Finding Work You Love Vs. Loving the Work You Find
March 21st, 2007 | Posted in blog 10 Comments »
In this Twin Cities article, the author explains that a group of “career explorers” brought in a technical writer to talk about his work. The result?
In addition to explaining his duties and the path that had led to his somewhat accidental career choice, our speaker gave us food for thought when he declared “There’s no joy in technical writing. No one goes home filled with joy over having written the perfect software instruction.”
To place this comment in context, the speaker wasn’t complaining about his job. Far from it, in fact. As he noted, it pays well, offers him a comfortable work setting, and provides several weeks of vacation per year. He did admit to being a bit bored and noted that he might need to change something to alleviate that.
After the speaker left, I asked the group if they thought they would like to be technical writers, despite the lack of “joy” noted by our speaker. As you might expect, the answers were personal, and depended somewhat on each person’s work experiences and expectations. One fellow got a laugh when he said, “I hate my job now. Why shouldn’t I get paid more to hate it?”
When I stated my belief that job seekers sometimes place too much emphasis on finding work they love, or on searching for “passion” in their jobs, a 20-something participant said, “But that’s the story my generation has been sold. We’ve been told to look for work we’re passionate about.”
Amy Lindgrin, the author, makes an insightful point: Youth today are taught to follow their dreams, to find their passion. But there’s a reality to the working world. A lot of jobs are strenuous, boring, and don’t leave you feeling full of joy. Should you quit and keep searching for your passion?
Lindgrin says,”Rather than encourage young adults to find the work they love, it might be better to help them love the work they find.”
Could anything be more true than with technical writing? Technical writing is not a romantic dream you fall in love with as a child and finally achieve as an adult. Technical writing is the inevitable arranged marriage with the partner you learn to love.
And how do you learn to love it? What motivates me (besides the constantly emerging technology, which I think is absolutely cool) is continually learning about the profession. When I fill my mind with interesting ideas, it makes me enthusiastic about what I do. Knowledge breeds awareness, innovation, and expertise. Knowledge helps me become better at what I do, moving me past the “suck threshold,” as Kathy Sierra says, and into the “really good” zone where I can become passionate.
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The continual learning is what motivates me too – and keeps me passionate about what I do. It’s not so much the continual learning about the profession itself as all the learning I do as a tech writing contractor.
For example, in the past 8 years I’ve worked for: mining companies documenting SAP stuff (not the most enlightening of work!), Windows rollout stuff, and on a mineral processing plant in the Australian outback documenting standard operating procedures for a nickel and cobalt processing plant; software companies varying from library software, to 2D to 3D conversion software for movies, to occupational health and safety and risk management software, to 3D geological visualisation software, to stockpile monitoring software, to cost modelling software (and others); for government deparments documenting satellite and computer rollout programs to “School of the Air” outback stations, FAQs for school IT administrators; and for a retail jewellery chain documenting staff policies and procedures and their sales ‘knowledge’ manual – everything they needed to know about diamonds, pearls, opals, other gems, gold, silver, etc. And just last night I had a call from a guy who is the IT manager for an aviation company that trains Chinese commercial pilots!
I would NEVER have learnt this stuff on my own – tech writing has given me the opportunity to sate my thirst for knowledge. It’s what I love most about the job.
As far as advice for newcomers to the world of work, I used to work as a teacher and had responsbility at various times for career counselling. One thing I used to tell students was that EVERY job has its flat bits, its boring times, its drudgery. And those flat bits are what makes the good bits really special. Think of a geologist out in the field – they have to chip away at and lick – yes, lick! – an awful lot of rocks, and check a lot of drilling samples before they find what they’re searching for… if they find it. It doesn’t stop them loving their job – it just makes the moments when it all comes together even sweeter.
I DO think it’s wise to try one’s best to find work that is meaningful and satisfying, but with the clear understanding that it’s still going to be boring sometimes, and that it’s fully possible to find meaningful work in unexpected places. “Satisfying” work for most people includes something with a decent paycheck, and may not be romantic.
I love the principle of learning to love what you do, rather than insisting on the perfect job up front. It’s a good life principle, applied to career.
I actually have my dream job right now, spending part of my time doing web development and part of my time doing creative writing for a paycheck, and it’s wonderful. But there are still days it’s hard to focus, or I’m bored, or stressed. And I would have blown it months ago if I hadn’t spent years learning how to thrive in less-than-ideal work situations.
I think perhaps if you don’t learn to love what you’re doing, as best you can, you won’t be able to appreciate your dream job if it does come along.
Please watch this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA
It is Steve Jobs’ Stanford Commencement Speech 2005
Jobs rose from challenging beginnings to launch the most successful creative companies of our time (Apple, Next, Pixar). What he says about following your heart seems worth hearing, because he clearly knows a bit about it.
Thanks TJ for recommending the video. I just watched it — it really is excellent. At one point he says, “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” This is so true. It definitely adds another dimension to this discussion about loving the work you do. Thanks again for pointing the video out to me.
TJ followed up with me to add the following:
Your quote is correct. There is even more to the statement, and I think it’s just as powerful.
He says, “The only way to be truly satisfied with the work you do is to do great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do.”
Cheers!
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I read an article long ago that settled the seeming contradiction once and for all. The subject was a coroner. She shared with the interviewer that she felt that her “real job” when cleaning corpses was receiving the last statement people ever make to anyone about their lives, a statement delivered in the stuff cleaned off of the body. That led me to two conclusions: If there’s someone in the world who can find satisfaction in THAT, then there are certainly plenty of people who can find it in various jobs I have hated. No need for me to grit my teeth through dreadful activities because “somebody’s got to do it.” Second, every customer and client deserves a worker who sees the work as a sacred charge. I haven’t really thought too much about whether the importance of the coroner who receives my body’s last communication; I have certainly suffered from bored workers — from doctors to sales clerks.
[...] For years, I read and re-read The Little Engine That Could to my children — they so loved to say, I think I can, I think I can, and with clients, I’ve referenced that book time and again. In my opinion, Chast poses such an intriguing question, one I’m still pondering days later with this post. What keeps you from doing what’s in your heart? What holds you back? Why don’t you do the things you’d really love to do? [...]
[...] For years, I read and re-read The Little Engine That Could to my children — they so loved to say, I think I can, I think I can, and with clients, I’ve referenced that book time and again. In my opinion, Chast poses such an intriguing question, one I’m still pondering days later with this post. What keeps you from doing what’s in your heart? What holds you back? Why don’t you do the things you’d really love to do? [...]
I think that would be better for everyone to love the work they find… Sometimes you look for the job you love…and you can’t find o proper one… at least, when you got a job, even if it’s not the job of your dreams, at least you can find some good things (like friends, place… or something else) that can help you to love the job you got.