninglessness was connected with a feeling of disempowerment or disenfranchisement over how work was done. One nurse, for example, described how a senior colleague required her to perform a medical intervention that was not procedurally correct, and how she felt obliged to complete this even against her better judgment. Lawyers talked of being forced to cut corners to finish cases quickly. Stonemasons described how being forced to “hurry up” using modern tools and techniques went against their sense of historic craft practices. One priest summed up the role of the manager by saying, “People can feel empowered or disempowered by the way you run things.” When people felt they were not being listened to, that their opinions and experience did not count, or that they could not have a voice, then they were more likely to find their work meaningless.

6. Disconnect people from supportive relationships. Feelings of isolation or marginalization at work were linked with meaninglessness. This could occur through deliberate ostracism on the part of managers, or just through feeling disconnected from coworkers and teams. Most interviewees talked of the importance of camaraderie and relations with coworkers for their sense of meaningfulness. Entrepreneurs talked about their sense of loneliness and meaninglessness during the startup phase of their business, and the growing sense of meaningfulness that arose as the business developed and involved more people with whom they could share the successes. Creative artists spoke of times when they were unable to reach out to an audience through their art as times of profound meaninglessness.

7. Put people at risk of physical or emotional harm. Many jobs entail physical or emotional risks, and those taking on this kind of work generally appreciate and understand the choices they have made. However, unnecessary em> exposure to risk was associated with lost meaningfulness. Nurses cited feelings of vulnerability when left alone with aggressive patients; garbage collectors talked of avoidable accidents they had experienced at work; and soldiers described exposure to extreme weather conditions without the appropriate gear.

These seven destroyers emerged as highly damaging to an individual’s sense of his or her work as meaningful. When several of these factors were present, meaningfulness was considerably lower.

Cultivating an Ecosystem For Meaningfulness

In the 1960s, Frederick Herzberg showed that the factors that give rise to a sense of job satisfaction are not the same as those that lead to feelings of dissatisfaction. 14 It seems that something similar is true for meaningfulness. Our research shows that meaningfulness is largely something that individuals find for themselves in their work, 15 but meaninglessness is something that organizations and leaders can actively cause. Clearly, the first challenge to building a satisfied workforce is to avoid the seven deadly sins that drive up levels of meaninglessness.

Given that meaningfulness is such an intensely personal and individual experience that is interpreted by individuals in the context of their wider lives, can organizations create an environment that cultivates high levels of meaningfulness? The key to meaningful work is to create an ecosystem that encourages people to thrive. As other scholars have argued, 16 efforts to control and proscribe the meaningfulness that individuals inherently find in their work can paradoxically lead to its loss.

Our interviews and a wider reading of the literature on meaningfulness point to four elements that organizations can address that will help foster an integrated sense of holistic meaningfulness for individual employees. 17 (See “The Elements of a Meaningfulness Ecosystem.”)

1. Organizational Meaningfulness

At the macro level, meaningfulness is more likely to thrive when employees understand the broad purpose of the organization. 18 This purpose should be formulated in such a way that it focuses on the positive contribution of the organization to the wider society or the environment. This involves articulating the following:

• What does the organization aim to contribute? What is its “core business”?
• How does the organization aspire to go about achieving this? What values underpin its way of doing business?

This needs to be done in a genuine and thoughtful way. People are highly adept at spotting hypocrisy, like the nurses who were told their hospital put patients first but were also told to discharge people as quickly as possible. The challenge lies not only in articulating and conveying a clear message about organizational purpose, but also in not undermining meaningfulness by generating a sense of artificiality and manipulation. 19

Reaching employees in ways that make sense to them can be a challenge. A clue for addressing this comes from the garbage collectors we interviewed. One described to us how the workers used to be told by management that the waste they returned to the depot would be recycled, but this message came across as highly abstract. Then the company started putting pictures of the items that were made from recycled waste on the side of the garbage trucks. This led to a more tangible realization of what the waste was used for. 20

2. Job Meaningfulness

The vast majority of interviewees found their work meaningful, whether they were musicians, sales assistants, lawyers, or garbage collectors. Studies have shown that meaning is so important to people that they actively go about recrafting their jobs to enhance their sense of meaningfulness. 21 Often, this recrafting involves extending the impact or significance of their role for others. One example of this was sales assistants in a large retail store who listened to lonely elderly customers.

Organizations can encourage people to see their work as meaningful by demonstrating how jobs fit with the organization’s broader purpose or serve a wider, societal benefit. The priests we spoke to often explained how their ministry work in their local parishes contributed to the wider purpose of the church as a whole. In the same way, managers can be encouraged to show employees what their particular jobs contribute to the broader whole and how what they do will help others or create a lasting legacy. 22

Alongside this, we need to challenge the notion that meaningfulness can only arise from positive work experiences. Challenging, problematic, sad, or poignant 23 jobs have the potential to be richly generative of new insights and meaningfulness, and overlooking this risks upsetting the delicate balance of the meaningfulness ecosystem. Providing support to people at the end of their lives is a harrowing experience for nurses and clergy, yet they cited these times as among the most meaningful. The task for leaders is to acknowledge the problematic or negative side of some jobs and to provide appropriate support for employees doing them, yet to reveal in an honest way the benefits and broader contribution that such jobs make. 24

3. Task Meaningfulness

Given that jobs typically comprise a wide range of tasks, it stands to reason that some of these tasks will constitute a greater source of meaningfulness than others. 25 To illustrate, a priest will have responsibility for leading acts of worship, supporting sick and vulnerable individuals, developing community relations and activities, and probably a wide range of other tasks such as raising funds, managing assistants and volunteers, ensuring the upkeep of church buildings, and so on. In fact, the priests were the most hard-working group that we spoke to, with the majority working a seven-day week on a bewildering range of activities. Even much simpler jobs will involve several different tasks. One of the challenges facing organizations is to help people understand how the individual tasks they perform contribute to their job and to the organization as a whole.

When individuals described some of the sources of meaninglessness they faced in their work, they often talked about how to come to terms with the tedious, repetitive, or indeed purposeless work that is part of almost every job. For example, the stonemasons described how the first few months of their training involved learning to “square the stone,” which involves chiseling a large block of stone into a perfectly formed square with just a few millimeters of tolerance on each plane. As soon as they finished one, they had to start another, repeating this over and over until the master mason was satisfied that they had perfected the task. Only then were they allowed to work on more interesting and intricate carvings. Several described their feelings of boredom and futility; one said that he had taken 18 attempts to get the squaring of the stone correct. “It feels like you are never ever going to get better,” he recalled. Many felt like giving up at this point, fearing that stonemasonry was not for them. It was only in later years, as they looked back on this period in their working lives, that they could see the point of this detailed level of training as the first step on their path to more challenging and rewarding work.

Filling out forms, cited earlier, is another good example of meaningless work. Individuals in a wide range of occupations all reported that what they perceived as “mindless bureaucracy” sapped the meaningfulness from their work. For instance, most of the academics we spoke to were highly negative about the amount of form filling the job entailed. One said, “I was dropping spreadsheets into a huge black hole.”

Where organizations successfully managed the context within which these necessary but tedious tasks were undertaken, the tasks came to be perceived not exactly as meaningful, but equally as not meaningless. Another academic said, “I’m pretty good with tedious work, as long as it’s got a larger meaning.”

4. Interactional Meaningfulness

There is widespread agreement that people find their work meaningful in an interactional context in two ways: 26 First, when they are in contact with others who benefit from their work; and, second, in an environment of supportive interpersonal relationships. 27 As we saw earlier, negative interactional experiences — such as bullying by a manager, lack of respect or recognition, or forcing reduced contact with the beneficiaries of work — all drive up a sense of meaninglessness, since the employee receives negative cues from others about the value they place on the employee’s work. 28 The challenge here is for leaders to create a supportive, respectful, and inclusive work climate among colleagues, between employees and managers, and between organizational staff and work beneficiaries. It also involves recognizing the importance of creating space in the working day for meaningful interactions where employees are able to give and receive positive feedback, communicate a sense of shared values and belonging, and appreciate how their work has positive impacts on others.

Not surprisingly, the most striking examples of the impact of interactional meaningfulness on people came from the caring occupations included in our study: nurses and clergy. In these cases, there was very frequent contact between the individual and the direct beneficiaries of his or her work, most often in the context of supporting and healing people at times of great vulnerability in their lives. Witnessing firsthand, and hearing directly, about how their work had changed people’s lives created a work environment conducive to meaningfulness. Although prior research 29 has similarly highlighted the importance of such direct contact for enhancing work’s meaningfulness, we also found that past or future generations, or imagined future beneficiaries, could play a role. This was the case for the stonemasons who felt connected to past and future generations of masons through their bankers’ marks on the back of the stones and for the garbage collectors who could envisage how their work contributed to the living environment for future generations.

