The quest to finding professional happiness

"If you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life."

We've all heard it before, right?

The famous quote that makes us all strive to find something we truly 'love' to do. Something worth our time and attention.

To me, this is inaccurate.

Our lives are much more complex than simply the 'work' we do, or the 'what'. There are many aspects that interconnect with said 'what' that cause us to like what we do more, or less.

We are complex organisms that are unable to perfectly compartmentalize all aspects of our lives. What this means is that how much you love what you do goes beyond the work itself.

What else matters?

Primarily, the people you do the work with, the environment in which you do said work and whether you feel what you do enables you to live the lifestyle you want (i.e., are you getting enough total compensation).

Given that there are so many factors beyond just the work, I am going to share with you how I intentionally assessed all these interconnected aspects, so that I could find professional happiness.

Spoiler alert: it wasn't just about finding a job I loved.

The work.

I started my career out in Management Consulting.

When I was in my business undergraduate program at Queen's University, it felt that there were two paths most desired: Investment Banking and Management Consulting. If you could get into one of those, you would be set.

I loved the idea of Consulting. Getting to work on different problems, with different people, across different industries. What really sold me was an event during my second year of school, where Monitor Group (pre Deloitte acquisition) had come to speak. One of the consultants shared about a water project in Africa she had been working on, focused on innovative ways to support communities. I have always been passionate about helping people and this sounded like a dream come true.

As I was getting closer to graduation though, I had an inkling that perhaps I would prefer Human Capital Consulting as opposed to Strategy Consulting. There was one problem -- I cared too much about what people thought and Strategy Consulting was definitely regarded as the 'better' choice coming out of a business program.

In my first year of Consulting, I got involved with running on-campus recruitment at Queen's, and in my second year, I led on-campus recruitment. I was doing this side of desk, on top of all my case work. I went over to Kingston from Toronto eight weekends in one year, for case competitions, industry nights, basically anything I could do to help us build our brand on campus.

As much as I was enjoying Strategy Consulting (I would recommend it to anyone as a place to start out their career!), I felt my brain would always focus on the people implications of all my case work. Further to that, I felt a deep passion for recruiting new consultants into the business. I brought in some of the best and brightest and was proud each time a candidate got an offer.

When I was getting close to 3 years at Deloitte, I started to think about what was next. The truth is, I was unsure. I thought maybe an MBA, maybe going to work in industry. Then, Instagram targeted ads got to me. They knew I was exploring and Remote Year came up.

12-months around the world, bring a job and work remotely. Back then, I didn't even know what remote work truly was. The idea of getting to explore different cultures and markets though was highly appealing.

I did a year around the world as a digital nomad and as expected, it changed my life.

I had my own consulting clients, worked for a start-up and ultimately co-founded an HR tech company. I realized that I could turn my passion for recruitment and candidate selection into a business.

Honestly, I was highly unprepared to be a CEO and a Founder. I think that is the case for most first-time founders. Jumping in though was an incredible experience. I spoke with HR Leaders from around the world about their biggest challenges and built a solution alongside a small team that I was super proud of.

Ultimately, our start-up didn't end up working. One of the big things that the experience did though, was show me that there was so much more to the HR space than I thought. It solidified that strategic thinking is an essential part of running the people side of a business and enabled me to see that this was a space I could thrive in.

After a couple of roles in the People & Culture (P&C) space, I started my MBA while working. The program opened my mind to more exploration. At the time, I was the Director of People Ops at a tech company. I liked what I was doing but couldn't quite point to what was missing. I ended up making a list of people I wanted to meet and questions I wanted to ask them and started reaching out on LinkedIn. I spoke with ~20 other leaders in the P&C space to learn about their roles. I asked the same questions to each person and after each conversation, rated how much I thought I'd enjoy their role and why. There was one person that described a role which I rated highest. They said that about 80% of their role was spent on P&C and 20% of their role was business strategy alongside the rest of the executive team of the organization. Although they led the people component of the business, they also contributed to the company strategy and direction. I rated his role the highest, at a 9.5 out of 10.

About half way through my MBA, I was very close to going back to Management Consulting. I had met a few partners at Deloitte I loved in the Human Capital practice and was keen on reconsidering that path. I didn't go into the MBA thinking I'd switch jobs, but my career coach at the time framed it well. If I was willing to consider this opportunity, maybe I should be open to others.

I found PolicyMe through LinkedIn. Someone I'd gone to undergrad with had shared about how much he was liking his experience in a LinkedIn post, and I started following one of the founders. The company happened to be looking for its first Head of People. After meeting Laura, PolicyMe's COO, I was super impressed. It turned out the feeling was mutual, and she found time for me to meet Drew, PolicyMe CEO, Jeff, PolicyMe CTO and the rest of the leadership team within the week. 

