The Perfect Job

I remember when I was entering the workforce people were always talking about how important it was to “find your calling.”

Find your calling. Now there’s an interesting idea. It’s based on the premise that there is a perfect job out there where your passion, skills, and needs align with what you do.

I did a Google search for “find my calling” just to see how much interest there is in the idea. Turns out it’s big—big as in 9.5 million results in 0.75 seconds.

But what does find my calling really mean? I’ve spent over 20 years reflecting on what my calling is. As a child, I wanted to be a superhero. While I knew superheroes weren’t real, the idea of being the protector of a city or the world was something that I wanted to be.

Helping people was my passion, and this drew me to the idea of being a superhero. Well, that and being able to shoot laser beams from my eyes, which is just awesome.

So at a young age, I was lucky enough to know what my passion was. Through my teens and early adult life, I became aware of my skills. I have a knack for problem solving. I’m quick at finding patterns in what appears to be chaos. I’m fairly good at stripping away superfluous information to find the information necessary to solve a problem. I can make intuitive leaps that, more often than not, are correct, although I will be the first to admit that when I’m wrong, I’m really wrong!

I’m also very good at working with people. I can fit in with most groups of people, seamlessly and with little to no effort.  And in spite of my grumblings from time to time, I enjoy interacting with people.

When I think of my needs, of course there is the monetary element. I need a paycheque. There are bills to pay, food to buy—toys to be had.

Although money is important, it is not my highest priority when thinking about the perfect job. For me, there is something that is far more important: the work environment.

Am I respected? Do I have enough freedom to perform my job to my fullest capability or am I being micromanaged? Is my workplace an environment of fear—where a mistake can cost me my job—or is it a place where mistakes are viewed as a learning opportunity?

So where did I end up after years of trying to find my calling? I’m the guy who fixes computers.

But is this my calling? Well, let’s take a look at my passion, skills, and needs and see if they align with what I do.

Passion

I know it may be hard to believe, but some aspects of IT work can be incredibly mundane. I won’t bore you with details but, on occasion, I’ve thought that a pen to the eye would be far better than whatever menial task I was working on at that moment. But what matters is that I spend my day helping people, and this fulfills my passion.

Skills

Yup, IT work definitely fits my skillset. The work I do is all about problem solving and being able to find the root cause of an issue quickly. This means stripping away information that’s not needed—but has been provided anyway—and asking the right questions to fix the problem. Most times, troubleshooting requires a methodical approach, but when that fails, pattern recognition and intuition play a huge role.

Needs (work environment)

The work I do cannot be micromanaged, mainly because priorities shift from one moment to another. I may be working on a printer that is acting up, only to have to stop because the phones are no longer working. I’m part of an incredible team that celebrates successes and views mistakes as learning opportunities, although there is definitely a bit of good-natured ribbing when a mistake is made—we just make sure the ribbing does not happen too soon afterward!

I can say with certainty that, as a child, I never imagined myself as the guy who fixes computers. Part of the reason is because PCs were not as ubiquitous then as they are today. But the main reason is that the job of a service desk analyst is not glamorous. Then again, I don’t see the word “glamorous” anywhere in the definition of calling.

I may not have the perfect job, but my passion to do more, to be of more help to others, to pursue my calling drives me to be better at what I do. The irony is that even though what I do fulfills the definition of calling, I don’t know if the work I’m currently doing is my true calling. I still wrestle with this existential dilemma. I still wish I could be a superhero.