Holistic Meaningfulness

The four elements of the meaningfulness ecosystem combine to enable a state of holistic meaningfulness, where the synergistic benefits of multiple sources of meaningfulness can be realized. 30 Although it is possible for someone to describe meaningful moments in terms of any one of the subsystems, meaningfulness is enriched when more than one or all of these are present. 31 A sales assistant, for example, described how she had been working with a team on the refurbishment of her store: “We’d all been there until 2 a.m., working together moving stuff, everyone had contributed and stayed late and helped, it was a good time. We were exhausted but we still laughed and then the next morning we were all bright in our uniforms, it was a lovely feeling, just like a little family coming together. The day [the store] opened, it did bring tears to my eyes. We had a little gathering and a speech; the managers said ‘thank you’ to everybody because everyone had contributed.”

Finding work meaningful is an experience that reaches beyond the workplace and into the realm of the individual’s wider personal life. It can be a very profound, moving, and even uncomfortable experience. It arises rarely and often in unexpected ways; it gives people pause for thought — not just concerning work but what life itself is all about. In experiencing work as meaningful, we cease to be workers or employees and relate as human beings, reaching out in a bond of common humanity to others. For organizations seeking to manage meaningfulness, the ethical and moral responsibility is great, since they are bridging the gap between work and personal life.

Yet the benefits for individuals and organizations that accrue from meaningful workplaces can be immense. Organizations that succeed in this are more likely to attract, retain, and motivate the employees they need to build sustainably for the future, and to create the kind of workplaces where human beings can thrive.

About the Authors

Catherine Bailey is a professor in the department of business and management at the University of Sussex in Brighton, U.K. Adrian Madden is a senior lecturer in the department of human resources and organizational behavior at the business school of the University of Greenwich in London.

1. V.E. Frankl, “Man’s Search For Meaning” (Boston: Beacon Press, 1959).

2. W.F. Cascio, “Changes in Workers, Work, and Organizations,” vol. 12, chap. 16 in “Handbook of Psychology,” ed. W. Borman, R. Klimoski, and D. Ilgen (New York: Wiley, 2003).

3. M.G. Pratt and B.E. Ashforth, “Fostering Meaningfulness in Working and at Work,” in “Positive Organizational Scholarship,” ed. K.S. Cameron, J.E. Dutton, and R.E. Quinn (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2003).

4. C. Bailey, R. Yeoman, A. Madden, M. Thompson, and G. Kerridge, “A Narrative Evidence Synthesis of Meaningful Work: Progress and Research Agenda” (paper to be presented at the U.S. Academy of Management Conference, Anaheim, California, Aug. 5-9, 2016); and M.G. Pratt, C. Pradies, and D.A. Lepisto, “Doing Well, Doing Good, and Doing With: Organizational Practices For Effectively Cultivating Meaningful Work,” in “Purpose and Meaning in the Workplace,” ed. B.J. Dik, Z.S. Byrne, and M.F. Steger (Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association, 2013), 173-196.

5. We have defined meaningful work as arising “when an individual perceives an authentic connection between their work and a broader transcendent life purpose beyond the self.” See C. Bailey and A. Madden, “Time Reclaimed: Temporality and the Experience of Meaningful Work,” Work, Employment, & Society (October 2015), doi: 10.1177/0950017015604100. Meaningfulness is therefore different from engagement, which is defined as a positive work-related attitude comprising vigor, dedication, and absorption. See W.B. Schaufeli, “What Is Engagement?,” in “Employee Engagement in Theory and Practice,” ed. C. Truss, K. Alfes, R. Delbridge, A. Shantz, and E. Soane (London: Routledge, 2014), 15-35.

6. K. Arnold, N. Turner, J. Barling, E.K. Kelloway, and M.C. McKee, “Transformational Leadership and Psychological Wellbeing: The Mediating Role of Meaningful Work,” Journal of Occupational Health Psychology 12, no. 3 (July 2007): 193-203.

7. M. Lips-Wiersma and S. Wright, “Measuring the Meaning of Meaningful Work: Development and Validation of the Comprehensive Meaningful Work Scale,” Group & Organization Management 37, no. 5 (October 2012): 665-685.

8. B.D. Rosso, K.H. Dekas, and A. Wrzesniewski, “On the Meaning of Work: A Theoretical Integration and Review,” Research in Organizational Behavior 30 (2010): 91-127.

9. A. Maslow, “Motivation and Personality” (New York: Harper and Row, 1954).

10. H. Ersner-Hershfield, J.A. Mikels, S.J. Sullivan, and L.L. Carstensen, “Poignancy: Mixed Emotional Experience in the Face of Meaningful Endings,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 94, no. 1 (January 2008): 158-167.

11. B.S. Held, “The Tyranny of the Positive Attitude in America: Observation and Speculation,” Journal of Clinical Psychology 58, no. 9 (September 2002): 965-991.

12. J.S. Bunderson and J.A. Thompson, “The Call of the Wild: Zookeepers, Callings, and the Double-Edged Sword of Deeply Meaningful Work,” Administrative Science Quarterly 54, no.1 (March 2009): 32-57.

13. S. Cartwright and N. Holmes, “The Meaning of Work: The Challenge of Regaining Employee Engagement and Reducing Cynicism,” Human Resource Management Review 16, no. 2 (June 2006): 199-208.

14. F. Herzberg, “The Motivation-Hygiene Concept and Problems of Manpower,” Personnel Administrator 27, no. 1 (1964): 3-7.

15. M. Lips-Wiersma and L. Morris, “Discriminating Between ‘Meaningful Work’ and the ‘Management of Meaning,’” Journal of Business Ethics 88, no. 3 (September 2009): 491-511.

18. N. Chalofsky, “Meaningful Workplaces” (San Francisco: Wiley, 2010); and F.O. Walumbwa, A.L. Christensen, and M.K. Muchiri, “Transformational Leadership and Meaningful Work,” in Dik, Byrne, and Steger, “Purpose and Meaning,” 197-215.

19. J.M. Podolny, R. Khurana, and M. Hill-Popper, “Revisiting the Meaning of Leadership,” Research in Organizational Behavior 26 (2004), doi:10.1016/S0191-3085(04)26001-4.

20. Organizational theorist Marya L. Besharov highlights the challenge of managing in an organizational setting where employees have differing views over which values matter the most and points out the “dark side” of seeking to impose a unitary organizational ideology on employees. Based on our research, we take the view here that in general terms employees welcome a broad statement of organizational purpose and values that gives them the space to interpret it in a way that is meaningful for them. See M.L. Besharov, “The Relational Ecology of Identification: How Organizational Identification Emerges When Individuals Hold Divergent Values,” Academy of Management Journal 57, no. 5 (October 2014): 1485-1512.

21. A. Wrzesniewski and J.E. Dutton, “Crafting a Job: Revisioning Employees as Active Crafters of Their Work,” Academy of Management Review 26, no. 2 (April 2001): 179-201; and J.M. Berg, J.E. Dutton, and A. Wrzesniewski, “Job Crafting and Meaningful Work,” in Dik, Byrne, and Steger, “Purpose and Meaning,” 81-104.

22. B.E. Ashforth and G.E. Kreiner, “Profane or Profound? Finding Meaning in Dirty Work,” in Dik, Byrne, and Steger, “Purpose and Meaning,” 127-150.

23. Held, “Tyranny of the Positive Attitude”; and Ersner-Hershfield et al., “Poignancy: Mixed Emotional Experience.”

24. Lips-Wiersma and Morris, “Discriminating Between ‘Meaningful Work.’”

25. A. Grant, “Relational Job Design and the Motivation to Make a Prosocial Difference,” Academy of Management Review 32, no. 2 (2007): 393-417.

26. Lips-Wiersma and Wright, “Measuring the Meaning.”

27. A. Grant, “Leading With Meaning: Beneficiary Contact, Prosocial Impact, and the Performance Effects of Transformational Leadership,” Academy of Management Journal 55, no. 2 (April 2012): 458-476.

28. A. Wrzesniewski, J.E. Dutton, and G. Debebe, “Interpersonal Sensemaking and the Meaning of Work,” Research in Organizational Behavior 25 (2003): 93-135.

29. Grant, “Leading With Meaning.”

30. Lips-Wiersma and Wright, “Measuring the Meaning.”

i. Bailey and Madden, “Time Reclaimed: Temporality and the Experience.”

More Like This

Add a comment cancel reply.

You must sign in to post a comment. First time here? Sign up for a free account : Comment on articles and get access to many more articles.

