Good Career Advice

The article is It May Be a Good Job, but Is It ‘Good Work’? from Sunday's New York Times. It says that a good job is "a calling that combines excellent performance, expresses one’s ethics and offers a pleasing sense of engagement."

Research shows that "people working in very challenging professions or settings who were technically excellent might find their work difficult unless it was also important to their mission in life.”

Also

"An unexpected finding was that joy was a crucial ingredient of good work."

and

"There are three questions people can ask about their jobs to evaluate their good-work level: Does it fit your values? Does it evoke excellence; are you highly competent and effective at what you do? Does it bring you that subjective barometer of engagement, joy?"

If you are looking for a job

“Decide what you really like to do and what you would like to spend your life doing. That’s more important than deciding what particular job to hold, because the employment landscape is changing radically and quickly. Then ask, ‘Where could I carry that out?’ and be very flexible about the milieu and venue — but not about what you get a kick out of and can be good at.

And then, third, if you have any choice over where to work, when you’re considering a job, go there and talk to people. Ask yourself, ‘Is this the kind of place where I can see myself in others?’ You might make five times more money at one place, but does it reflect who you are and who you want to be? Are my colleagues people I’d admire or people I’d prefer to avoid?”