Redundancy, burnout, or a nagging sense of dissatisfaction often prompts people to ask whether a career change could offer greater fulfilment and the opportunity to make a positive difference. Are you one of them?
But what does making a difference actually mean to you?
It’s a phrase we hear often, yet it means something unique to everyone. The best way to define it is to ask yourself a series of practical questions. There are many ways to make a meaningful contribution, and the questions below are a starting point.
Start with your motivation
1. Why do you want your work to matter?
What really presses your buttons? What makes you angry, frustrated or upset? The issues that stir a strong emotional response often reveal your values and where you’re most motivated to invest your time and energy.
Identify who or what matters most
2. Who or what do you most want to help?
Whose lives do you want to improve? Children, older people, those who are ill or marginalised? Or is your focus on animal welfare, public safety, education, healthcare or the environment?
Imagine your ideal role
3. What role do you see yourself playing?
When you picture yourself doing meaningful work, what are you doing? Are you:
- Educating
- Organising people or projects
- Influencing or persuading others
- Counselling or supporting
- Advocating for a cause
- Mentoring
- Advising
- Caring for others
- Researching and generating new knowledge?
Take stock of your strengths
4. What skills and strengths could you bring?
The most fulfilling work often sits at the intersection of what you’re good at and what you enjoy. How might you apply your skills? For example:
- Working directly with the people you want to help
- Raising funds or campaigning
- Advocating for vulnerable groups
- Working in local or national politics
- Using practical skills to build homes or improve access to clean water
- Applying engineering or design expertise to solve real-world problems
- Researching the causes of poverty, conflict or unemployment
- Developing life-saving medicines
- Bringing your professional expertise to a charity or purpose-driven organisation
- Shaping policy through a think tank or government department
- Using data to inform decisions in government or NGOs
Picture your ideal workplace
5. Where do you want to work?
Visualise your ideal working environment. Do you see yourself:
- Working from home
- Outdoors
- In an office
- Overseas
- Travelling regularly?
Consider how you work best
6. How do you want to work?
Think about the conditions in which you thrive. Do you prefer:
- Working in a team or independently?
- A professional or informal environment?
- Being in the spotlight or behind the scenes?
- High levels of autonomy?
- Regular or flexible hours?
- Fast-paced, high-pressure work?
- Project-based work?
Decide what you’re willing to change
7. What are you willing to do to create a more fulfilling career?
A career change doesn’t always require a complete reinvention.
You may decide to retrain, accept a temporary drop in salary or make a sideways move to gain new experience. However, financial, geographical or family commitments may make a major change unrealistic for now.
Could you find more meaning where you are? Is there a project you could become involved in? Alternatively, could volunteering alongside your current job give you the sense of purpose you’re looking for?
Follow your curiosity
8. What do you naturally read and talk about?
What topics spark your curiosity or lead to animated conversations? Look at your bookshelf, podcasts or online reading. The subjects you return to repeatedly often provide valuable clues about what matters most to you.
Seek out role models
9. Whose careers do you admire?
Think about people whose work makes you think, I’d love to do that.
Reach out to friends, colleagues or people on LinkedIn and ask about their career. Most people are surprisingly willing to share their experiences, and those conversations can provide insights you won’t find online.
There is no single definition of meaningful work. The important thing is discovering what it means to you. Use these questions to identify where your values, strengths and interests come together so that you can make your own unique contribution.
“What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.”
Nelson Mandela