Comments (55)

Aaron mccullough, harihara sudhan sundarararaj, deepanshu mangla, sandeep baranwal, helen christy, rodolfo martins, fatima andra flores felizardo, nancy ekwerike, blaze coyle, lorren cargill, bhavisha jogi, olivia davis, ruchi chaturvedi, chimbirai chimbirai, gessika sousa, imelda pedrero, hongshin yoon, gabriela ilha, muhammad rushan khan, louise turner, komal bhise, rajesh kumar c, alejandra gomez, lajuan huff, montse carrasco-gallardo, daniel solorzano, crystal wan, samantha widmer, paula barcarse, subinoy dey, hashim syed, daisuke arikura, gaurab banerjee, pearl panthaki, henrique marcondes, sakshi jain, steven meng, maricris see, jean pierre lópez bustos, chandra pandey, andrewdonovan, katie bailey, speck kevin pratt.

• November 8, 2023
• Education Advice

Passion vs Money: Should You Choose a Job You Love or One That Pays?

UOTP Marketing

Passion vs. money—this is an internal debate that everyone has at some point in their life. On one side, you probably hear parents, relatives, or even strangers telling you to be realistic and find a job that pays well . But on the other side, there are friends or even TED talks of successful people telling you that “following your passion is the secret of success.” And, only naturally, you feel confused and anxiously question whether you should follow your passion blindly with little chance to get money from it or choose a career that you don’t even like just because the job itself seems promising for your future.

But, even so, following your desires can leave a sense of well-being and happiness in everything you do. While there is no doubt that this is a question of opportunity and the hand you’ve been dealt with, following one’s passion seems more appealing to most.  However, how to know the line between when it’s unproductive to pursue a career you’re passionate about and a different (financially better) route?

Benefits of Choosing a Career You Love

In the world we live in today, money is definitely a powerful tool, but choosing to chase it often comes at the price of not being able to do something you love and look forward to every day.

This ancient dilemma is by no means black and white; there are many benefits to a dream job in the grey area. It is worth noting that should you choose to pursue your passion, workdays will seem less monotonous, and there won’t be a dull feeling washing over you when the alarm clock rings. The phrase, “Choose a job you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life,” may seem like a washed-out cliche, but it does hold some truth in it.

In terms of higher motivation, doing the job more effortlessly and passionately, you can see how that sentence got so famous. It’s true that a day of work still remains a day of work, whether you like the job or not. However, the small factors in and around it do change and ultimately have an impact on our overall sense of self.

Career growth

Growth in a career is more probable when the job consists of things that motivate you. You won’t simply be finishing tasks and not thinking about them, nor waiting for the clock to strike five (if you’re doing a 9 to 5 job), so you can leave your workplace. It seems like a minor thing, but it plays a vital role in how far you go in your career. Hence you will be looking for more creative ways to do your job and spot details that you wouldn’t have if you didn’t put your heart into it.

Being passionate about work

Being passionate is directly linked to being productive. If it really is something you’re passionate about, there is a sense of being content with what you have accomplished during the work hours and beyond. The by-product of your work will be something you take pride in, and that will serve in giving you a reason to keep doing it.

Obviously, loving what you do brings in motivation because it is activated by your own desires rather than material gains. Oftentimes in life, we can find ourselves lacking the motivation to do anything, but if someone presents us with something we enjoy, it will possibly make us get out of bed and get working. HuffPost tells the tale of Richard Weinberg , a man who found that salsa was his passion at 49 years old. This discovery led to him participating in multiple dance categories, and it gave him a sense of purpose in his life.

Better health

How much you enjoy your job primarily affects your mental health, as doing something you don’t like on a daily will eventually start to consume you. On the other hand, doing something you enjoy waking up for in the morning can help you not only feel better but even get lost in the work if you’re having problems in other areas of your life. According to a study , the time spent engaging in our passions contributes to lower stress and our happiness. Your work can be some sort of an escape. And when it plays out like this, your productivity may increase due to the focus you shift on your job.

Pleasure in the work environment

It’s no secret that a career you’re passionate about will, in most cases, provide you with a more pleasurable work environment. Chances are that your coworkers will be like-minded, and besides the working part, you’ll have fun during the hours spent interacting with them. Even without that, there is comfort in spending time in a place that has intentions that coincide with yours.

Fulfillment

It goes without saying that you feel fulfilled when you work on something meaningful to you. And especially after achieving the end goal of it. Obstacles you find on your way won’t be as relevant because you will always find a creative way around them. We spend most of our days working, and that alone should be a reason to follow something that leaves us with a feeling of satisfaction during the hours we put in.

Disadvantages of Doing What You Love

As with anything in life, choosing to follow your dream has another side to the coin. While it can turn into something beautiful and life-changing, there’s also the possibility of not being in tune with the current market. Thus, either not allowing you to make a living out of it or make as much as you would ideally want.

According to Forbes , when we tell people to follow their passion, we assume they have one, which is not always the case. There are people whose passions change over time, and that is entirely normal. Plus, you can have interests that aren’t necessarily something you love but merely something you find appealing and intriguing that can also serve as a money-making career.

Now, although it is mostly a personal issue whether you choose to chase your dreams or focus on a career relevant to today’s market, here are some disadvantages of doing what you love.

Your passion might turn into a job

This is a big risk when you start pursuing your dream. We know that work can sometimes be stressful, and it may seem as if deadlines are hovering over our heads, and that treads dangerously close to turning us against our passion. At some point, your passion may not be something you do for yourself, but something that brings in the paycheck at the end of the month, and it can lose the shine it once had.

Another risk you will be taking is that your dream career does not have a promising job outlook . Sure, if your passion lies in IT or business , it is likely that you will be getting a steady salary out of something you enjoy doing. However, more times than not, people have passions that either don’t pay well or the industry is too big to penetrate, which can be problematic and discourage them from pursuing it.

Passions can change

Although this is not always the case, for many people, passions change over time, especially if they have roots in their early years. It’s by no means a bad thing, but it can intervene in your life if you have chosen to pursue your passion as a career. Because we are continually developing and learning new skills , it can be hard to say if your fascination with a certain field may fade over time, but to some, that’s just a risk worth taking.

Benefits of Choosing a Career with a High Salary

For some people, doing what they love and earning enough money for a normal life don’t go hand in hand. For others, it’s a matter of either not having a passion or growing out of a dream they once had. Consequently, these reasons make a high-paying career a valuable option. It is understood that without a steady income, it’s unlikely that passion will be the thing you want to follow.

Of course, following one’s dreams has the emotional rewards that a job that pays your bills is unlikely to offer, but if you aren’t able to afford rent or pay off your student debt, maybe it’s time to postpone your passion and focus on solutions. We’ve all heard that money can’t buy happiness, but is that phrase completely true?

There are many things money can’t buy, but sometimes having it can make many of our problems go away, which is why there’s a list of benefits to choosing a job that provides us with a high salary.

FREE RESOURCE

Download Our Free Guide To Pursuing a Successful Accounting Career in 2022!

Uncover the insight you need to get ahead at every stage of your accounting career.

The obvious one: money

As stated above, this is a prominent perk of choosing to seek a job that will pay you well. A study shows that money can be associated with happiness, but not in the way you’d think. The study shows that people making under $75,000 a year tend to have lower happiness levels. However, past that point, money doesn’t seem to have an effect on the human brain., Furthermore, having a steady income influences our mental and physical health. It is undoubtedly more comfortable knowing that you don’t have to worry about the price of something you like and how you will make ends meet from month to month.

People tend to respect those who are well off. Although it’s considered as an artificial way of gaining respect by some, most of the time, it works. Generally, a high income is associated with success, and we tend to respect successful people. In addition, there is a correlation between “important work” and high salaries, which leads us to think that only a high-paid job is respectable.

There is safety with high income, no doubt. You won’t have to worry about many things that take money to acquire. Plus, a high-earning career is oftentimes placed in a big industry that isn’t going anywhere, so you can find employment opportunities just about anywhere. Keeping your work away from monetary vulnerability is vital, especially when you have a family to take into consideration or other matters of importance to you.

Interested in pursuing a degree?

Fill out the form and get all admission information you need regarding your chosen program.

This will only take a moment.

Message Received!

Thank you for reaching out to us. we will review your message and get right back to you within 24 hours. if there is an urgent matter and you need to speak to someone immediately you can call at the following phone number:.

By clicking the Send me more information button above, I represent that I am 18+ years of age, that I have read and agreed to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy , and agree to receive email marketing and phone calls from UOTP. I understand that my consent is not required to apply for online degree enrollment. To speak with a representative without providing consent, please call +1 (202) 274-2300

• We value your privacy.

Disadvantages of Doing Work That Pays Well, But You Don’t Like

As good as money and safety sound, there is a downside to pursuing a career in a field you simply have no connection with. For starters, it will never feel as if you are close to living your dream unless, of course, that dream consists of a high-paying job that you don’t exactly like.

