EDIT: To give a vague privacy friendly answer as to what I do, it's a particular kind of IT, and it involves highly specialized purpose-built server clusters that spend most of their time on the backdeck of ships.
No, I don't feel like my job is full filling. Would I switch though? No. Why?
The people I work with are awesome
The companies culture is overall great
I feel valued and supported
So why is the job not full filling? Because I dislike and borderline hate the industry we are in: Marketing/Ads. Probably only next to fossil fuels the reason why the world we live in today sucks.
Could I go elsewhere with my skillset? Certainly. But having had terrible employers with whos' products I could somewhat identify with before, I came to the conclusion that it's not necessarily most important what you do but with who.
I really appreciate this take. Sounds like you've found a good situation. I'm sure there's not really a perfect job so you'll always have to compromise on something.
Yes, i love my job. I design substations. I feel like my work matters, and I get a thrill that I have a hand in bringing our electricity power grid to life.
We're building a data lake which is pretty boring. I try to keep myself inspired that maybe just maybe the optimizations gained from these data analytics will lead to a drop in our greenhouse gas emissions from this organization.
Can you give a practical example of what sort of data might be stored? And is all the data 'owned" by the company you work for, by one client, or by many clients?
It's all maintenance and parts data for an airline. Which is why if we do things right, there's a chance we could improve efficiency and lower carbon emissions. We own most the data as we're creating it, rest may be vendors
I would encourage anyone who is interested in this concept to do a little more reading on the concept. Ikigai is a lot more than just fulfillment with employment- which is closer to the concept known as hatarakigai. I appreciate you sharing this meme though- it was how I was first introduced to the concept.
It is if you focus on the ultimate end state, which is a very serious net human good.
But jesus, the path to making that happen can grind you down. Canyon-like process gaps in some areas, poor integration of the different business lines, every area has been short-staffed since the pandemic with no end in sight, taking on more work without an appropriate allocation of resources, etc.
Have said "Fuck this, I quit" to myself more than once, only to come back because my memory of times where I was involved in something positively life changing for some random human in my country.
Yes! I work for a non-profit, providing a highly in-demand service to my community, for free or at a reduced cost. Nobody is getting rich doing what we do, but we are actively enriching and supporting our community. It is also a fantastic foot in the door for other forms of cooperation, community support, and mutual aid.
Not all non-profits are on the level, but no company with a profit motive will ever provide the kind of environment that a good non-profit can.
Yes! Self-employed, four-day work weeks, 4-6 hours a day. Enough money to be comfortable and to put some away for later. I have to clean the place by myself on that weekday off, but that's fine. Cathartic even.
I'm an ESL instructor in South Korea. My situation did not happen overnight. I'd worked in quite a few different private and public schools before this opportunity presented itself.