[chrisdbanks]

I would also add to this.

Aligning your personal goals with your company's mission can be a game-changer in achieving both professional success and personal fulfillment. When your values and objectives resonate with those of your employer, every project becomes more meaningful, and motivation naturally increases.

Your personal goals become much easier to achieve, and you have more fun achieving the company goals because they're also helping you.

[RandomThoughts3]

> Aligning your personal goals with your company's mission can be a game-changer in achieving both professional success and personal fulfillment.

That’s a fairly dangerous way of doing thing in my experience. Unless it’s your company, you have very little say in what the company actually does.

Generally speaking, I advocate keeping a sane distance between what you do for a living and the rest of your life. You are not defined by the company that pays you.

Find a job which helps you achieve what you want to achieve, work honestly and leave work at work.

[KolenCh]

Not an expert here, so I'll quote one from the highlights I have reading the following book:

“Harsh as this sounds, if you’re not in the right job—a job that is moving you toward where you want to be in life—then you’re wasting almost all the time you’re spending at work.” “First, “you should do what you love” means finding work that “matches well with your expertise, your creative thinking skills, and your strongest intrinsic motivations.” Intrinsic motivation means liking the substance of the work for its own sake. The second part, “you should love what you do,” means “finding a work environment that will allow you to retain that intrinsic motivational focus, while supporting your exploration of new ideas.”

Excerpt From 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think Laura Vanderkam

[sgarland]

> You are not defined by the company that pays you. Find a job which helps you achieve what you want to achieve, work honestly and leave work at work.

I am genuinely _fascinated_ with RDBMS. I tinker with them in my free time. I watch syscalls during reads and writes to better understand what’s happening. I test theories when someone asserts “Postgres is better at X than MySQL” to see if they’re correct.

The fact that I get paid quite well to run DBs is an absolute dream.

[foobarchu]

My interpretation of this was that it's really nice to believe in the companies mission, and even nicer if your own goals happen to match it. This probably isn't possible at most generic "tech" companies, but for a lot of more domain-specific company it totally is without making your a stooge.

[refurb]

> Aligning your personal goals with your company's mission can be a game-changer

Maybe it's my own experience, but I've never worked for a company whose mission didn't funnel down to "make money".

They might play lip service to "changing the world", "make products customers love" or "engineering excellence", but they were all done for the purpose of making money and would often be dropped without discussion if it impacted the bottom line.

I could see how industry selection could align with personal value (e.g. weapons versus healthcare), or if a company invests a lot in technical skill (because they think it makes them more money) and provide you with an environment to gain skills you personally want to gain, but in the end it all comes down to money.

Not to be overly cynical, I'm just sharing my own experience.

My personal approach is to go in eyes wide open (it's all about money), figure out what I want to get out of the job, and take advantage when the two overlap. But the entire time knowing it's likely temporary and to be prepared to jump ship if things change.

[phreeza]

It's a two edged sword though in my experience, because it can lead to self-exploitation. I found it much easier to separate work from private life in jobs where I didn't personally identify with the outcomes.

[iamEAP]

This is a great perspective.

I believe that great leaders facilitate this, whether by setting a meaningful mission in the first place, or by aligning company needs with the personal beliefs and needs of individuals in a team.

That being said! I think the likelihood that you land at a company with a mission that truly aligns with your own is approximately the same as the likelihood your equity ends up being worth a damn at the end of the day.

Cherish it id you’ve got it.

[Traubenfuchs]

This makes me wonder, as a misanthropic European software engineer, what would be the best way to get into the weapons or (governmental) surveillance industry?

[PradeetPatel]

It really depends on the level of seniority.

If you are applying for a junior role, I don't know much about Europe, but in India the defence and security sector often have internship programmes for university students.

Alternatively, same as all other jobs, keep your eye open and make sure your CV and cover letter is catered towards the job.

You don't need to be a misanthrope to work in defence and security. Despite the bad PR, it's comforting knowing that your work is making the world a safer place.

[e4325f]

Add /s for the Americans, it'll go over their heads otherwise!

[RandomThoughts3]

The same way than any other companies: they advertise the positions they are looking for.

But you will find very little misanthropy there. The salaries are not that great so most of the engineers are either genuinely interested in the complexity of what they build (aerospace and naval is often like that) or invested in the mission (serving the nation).

[anon22981]

I’m not sure what kind of an answer you are looking for, but a simple one is to apply for jobs in the fields you are interested in.

[appendix-rock]

Amen to that. I work for an organisation that operates in a sector that I care about deeply. I am a high performer, but ‘doing well at work’ is more a byproduct of me following my passion.