It’s hard to enjoy working in a place that doesn’t seem to motivate you to do the job well, and even when the working hours aren’t long, they are likely to seem so. When you’re stuck performing tasks you see no point in, you may lose focus on working on your skills and may feel lost in the job.

Most well-paying jobs can cast a lot of pressure, especially when it isn’t something you feel excited about, and that can have an impact on your view of life.

Long working hours

Jobs that offer a high payday often tend to go hand-in-hand with long working hours. Even when they don’t, to see that large number at the end of the month, you will probably have to put in a few extra hours, and that can be tiring. This is not always the case, but when it is, it can leave you little to no time to do anything else apart from work. A survey has found that executives and managers with smartphones—who are all well compensated—tend to spend 13.5 hours a workday interacting with work.

Usually, in the world of big money, there is a lot of competition and a lot of things changing rapidly. You have to constantly chase the next big thing and keep fighting for your position within the organization. However, this is not the case with every job, and maybe yours doesn’t really come with this downside. But for those it does, the pressure can oftentimes be overwhelming.

Not focusing on skills

Money-focused jobs are mostly concentrated on making the best out of the skills you already possess. Meanwhile, with a job you start out with because of your love for it, you will probably take time in developing and nurturing skills, like critical thinking , that can guarantee long-term success. Nevertheless, there are jobs out there that guarantee a good salary as well as skill training programs.

How to Decide Between a Job for Money vs. Passion

Choosing between money vs. passion is an ancient dilemma that troubles the minds of many people all over the world to this day. The stakes are pretty high as only a handful of people are fortunate enough to find a job that pays well and fulfills them. This is backed by research, too; According to a survey by Harris Interactive , only 20 percent of people across America feel passionate about their jobs. On the other hand, Pew Research Center found that about half (49%) of American employees are very satisfied with their job.

So, should you try and settle for a promising career without much passion, or should you risk it for a job that you love and fulfills you? Well, there is no simple yes or no answer to this question, and there are many important factors to consider before deciding between a job for money vs. passion. We will try to help you with this critical decision, so keep reading to learn how to choose between a job you love and career growth.

Making money vs. doing what you love: things to consider when choosing

Both of the options have a yin and yang, and sometimes deciding between the two can seem like mission impossible. But, that shouldn’t be the case, and it won’t be if you study your options closely and decide based on facts and feelings equally.

At the end of the day, isn’t your fulfillment and ability to say that you’re happy with your choices the most important thing?

However, it’s not that simple; there are many things to take into consideration when making such a big decision for the path in which you want your life to follow. You have to look at all sides carefully and then decide how and what you should be doing and do it.

Download Our Free Guide to Pursuing a Career With High Earnings

Land a job with high-earning potential and advance in it.

Earning potential

Before diving into a field of interest, you should consider the earning potential it offers. There is a chance that your passion has great pay on the menu as well. Yet, the time when you should consider putting your passion aside—not forgetting it—is when you know you won’t be able to afford it. If it keeps you from life’s necessities, then you can always opt for treating it as a hobby, giving it your free time of the day, and making money in another field.

What you want from life

This is honestly the most crucial element in your decision-making process. Maybe you want to turn your passion into a job you love, but there is a chance that you want to keep far away from responsibilities and only enjoy it in your leisure time. Neither of these is incorrect; it’s merely a point of view. Clearly, none of us are absolutely sure in what we want from our lives in every aspect of it, but having a slight idea might help you come to a conclusion with this dilemma.

Sometimes, you can do both

Doing both does not have one final meaning. It could be that your dream job just so happens to be a career that makes you more than enough money, or you follow passion at the same time as following a different work pathway. Maybe you get lucky and make money off of a passion that you thought would take you nowhere, or you happen to fall in love with a job that you didn’t feel strongly towards at first; the possibilities are endless.

Choosing between a beloved field or the one that will pay your bills can sometimes send you into a spiral of thoughts that is hard to get out of. However, it is a significant decision that will follow you for the most part of your life. When making this judgment, you should look into all the advantages and disadvantages that come with either one of the possibilities. From money and stability to happiness and fulfillment, these all play a role in this puzzle. But, most importantly, remember to listen to the logic and your heart simultaneously because they generally come up with the best verdict together.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):

Is it better to love your job or make more money.

The answer to this question definitely depends on your priorities and values. Some prioritize job satisfaction and fulfillment over a higher salary, while others prioritize financial stability and security. Ultimately, the answer will vary from person to person.

Is salary more important than passion?

There is no universal answer to whether salary is more important than passion. Your decision should be based on your individual circumstances, values, and goals. It’s important to strike a balance that aligns with your overall well-being and allows you to lead a fulfilling life.

Should I follow my career or passion?

It’s possible to find fulfillment and success by aligning your career with your passion, but it may require some creativity, perseverance, and adaptability. The key is to make a decision that aligns with your values, goals, and circumstances and that ultimately brings you satisfaction and happiness in the long run.

Share it with your friends!

Explore more.

Accounting vs. Finance Degree: Which Major to Choose?

12 Important Bookkeeping Skills You Need for a Successful Career

Recent resources.

What Can You Do with an International Studies Degree [2024]

9 Benefits of Learning a Second Language

Associate’s vs. Bachelor’s: Which One To Choose?

Web Designer vs. Web Developer: What’s the Difference?

INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE?

Chat with an Admissions Officer Now!

• Associates Degree
• Bachelors Degrees
• Masters Degrees
• Doctoral Degrees
• Faculty & Staff
• Accreditation
• Student Experience

QUICK LINKS

• Admission Requirements
• Military Students
• Financial Aid

How it works

Transform your enterprise with the scalable mindsets, skills, & behavior change that drive performance.

Explore how BetterUp connects to your core business systems.

We pair AI with the latest in human-centered coaching to drive powerful, lasting learning and behavior change.

Build leaders that accelerate team performance and engagement.

Unlock performance potential at scale with AI-powered curated growth journeys.

Build resilience, well-being and agility to drive performance across your entire enterprise.

Transform your business, starting with your sales leaders.

Unlock business impact from the top with executive coaching.

Foster a culture of inclusion and belonging.

Accelerate the performance and potential of your agencies and employees.

See how innovative organizations use BetterUp to build a thriving workforce.

Discover how BetterUp measurably impacts key business outcomes for organizations like yours.

A demo is the first step to transforming your business. Meet with us to develop a plan for attaining your goals.

• What is coaching?

Learn how 1:1 coaching works, who its for, and if it's right for you.

Accelerate your personal and professional growth with the expert guidance of a BetterUp Coach.

Types of Coaching

Navigate career transitions, accelerate your professional growth, and achieve your career goals with expert coaching.

Enhance your communication skills for better personal and professional relationships, with tailored coaching that focuses on your needs.

Find balance, resilience, and well-being in all areas of your life with holistic coaching designed to empower you.

Discover your perfect match : Take our 5-minute assessment and let us pair you with one of our top Coaches tailored just for you.

Research, expert insights, and resources to develop courageous leaders within your organization.

Best practices, research, and tools to fuel individual and business growth.

View on-demand BetterUp events and learn about upcoming live discussions.

The latest insights and ideas for building a high-performing workplace.

• BetterUp Briefing

The online magazine that helps you understand tomorrow's workforce trends, today.

Innovative research featured in peer-reviewed journals, press, and more.

Founded in 2022 to deepen the understanding of the intersection of well-being, purpose, and performance

We're on a mission to help everyone live with clarity, purpose, and passion.

Join us and create impactful change.

Read the buzz about BetterUp.

Meet the leadership that's passionate about empowering your workforce.

For Business

For Individuals

You’ve earned it: Learn about the benefits of rewarding yourself

Jump to section

Why is it important to reward yourself?

When should you reward yourself, how to reward yourself, 4 benefits of rewarding yourself, moving forward.

Hollywood actor Dwayne Johnson has a saying: “Don’t cheat yourself, treat yourself.” It’s a simple but powerful phrase. Life is tough, so you deserve to reward yourself n ow and then. 

Despite what you may have heard, rewarding yourself is a good habit to build . However small, a reward is a good motivation to continue and feel proud of your accomplishment.

Rewards can look different for everyone. That might be some online shopping that ends in a new outfit for some, but maybe it’s concert tickets, dinner at a fancy restaurant, or skipping a workout for others. 

Regardless of how you prefer to treat yourself, it’s something you should practice.

It can be hard to embrace the mindset that rewarding yourself is necessary, but it will benefit your mental health . 

Biologically, rewards increase dopamine levels in your brain. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that helps us feel happy and increases our memory retention, helps us sleep, and regulates our mood and appetite. A surge in dopamine reinforces specific behaviors as worthwhile. 

Experiencing a rise in dopamine levels is addictive, and we physically and mentally crave that feeling again. When we’re content, we’re more productive. 

