Finding Purpose When Work Feels Meaningless
One of the reasons why people quit companies is because of the lack of meaning in the work. They constantly wonder, ‘why am I doing this?’, motivation suffers as a result. They burn out, work becomes transactional.
Purpose is one of the key pillars of talent retention, alongside psychological safety and clear career pathways. It's about contributing to something greater than ourselves. But here's what's changed: the generation entering the workforce watched the news or people they know contributed decades at companies that discarded them without hesitation. They saw loyalty rewarded with layoffs and burnout rewarded with nothing.
This shift adds weight to meaning and purpose up front, because they refuse to waste years on work that feels empty.
Why Purpose Matters
When I first started out, I was given tasks to carry out building impact assessments. There was a manual and a flowchart to follow, leading to yes or no answers as I progressed down the chart. I didn't question why we needed to assess over 100 buildings. What was I supposed to learn? I wasn't given answers to those questions. I just followed the steps as I was told.
My current self wonders why I wasn't more curious then. I received every instruction as truth and went on to complete the task. Now I see younger engineers with the same mindset my younger self exhibited. And I don't wish to repeat the same cycle.
But Here's the Mistake Most People Make
They think purpose is a discovery moment, where "I have found my purpose, now I'm all set!" That's not how it works.
Purpose is more like a muscle or a garden. What motivates you at 25 may not resonate when you're 45. Changes in life's circumstances, experiences, and lessons shape us into different versions as we evolve. Some seasons it blooms. Other times it withers away when you’re busy meeting deadlines. But you don’t throw the garden away. Instead, remove the weeds, nurture it differently by exposing it to different conditions so it could thrive.
How to Search for Purpose
Purpose isn't about finding a hidden treasure. You are the author of your own path, with the agency to create or rewrite your story if it doesn't serve you.
Stop waiting for clarity. Start taking charge of your career by collecting dots through action:
Volunteer for a project or task outside your team
Shadow a role you're curious about
Run a workshop on something you care about
Purpose reveals itself through pattern recognition across experiences, not through appraisals.
But exploration isn’t an excuse to abandon responsibility. When something feels off, your first job isn’t to escape, it is to engage. Give the work a fair shot. Learn it, do it well, understand the system before you critique it. Only then can you tell if it’s misalignment or just discomfort. Too many people confuse boredom with a lack of purpose, when it’s often the resistance that comes before mastery.
Accountability is part of the experiment. You can’t connect dots you never finished drawing.
As you experiment, track the evidence. Keep a list of moments when work felt meaningful versus meaningless. Notice when time disappears, when you're energised rather than depleted. Find out:
What problems are you motivated to solve repeatedly?
What would you do even if you failed multiple times?
What tasks enable you to work in a flow state (when time doesn't matter and you could keep going?)
This is an elimination exercise. Narrowing what doesn’t light you up is as valuable as finding what does. What doesn't light you up doesn't mean it's a failure. Each experience widens your perspective about how the business runs and what effort contributes to outcomes you care about.
Purpose and Non-Linear Career Paths
This connects closely to creating career pathways. I used to think the only way up was a title change. It's not a straight ladder moving upwards in a single direction: engineer, senior engineer, associate.
Purpose is not confined to a role. It's about how you contribute: Are you someone who thrives on teaching others? Develop deep technical understanding? Solving complex problems? That contribution is applicable across different roles.
Go on a journey to try different positions within your organisation. Understand how different roles contribute to the work you deliver. Assess if that lights you up. If it doesn't, it's not wasted time, it's data that helps you eliminate what doesn't fit, bringing you closer to what does.
Conclusion
Purpose isn’t handed to you or a destination. It’s shaped by what you choose to care about and your willingness to stick with it. Every project, even the boring ones, offers clues. Your job is to notice them, finish them well, and collect the dots. When you look back, those dots will form the story of how you built a career that matters.