2 months ago
- Many professionals struggle to feel useful in corporate roles that lack tangible impact, as work often feels like make-work.
- To be useful, one must honestly assess whether they want big changes or small contributions, and consider if they're willing to sacrifice for impact.
- Changing careers to teaching, government, or NGOs can provide direct usefulness, but each path has trade-offs like lower pay or slower progress.
- Working from within a company can achieve modest gains, like delaying bad decisions or helping good ideas, but major change requires top-level position.
- Volunteering, donating money, or focusing on local community work can supplement a non-impactful day job.
- Entrepreneurship offers a vehicle for usefulness but comes with significant overhead and isn't a guarantee of impact.
- It's essential to find work that genuinely excites you (the 'Monday morning test') to avoid burnout and depression.
- Be wary of greenwashing or corporate social responsibility that is mostly performative and doesn't lead to real change.
- Exploring new opportunities through meetups and events can uncover paths to usefulness you hadn't considered.
- Take action decisively to avoid getting stuck in a career rut, but carefully think through the fit and feasibility of new roles.