Don’t worry about becoming dependent on rewards. You’re training your mind to regard hard work as a reward in itself. 

Dopamine rushes are one of the reasons people get addicted to video games or social media; the constant gratification that comes from posting photos or completing quests overstimulates our brains. In these cases, overconsumption can do more damage and decrease our motivation to acquire dopamine from productive tasks like our chores, exercise, social interactions, or from actual items. We have to make sure that our rewards are concrete and meaningful, not frivolous and constant. 

Building new physical and mental routines takes time and patience, but the best things come from dedication. Rewarding yourself is all about cultivating a new habit and long-term personal growth. At BetterUp , our coaches are here to help guide you as you walk this path.

You should reward yourself more often than you think. Many of us focus on the negatives, like how much work is left or our struggle to succeed. 

Having immediate satisfaction is wonderful, but there’s something to be said about delayed gratification . Holding out for later builds resilience, determination, and it’s even more satisfying once you complete your task. You’ll feel more deserving of whatever you’ve been waiting for. 

Rewarding yourself for your successes, however frequent and small, matters. 

You can treat yourself in many ways after a job well done. Below are a few healthy reward ideas to help you: 

• Start that new book you've wanted to read. 
• Watch one or two episodes of your favorite show. 
• Enjoy a bubble bath or a hot shower.
• Eat some chocolate or ice cream. Food rewards are as delicious as they are effective. 
• Order in or go out to eat at your favorite restaurant.
• Exercise or try a new workout class. 
• Spend time with your loved ones. 
• Visit the theater, museum, or a sporting event. 
• Have a Netflix or game night.
• If possible, take a day off work. 
• Splurge (within reason). Buy yourself a new shirt or pair of shoes.
• Listen to a playlist of your favorite music.
• Have a short outing to a local coffee shop.  

Remember, you can be rewarded in non-materialistic ways, too, like a paycheck, weight loss, or receiving recognition. 

Everyone enjoys different rewards; if it makes you happy, it doesn’t matter what form it comes in.

Don’t underestimate the impact of self-reward. Repeated encouragement leads to a boost in self-confidence , and you’ll feel more prideful and excited about your efforts.

Besides the hike in dopamine levels, other benefits that come with rewards include: 

1. Less procrastination

Knowing that you’ll experience a rush when you finally complete a task that you’ve been working on for what feels like forever will motivate you to finish it. 

2. Your thinking will become more deliberate and focused

Knowing that you need to finish the task at hand will help you stay focused and aim for that reward.

3. You’ll be able to eliminate distractions better

Why would you pick up your phone and scroll through Instagram when finishing your work means you can take a bath and do a face mask? Focusing on what you want — your reward — will also keep you focused on how to get there.

4. Positive reinforcement will become a regular practice

Checking off boxes on your to-do list is addicting, and it’s great fuel to propel you through the workweek. With any luck, finishing your work will be just as rewarding as whatever you’re gunning for now. 

We all need incentives. Rewards give you a mental break while providing you with an extra bit of momentum to get back to the grind. 

Others can cheer you on as you work through your responsibilities, but it ultimately comes down to you — you’re your biggest source of inspiration and motivation. Treating yourself right isn’t selfish; it's healthy. 

At BetterUp, we believe that everyone is capable of positive transformation, starting with good self-care. Bringing together AI technology, world-class coaching, and behavioral science experts, we strive to help every individual unlock their greater potential, purpose, and passion.

We won’t sugarcoat it – life is tough, but so are you, and our coaches are here to provide the perspective and accountability you need to keep going. If you’re willing to put in the work, we’ll support you every step of the way. 

Spoil yourself when you can: you’ll thank yourself for doing so because it makes the journey worthwhile. As celebrated author and financer Nitya Praska said: “Celebrate personal victories because no one else understands what it took to accomplish them.” 

Transform your life

Make meaningful changes and become the best version of yourself. BetterUp's professional Coaches are here to support your personal growth journey.

Elizabeth Perry, ACC

Elizabeth Perry is a Coach Community Manager at BetterUp. She uses strategic engagement strategies to cultivate a learning community across a global network of Coaches through in-person and virtual experiences, technology-enabled platforms, and strategic coaching industry partnerships. With over 3 years of coaching experience and a certification in transformative leadership and life coaching from Sofia University, Elizabeth leverages transpersonal psychology expertise to help coaches and clients gain awareness of their behavioral and thought patterns, discover their purpose and passions, and elevate their potential. She is a lifelong student of psychology, personal growth, and human potential as well as an ICF-certified ACC transpersonal life and leadership Coach.

5 tips to build mental fitness within your teams

Conscious parenting: raise your children by parenting yourself, life skills for adults: 5 types to help you settle into adulthood, how being intentional can improve your life, how to make your employee mental health strategy better focus on growth, how the spotlight effect influences your experience of the world, the best self-improvement podcasts to inspire your journey, self-care and work-life balance: how to take care of yourself, keep yourself healthy during the election: our coaches tell you how, similar articles, how to walk the freeing path of believing in yourself, 20 best job benefits and the companies that offer them, the surprising ways music benefits your brain and body, the benefits of knowing yourself: why you should become your own best friend, how delayed gratification changes the way you live and work, cell phone addiction: is it time to change your habits, our 12 favorite ted talks about procrastination management, operant conditioning: what is it, and how does it work, stay connected with betterup, get our newsletter, event invites, plus product insights and research..

3100 E 5th Street, Suite 350 Austin, TX 78702

• Platform Overview
• Integrations
• Powered by AI
• BetterUp Lead
• BetterUp Manage™
• BetterUp Care™
• Sales Performance
• Diversity & Inclusion
• Case Studies
• Why BetterUp?
• About Coaching
• Find your Coach
• Career Coaching
• Communication Coaching
• Life Coaching
• News and Press
• Leadership Team
• Become a BetterUp Coach
• BetterUp Labs
• Center for Purpose & Performance
• Leadership Training
• Business Coaching
• Contact Support
• Contact Sales
• Privacy Policy
• Acceptable Use Policy
• Trust & Security
• Cookie Preferences

Would you like to receive more information about the program?

Have a question? We are here to help.

Select your state to discover your state advisor’s phone number.

Click here.

Our Program Advisors look forward to answering your questions.

Our advisors look forward to answering your questions.

Click here to submit a contact form.

5 Reasons Being a Teacher Is the Most Rewarding Career 

October 19, 2021

Teachers can make impressions on the minds of our young children that last a lifetime. If you can recall your favorite teacher giving you advice that changed the course of your life, you probably know the impact a teacher can have. Molding future generations, assisting in building personal philosophies, and helping us understand essential skills for our adult lives are just a few ways a teacher can impact society. From watching students achieve an A+ in your classroom to witnessing them become the latest addition to NASA’s team of scientists, you will be rewarded daily for the impact you have on the lives of your students.    

Each student in your classroom will be different from the student next to them. They have different life experiences, learn differently, and progress at different rates in any curriculum. Regardless, through your guidance, each of them will push their limits to go further, achieve higher goals, and even grow as a person. When they have these “A-ha!” moments, it makes teaching all the more rewarding.

Teachers model as shining examples of what a functioning adult should be. When students look up to the front of the class, they see a functioning member of society who demonstrates mastery over their field of study, shows how inspired they are to learn and teach each day, and conveys how much they care about their success. By being a role model students can look up to, teachers can impact the lives of students. Just being there and showing that you care about their success can propel them forward and be rewarding for them and you!  

In some states like Texas, for example, teachers receive quite a competitive salary and full benefits. As of September 27, 2021, the annual teacher salary is an average of  $58,545 , with ranges typically falling between  $51,113  and  $67,591.   With an added vacation spanning the entirety of summer each year, a recession-proof job, and better pay than ever, becoming a teacher can be a rewarding career for your financial wellbeing as well. 

Ultimately, teaching is more than just a job anyone does for the pay. Making a difference in the lives of their students is what it is all about for so many teachers who prepare lesson after lesson to see them grow. The honor of teaching itself is a reward, and if you feel a calling for teaching, desire to inspire others, shape the world and its young minds, or you want to be the next role model for a student in need, we encourage you to  learn more  about Teachers of Tomorrow. Speak with a program advisor and learn more about our program when you apply for free today! 

15 Year Anniversary , 15 Years , alabama teacher certification , alabama teacher shortage , alabama teacher shortage task force , alabama teacher shrotage task force , alternative teacher certification , Anniversary , Arizona Teachers , Become a Teacher , Become a Teachers , Celebrate , center for american progress , chalkbeat , continuing education teachers , continuing education units for teachers , covid , covid-19 , dave saba , distance learning , diverse teachers , diversity in teaching , Economy , edt , edtpa , edtpa georgia , edtpa issues , edtpa pearson , edtpa problems , edtpa study , edtpa teacher certification , edtpa texas , education , education school enrollment , educator awards , educator exams , educator preparation , engineers week , engineers week 2020 , ferpa , florida teacher pay , Florida Teachers , Growth , H-E-B excellence in education , heb awards , heb excellence in education , helpful tips , how long does it take to be a teacher , how to become a high school teacher , how to become a substitute teacher , how to become a teacher , how to become an elementary school teacher , Illinois teacher certification , Illinois teacher shortage , Indiana teachers , Indiana teachers of tomorrow , Job Security , Living The Vision Award , marketing webinar , math teacher shortage , Michigan Teachers , Michigan Teachers of Tomorrow , micro-credentials , Nevada Teachers , new teachers , non-degree programs , north carolina teachers , north carolina teachers of tomorrow , online learning , online teacher recruiting , online teaching , pandemic , paraprofessional , paraprofessionals , PD , physics teacher shortage , portfolio , praxis , principal award , pro dev , professional development , Program , Reasons to Teach , Recession-proof , residency license , scholarship for teaching , Second Career , SK12 , South Carolina Teachers , Stable Career , starting teacher salary , Strada , substitute , substitutes , Success , TASA , teach 313 , teach in detroit , teach in michigan , teacher attrition , teacher certification exam , teacher certification exams , teacher certification test , teacher certification tests , teacher diversity , teacher micro-credential , teacher pay raise , teacher profession , teacher professional development , teacher recruiting , teacher resources , teacher salary , teacher scholarship , teacher tesst , teacher test , teacher tests , teacher tips , teachers of color , teaching interview , teaching interview questions , test , texas edtpa , The Learning Liaisons , Trent Beekman , update , virtual conferences , virtual job fair , virtual job interview , virtual teacher recruiting , virtual teaching , virtual teaching job interview , Why Teach , zoom , zoom virtual learning , zoombombing

Energizing Your Teacher Recruitment Strategy

October 19, 2021 by jessicanunez

Texas Teachers Certification Areas

Texas teachers currently offers 50+ certification areas:.

• Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources 6–12 (272)
• American Sign Language (ASL) (184)
• Art EC–12 (178)
• Bilingual Education Supplemental (164)
• Bilingual Target Language Proficiency Test (BTLPT) Spanish (190)
• Business and Finance 6–12 (276)
• Chemistry 7–12 (240)
• Computer Science 8–12 (241)
• Core Subjects EC-6 (291)
• Core Subjects 4–8 (211)
• Dance 6–12 (279)
• English as a Second Language Supplemental (154)
• English Language Arts and Reading 4–8 (117)
• English Language Arts and Reading 7–12 (231)
• English Language Arts and Reading/Social Studies 4–8 (113)
• Family and Consumer Sciences EC-12 (200)
• Health EC–12 (157)
• Health Science 6–12 (273)
• History 7–12 (233)
• Journalism 7–12 (256)
• Languages Other Than English (LOTE) Arabic EC–12 (600 & 605)
• Languages Other Than English (LOTE) French EC–12 (610)
• Languages Other Than English (LOTE) German EC–12 (611)
• Languages Other Than English (LOTE) Latin EC–12 (612)
• Languages Other Than English (LOTE) Japanese EC–12 (602 & 607)
• Languages Other Than English (LOTE) Mandarin Chinese EC–12 (601 & 606)
• Languages Other Than English (LOTE) Russian EC–12 (603 & 608)
• Languages Other Than English (LOTE) Spanish EC–12 (613)
• Languages Other Than English (LOTE) Vietnamese EC–12 (604 & 609)
• Life Science 7–12 (238)
• Marketing 6–12 (275)
• Mathematics 4–8 (115)
• Mathematics 7–12 (235)
• Mathematics/Physical Science/Engineering 6–12 (274)
• Mathematics/Science 4–8 (114)
• Music EC–12 (177)
• Physical Education EC–12 (158)
• Physical Science 6–12 (237)
• Physics/Mathematics 7–12 (243)
• Science 4–8 (116)
• Science 7–12 (236)
• Social Studies 4–8 (118)
• Social Studies 7–12 (232)
• Special Education EC–12 (161)
• Speech 7–12 (129)
• Technology Applications EC–12 (242)
• Technology Education 6–12 (171)
• Texas Assessment of Sign Communication–American Sign Language™ (TASC–ASL™) (073)
• Theatre EC–12 (180)
• Trade and Industrial (T&I)

career development

7 Meaningful Answers to "What are Your Career Aspirations?" in an Interview

Learn the best approaches to answer interview questions about your career aspirations. We provide example answers and explain what makes them meaningful.

Together Team

Published on 

August 9, 2023

Updated on 

Time to Read

mins read time

“What are your career aspirations?”

This has to be one of the most commonly asked questions in interviews besides the standard questions about the candidate’s professional background, skills, and experience.

"Career aspirations" refer to an individual's long-term professional goals and ambitions, encompassing the desired achievements and personal growth they seek throughout their journey.

Interviewers inquire about your professional aspirations to gain insights into your long-term motivations, passion, and alignment with the company's vision, helping them assess if your goals and the organization's objectives are in sync. 

The key to providing meaningful answers is to be genuine and demonstrate a clear connection between your career aspirations and the value you can bring to the organization. Tailor your responses to the specific job and company, and let your passion for personal and professional growth shine through.

7 examples of answers about career aspirations

When asked about your career aspirations, a meaningful answer that goes beyond personal growth will help you differentiate yourself from other interviewees. Here are seven meaningful answers that can make a lasting impression on interviewers:

1. Pursuing continuous learning and skill development 

Example: "My career aspirations are centered around constant growth and skill enhancement. I am committed to staying updated with the latest trends and technologies in the industry. In the coming year, I plan to pursue specialized certifications and attend industry conferences to learn from experts . By continuously improving my skills, I aim to bring innovative strategies to the table and contribute to the company's success in reaching new audiences."

While the above example is a generalized statement on continuous learning , you can improve it by naming specific skills and certifications that you mean to acquire.

2. Making a positive impact on society and the environment

Example: "Beyond personal career goals, I am passionate about creating a positive impact on society and the environment through my work. I aspire to work for a company with a strong commitment to sustainability. I envision aligning my career with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and actively participating in corporate social responsibility initiatives. I find immense fulfillment in contributing to a greener and more sustainable future, and I believe that my dedication to these causes will resonate with the organization's values and mission."

The above answer will help you showcase your interest in contributing to a larger purpose by making a difference in the world. Make it your own by discussing any volunteer work you are involved in to emphasize your commitment to meaningful impact.

3. Becoming a thought leader and influencer in the industry

Example: "My ultimate career aspiration is to become a thought leader and influencer in my field. I plan to publish research papers, contribute to open-source projects, and participate in conferences to share my knowledge. Additionally, I aspire to become an active member of industry forums and engage in public speaking opportunities to promote advancements in the industry. By becoming a recognized authority, I can position the company as a leader in our space."

Turn the above example into a highly specific answer by mentioning your area of expertise and your topic of research. Give examples of other thought leaders in your industry and how they helped establish their organizations as leaders in their space.

4. Embracing leadership opportunities

Example: "As a seasoned manager, my career aspiration is to take on more significant leadership roles and contribute to the growth of the organization's talent. I envision leading cross-functional teams, fostering a collaborative work culture, and mentoring emerging managers . A company can grow and succeed faster when the more experienced members of the team empower and guide others."

Communicate your interest in taking on leadership roles and guiding others to success. Make the above example your own by discussing your leadership style and how you plan to inspire and motivate team members.

5. Driving innovation and advancement within the company 

Example: "Innovation drives me, and I am passionate about leveraging technology to push the boundaries of what's possible. My career aspiration is to lead the research and development team, where I can spearhead new product ideas and create groundbreaking solutions. I envision fostering an innovation-focused culture within the organization, where employees are encouraged to experiment and think outside the box. By introducing disruptive products to the market, we can elevate the company's position and stay ahead of the competition."

To be more specific with the answer, talk about your ideas for improving processes or developing new products or services for the company.

6. Cultivating a diverse and inclusive work environment 

Example: "My biggest career aspiration revolves around creating an inclusive and diverse work environment. I envision implementing diversity training programs, establishing mentorship opportunities for underrepresented groups, and ensuring that all employees feel valued and respected. By fostering a workplace that celebrates differences, we can boost employee morale, creativity, and ultimately contribute to the company's overall success."

In your answer, discuss strategies for promoting inclusivity and building a diverse team. Emphasize the positive impact of diversity on organizational performance and innovation.

7. Becoming a mentor and guiding others to success

Example: "One of my most significant career aspirations is to take on a mentorship role within the organization. Throughout my career journey, I have benefited greatly from the guidance and support of mentors who have helped me develop both professionally and personally. I aspire to pay it forward by becoming a mentor to junior colleagues and assisting them in their career growth. By sharing my knowledge, experiences, and lessons learned, I hope to inspire and empower others to reach their full potential and contribute to a more dynamic and skilled workforce within the company."

Mentorship can have a profound impact on individual development and team cohesion. By showcasing your willingness to mentor and uplift others, you demonstrate not only a commitment to your own growth but also a dedication to fostering a supportive and collaborative work culture within the organization.

How to answer questions on career aspirations during an interview

When answering the question about career aspirations, demonstrate your alignment with the company's values and showcase your enthusiasm for personal and organizational growth. To ace this critical aspect of the interview, consider the following tips:

Read about the company’s vision and mission, and the job role

When asked about your career aspirations, connect your goals with the company's mission. Search the company's website and annual reports to understand their core values and long-term objectives. Read the job description carefully, because it will also have details about how the role you are interviewing for contributes to the overall picture. 

You will be able to give better answers if you know what the company stands for and how you will potentially fit in and add value. For instance, instead of saying, "I want to improve my leadership skills," say, "I aspire to become a leader who can drive the organization towards achieving its mission of sustainable environmental practices."

Speak with a “We” mindset

Avoid phrases that focus solely on personal gain. Most employers look for a team-oriented and collaborative mindset in their employees. By focusing on how you can contribute to the collective success of the organization and its goals, you will show the interviewers that you are a team player.

Instead of saying, "I want to be making $150,000 in two years," say that "I aim to contribute to the success of the team by utilizing my skills to achieve higher growth."

Be specific and realistic about your goals

Instead of providing vague statements like, "I want to be successful," be specific about your aspirations, such as "I aspire to take on a managerial role within the next three years, leading cross-functional teams and driving innovative projects."

Being specific and realistic about your goals during an interview shows that you have a clear understanding of your career path and have thoughtfully considered your aspirations. It also indicates that you are pragmatic and grounded, making you a more credible candidate who can set achievable targets and work diligently towards them, increasing your chances of being seen as a reliable and valuable asset to the organization.

Show enthusiasm and passion for your career path

Demonstrate your excitement for your chosen career path by saying, "I am genuinely passionate about (let’s say) marketing, and I look forward to creating impactful campaigns that can connect with customers on a deeper level and drive brand loyalty."

Employers value candidates who are enthusiastic about their work as they are more likely to be motivated, proactive, and willing to go the extra mile to excel in their role.

Common pitfalls to avoid when answering questions about career aspirations

By effectively communicating your career aspirations during an interview, you can leave a lasting impression on potential employers. However, candidates should steer clear of the following two common pitfalls:

1. Using cliches and vague responses

Using cliches and providing vague responses can make your answer sound insincere and lacking in authenticity. Vague statements like "I want to make a difference" or "I want to be successful" don't provide meaningful insights into your actual goals and may come across as generic.

Instead of saying, "I want to be a leader who inspires others," be more specific by saying, "My career aspiration is to become a compassionate and influential team leader, empowering my team members to achieve their goals and foster a collaborative work environment."

2. Being too modest or self-deprecating

While it's essential to strike a balance between confidence and humility, being overly modest or self-deprecating may undermine your credibility and hinder your chances of making a strong impression. It's crucial to showcase your strengths and aspirations with conviction without sounding arrogant.

Instead of downplaying your accomplishments with statements like, "I was just lucky to receive that award," own your achievements and say, "I am proud of the hard work and dedication that led to receiving the award, and it motivates me to continue striving for excellence in my career."

Strike the right balance between authentic and impressive 

When answering questions about your career aspirations, honesty in your responses is essential, as it reflects your genuine motivations and long-term goals.

Strike a balance between authenticity and alignment, and let your enthusiasm for your career path shine through. By articulating your aspirations with clarity and conviction, you present yourself as a proactive and dedicated candidate, poised to make a significant impact within the organization. Your ability to combine honesty and alignment is the key to leaving a strong impression and increasing your chances of securing the opportunity that aligns perfectly with your career aspirations.

Want to grow in your career and achieve your career aspirations? Learn from those who have walked the path before you. Find mentors that will teach you how to navigate the ups and downs of your career and make the right moves to achieve your goals.

Dive deeper into the topic in our mentees guide

About the Author

Table of Contents

Social sharing.

Related articles

Elevate your mentorship program today

Schedule 20 minutes to see Together’s platform in action, or jump right in for free.

Together Platform

• Pricing Why Choose Together
• Customer Help Center
• Platform Status
• Why Mentorship
• Colleague Connect
• Matching Together for MS Teams Integrations Reporting & Surveys Security & Compliance
• Human Resources
• Learning & Development
• Department Leads
• Community Managers
• Attracting & Retaining Talent
• Diversity & ERG
• Employee Engagement
• High Potentials
• New Manager
• Remote Work

Terms of Service

• Customer Terms
• Cookie Policy
• Acceptable Use
• Uptime Agreement
• Data Processing Addendum
• Mentorship program planning hub
• White Paper & Ebooks Webinars & Interviews Customer Success Stories
• HR & L&D Playbook
• ROI Calculator
• [email protected]
• +1 (833) 755-5502
• Help Center
• Partnership Programs

IELTS Practice.Org

IELTS Practice Tests and Preparation Tips

• Band 9 IELTS Essays

Band 9 IELTS Essay Sample | Is Job Satisfaction More Important Than Salary?

by Manjusha Nambiar · Published December 22, 2017 · Updated April 27, 2023

Here is a band 9 essay sample on a topic that appeared in a recently held IELTS exam.

Most people in the world need to work in order to lead a decent life or even just to survive. Many workers are motivated by money: if the job pays well, they are willing to do it. However, some people are not concerned with the size of their pay packet: they simply enjoy their job and choose to do it whether they earn a high salary or not. What is more important – salary or job satisfaction? Discuss and give reasons for your answer.

Band 9 IELTS essay sample

Some people choose high paying jobs. Others prefer jobs they find satisfying even if the salary is low. While I admit that it is important to earn enough to make a living, in my opinion, job satisfaction is more important than the size of the pay package.

Job satisfaction increases productivity. If people like their jobs, no one has to force them to go to work. No one has to supervise them. They will perform their job on their own and with utmost interest and concentration. This interest that they show will automatically improve the results and help them achieve more in less time.

By contrast, people who choose a particular job just because it is paying well will find it rather difficult to stay motivated. They have to push themselves to work every morning. Because of this lack of interest in the job, they make more errors and take longer to finish tasks. As a result, they have to stay late at office. The long working hours will eventually affect their health and family life. Take, for instance, the case of IT professionals. The IT industry pays well but the jobs are extremely stressful and demanding. Someone who chooses a job in this industry just because the salaries are good will eventually burn out unable to cope with the pressures of the job.

On the flip side, rewarding jobs may not always pay well at the beginning. But over time, the worker’s enthusiasm and dedication will make the job a lucrative career option. For example, there are lots of people who turned their hobbies into successful career options. It was their love for the job that ultimately helped them.

To conclude, job satisfaction is certainly more important than the money earned. If people love their job, eventually, they will also earn well.

Quick Links

• Band 9 Letter Samples
• Band 8 Letter Samples
• OET Writing Sample

Tags: band 9 essay sample

Manjusha Nambiar

Hi, I'm Manjusha. This is my blog where I give IELTS preparation tips.

• Next story  Band 9 IELTS Essay Sample | Should Driving Age Be Increased To 25?
• Previous story  Band 9 IELTS Letter Sample | You Are Experiencing Problem With A Piece Of Equipment

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

• Academic Writing Task 1
• Agree Or Disagree
• Band 7 essay samples
• Band 8 Essay Samples
• Band 8 letter samples
• Discuss Both Views
• Grammar exercises
• IELTS Writing
• Learn English
• OET Letters
• Sample Essays
• Sample Letters
• Writing Tips

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

IELTS Practice

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Guest Essay

Many Patients Don’t Survive End-Stage Poverty

By Lindsay Ryan

Dr. Ryan is an associate physician at the University of California, San Francisco, department of medicine.

He has an easy smile, blue eyes and a life-threatening bone infection in one arm. Grateful for treatment, he jokes with the medical intern each morning. A friend, a fellow doctor, is supervising the man’s care. We both work as internists at a public hospital in the medical safety net , a loose term for institutions that disproportionately serve patients on Medicaid or without insurance. You could describe the safety net in another way, too, as a place that holds up a mirror to our nation.

What is reflected can be difficult to face. It’s this: After learning that antibiotics aren’t eradicating his infection and amputation is the only chance for cure, the man withdraws, says barely a word to the intern. When she asks what he’s thinking, his reply is so tentative that she has to prompt him to repeat himself. Now with a clear voice, he tells her that if his arm must be amputated, he doesn’t want to live. She doesn’t understand what it’s like to survive on the streets, he continues. With a disability, he’ll be a target — robbed, assaulted. He’d rather die, unless, he says later, someone can find him a permanent apartment. In that case, he’ll proceed with the amputation.

The psychiatrists evaluate him. He’s not suicidal. His reasoning is logical. The social workers search for rooms, but in San Francisco far more people need long-term rehousing than the available units can accommodate. That the medical care the patient is receiving exceeds the cost of a year’s rent makes no practical difference. Eventually, the palliative care doctors see him. He transitions to hospice and dies.

A death certificate would say he died of sepsis from a bone infection, but my friend and I have a term for the illness that killed him: end-stage poverty. We needed to coin a phrase because so many of our patients die of the same thing.

Safety-net hospitals and clinics care for a population heavily skewed toward the poor, recent immigrants and people of color. The budgets of these places are forever tight . And anyone who works in them could tell you that illness in our patients isn’t just a biological phenomenon. It’s the manifestation of social inequality in people’s bodies.

Neglecting this fact can make otherwise meticulous care fail. That’s why, on one busy night, a medical student on my team is scouring websites and LinkedIn. She’s not shirking her duties. In fact, she’s one of the best students I’ve ever taught.

This week she’s caring for a retired low-wage worker with strokes and likely early dementia who was found sleeping in the street. He abandoned his rent-controlled apartment when electrolyte and kidney problems triggered a period of severe confusion that has since been resolved. Now, with little savings, he has nowhere to go. A respite center can receive patients like him when it has vacancies. The alternative is a shelter bed. He’s nearly 90 years old.

Medical textbooks usually don’t discuss fixing your patient’s housing. They seldom include making sure your patient has enough food and some way to get to a clinic. But textbooks miss what my med students don’t: that people die for lack of these basics.

People struggle to keep wounds clean. Their medications get stolen. They sicken from poor diet, undervaccination and repeated psychological trauma. Forced to focus on short-term survival and often lacking cellphones, they miss appointments for everything from Pap smears to chemotherapy. They fall ill in myriad ways — and fall through the cracks in just as many.

Early in his hospitalization, our retired patient mentions a daughter, from whom he’s been estranged for years. He doesn’t know any contact details, just her name. It’s a long shot, but we wonder if she can take him in.

The med student has one mission: find her.

I love reading about medical advances. I’m blown away that with a brain implant, a person who’s paralyzed can move a robotic arm and that surgeons recently transplanted a genetically modified pig kidney into a man on dialysis. This is the best of American innovation and cause for celebration. But breakthroughs like these won’t fix the fact that despite spending the highest percentage of its G.D.P. on health care among O.E.C.D. nations, the United States has a life expectancy years lower than comparable nations—the U.K. and Canada— and a rate of preventable death far higher .

The solution to that problem is messy, incremental, protean and inglorious. It requires massive investment in housing, addiction treatment, free and low-barrier health care and social services. It calls for just as much innovation in the social realm as in the biomedical, for acknowledgment that inequities — based on race, class, primary language and other categories — mediate how disease becomes embodied. If health care is interpreted in the truest sense of caring for people’s health, it must be a practice that extends well beyond the boundaries of hospitals and clinics.

Meanwhile, on the ground, we make do. Though the social workers are excellent and try valiantly, there are too few of them , both in my hospital and throughout a country that devalues and underfunds their profession. And so the medical student spends hours helping the family of a newly arrived Filipino immigrant navigate the health insurance system. Without her efforts, he wouldn’t get treatment for acute hepatitis C. Another patient, who is in her 20s, can’t afford rent after losing her job because of repeated hospitalizations for pancreatitis — but she can’t get the pancreatic operation she needs without a home in which to recuperate. I phone an eviction defense lawyer friend; the young woman eventually gets surgery.

Sorting out housing and insurance isn’t the best use of my skill set or that of the medical students and residents, but our efforts can be rewarding. The internet turned up the work email of the daughter of the retired man. Her house was a little cramped with his grandchildren, she said, but she would make room. The medical student came in beaming.

In these cases we succeeded; in many others we don’t. Safety-net hospitals can feel like the rapids foreshadowing a waterfall, the final common destination to which people facing inequities are swept by forces beyond their control. We try our hardest to fish them out, but sometimes we can’t do much more than toss them a life jacket or maybe a barrel and hope for the best.

I used to teach residents about the principles of internal medicine — sodium disturbances, delirium management, antibiotics. I still do, but these days I also teach about other topics — tapping community resources, thinking creatively about barriers and troubleshooting how our patients can continue to get better after leaving the supports of the hospital.

When we debrief, residents tell me how much they struggle with the moral dissonance of working in a system in which the best medicine they can provide often falls short. They’re right about how much it hurts, so I don’t know exactly what to say to them. Perhaps I never will.

Lindsay Ryan is an associate physician at the University of California, San Francisco, department of medicine.

Source photographs by Bettmann and Fred W. McDarrah via Getty Images.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

Follow the New York Times Opinion section on Facebook , Instagram , TikTok , WhatsApp , X and Threads .

I make more than $5,500 a month using an app to pick up restaurant shifts. Here's how I maximize my earnings.

• Kai Cowan uses FrontHouz, a staffing platform, to balance gig work with family responsibilities.
• The flexible scheduling allows Cowan to waitress and bartend while pursuing her passion for dance.
• Cowan's earnings from using FrontHouz regularly average more than $5,500 monthly.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Kai Cowan, a 24-year-old gig worker in Atlanta. It's been edited for length and clarity.

I'm a waitress, hostess, and bartender in Atlanta. I pursued a degree in dance for one year but dropped out to gain experience. I then spent a few years working in retail and hospitality until the restaurant I worked at shut down due to COVID-19.

In September 2020, my dance career picked up, and I'm now balancing my work with caring for my aunt, who recently became disabled. To manage my responsibilities, I pick up shifts through FrontHouz , a staffing platform for hospitality workers that allows for flexible scheduling .

This balance has been crucial for me to continue working while being there for my family.

I first discovered FrontHouz when I met the founder

I met the CEO of FrontHouz, Starr Douglas , in February 2023. I worked at a restaurant that often had slow days and was unhappy with my schedule. This meeting was a turning point for me.

I ordered at a bar downtown and couldn't resist telling the bartender to take his time and that I also bartended up the street. Starr overheard me ordering and told me about FrontHouz. I took her card and kept in communication with her.

Related stories

I decided to sign up for FrontHouz and applied online, which was a straightforward process. After submitting my application, there was a waiting period while my account was reviewed and approved. There was no fee to apply, which made the decision to join even easier.

On an average week, I put in between 20 and 30 hours

FrontHouz allows me to work for employers who may have never had the time to look through my résumé . When a restaurant has a call-off or just needs extra help, they put it in a request on FrontHouz. I'm often requested due to my high rating on the platform, but gigs are listed for workers to pick up on a first-come, first-served basis.

The "pre-shift training" feature teaches me the specifics of each establishment before I start a shift. It provides a 360-degree view of each establishment and its menus, cocktails, seating charts, weekly specials, and more.

My shifts mainly involve serving or bartending , though I occasionally take on busser or hostess roles. The variety is one of the things I love about this platform — I get to work in different settings like upscale event centers, bars, and fine dining restaurants. I also appreciate having control of my own schedule and being able to develop a network with the people I meet on the shifts.

One challenge is that shifts can sometimes be scarce as local restaurants continue to join the platform, and the platform isn't available nationwide yet.

I average more than $5,500 a month

It's been rewarding financially as well. FrontHouz doesn't take a cut from my pay and instead charges restaurants to use the app.

Since I've been using the app more regularly for the past six months, my earnings break down to an average of more than $5,500 a month. I work around 22 shifts a month.

The flexible schedule has allowed me to care for my aunt while simultaneously pursuing dancing, acting, modeling, and social media management .

Here's my best advice for making the most money

It's essential to have a professional profile that details all your previous experience to attract higher-end venues. If you can travel, expanding your job search radius by X miles or more could also significantly increase the number of available gigs.

Checking the FrontHouz app at specific times, like each morning or before a dinner rush, is a strategic move. This is often when new shifts are posted, giving you the advantage of being among the first to apply.

Promptness in picking up shifts is crucial; if you find a suitable shift, it's wise to secure it quickly to avoid missing out on the opportunity. Restaurant shifts are usually posted a week in advance, but it's not uncommon for a last-minute shift to pop up for the same night.

Consider dedicating specific days or nights to FrontHouz shifts, particularly when restaurants are busier, like special event nights or popular weekly specials (think: Taco Tuesday or Sunday brunch). This approach not only increases your chances of consistent work but also aligns your availability with potentially higher-earning shifts.

Watch: How the Air Force Academy makes 10,000 meals a day for 4,000 cadets

• Main content