Speed though, was not what sold me. It was the work.

This role would be ~80% people strategy and ~20% broader company strategy. I would be part of an executive team where I could contribute in the way that I wanted.

I was sold on the role itself.

Nearly a year later, that expectation has been a reality every step of the way. All the time I took to analyze exactly what type of People & Culture role I wanted enabled me to find one where the work I do is super meaningful to me.

Summary: The more clear you are on the type of work you enjoy doing the more likely you are to find happiness in the work. Although some roles may have similar titles, the work itself might be different, it is important to ask questions to uncover those differences and similarities.

The people.

Beyond the type of work, what sold me about PolicyMe was that I admired each person I met that comprised the organization's Leadership team.

For me to love what I do, I need to be surrounded by humans that I feel proud to work alongside. I value a few specific traits most:

(1) High Performance. I am most motivated by working alongside brilliant, driven people that push my thinking. Individuals that have ideas that I didn't think of, that make unique connections in their brains that lead to innovation and that are passionate about finding solutions to difficult problems.

(2) Empathy. I do best with humans who can relate well to one another. Who can put themselves in the shoes of those they work with and the clients they serve.

(3) Humility. I admire humans who have achieved so much, yet, approach everyone the same. Individuals who care to listen, can admit when they are wrong, and believe that ideas can come from anywhere.

These humans are not everywhere. Every time someone asks me about why I love working at PolicyMe, the people are what I share near the top of my list. I work with some of the most high performing, yet empathetic and humble people I've ever met.

They bring me joy daily.

Most importantly, we are there to support one another. We are building an environment where people can communicate when things are working well and when they aren't. I strive to build a culture where people truly feel they can deliver their best work.

I've looked for these types of humans every time that I've taken a role at an organization. If I don't feel these traits come through in those whom I meet, I do not consider working at that company.

Summary: It is important to know the types of people YOU work with best. It isn't the same for everyone and finding a company and a culture where you feel that there are people you admire and want to work alongside will make it so that you enjoy your day to day so much more.

The environment.

There are two characteristics that are a must for me in terms of environment. Both are equally important and without them I would not consider an opportunity. For anyone that knows me, the first one will be no surprise: remote work.

I am amazed by how much the way we work has changed in the last few years. Although I tried remote work ahead of the pandemic, I never imagined that by 2022, it would become so mainstream. Back in 2018 it was hard to find many remote-friendly opportunities. Now, we live in a different professional world. Many organizations are open to letting their employees work from wherever they choose to.

Why does this matter to me?

Working and travelling at the same time is inspiring for me. I love changing scenery, exploring different cultures and environments globally. I have learned that I am a visual person and seeing new places leads to more creative thinking for me. I started writing this piece from a café in London, England. When I looked out the window, I was inspired by the 2-tier red buses, the rain and the architecture. When I listened to people around me, I loved hearing the different accents. I am finishing this piece from a Chateau in France, where I am engulfed by nature, a whole new set of accents and scenery that feels like out of a fairy tale.

Further to the different scenery, being able to have time to think in the mornings while working from Europe has been incredible. These mornings are treasures. I adapt to North American hours because I see remote work as a huge privilege. Working at 11pm on a Friday in Paris is no problem for me, when I get to spend the mornings at the Eiffel Tower and the weekends at Sacre Coeur eating pastries.

I often get asked about my plan for once I have school-aged kids. I hope that by then, remote schooling is more common too. That said, I try to focus on the near-term more than the long-term in terms of professional happiness. The world changes so much in 5 years, I think it makes sense to plan in 12-24 month chunks.

The second and equally important environment consideration for me is flexibility.

I say that one of the big reasons I love my job is that I have the most responsibility and the most flexibility I've ever had. What does flexibility mean to me? The short version is that I have control over my days. There are meetings I need to be at and yes, my days generally are quite full but I feel like I have autonomy to manage each and every day. If I want to go for a morning walk, I can. If I want to go for an afternoon workout, I can. If I want to work in the evenings, I can. Flexibility means finding an organization where you are focused on deliverables not monitoring when you work.

To me, remote work and flexibility go hand in hand and are a must for me loving what I do.

Summary: having the perfect setting looks different for different people. It is important to know what types of environments work best for you. You find that by exploring different types of settings and analyzing how you feel and how you work in the different situations.

The compensation.

I'm going to keep it simple here because I look at compensation quite objectively.

Do I have enough to live the life I want to live and save for the future that I want? In the market we live in, there will always be sexier offers. I've gotten them and don't get me wrong, they are tempting sometimes. However, I do not believe professional happiness comes from getting the most money. Compensation matters, up to a certain point. Beyond that, the work, the people and the environment matter so much more.

Please note that this is my perspective. Some individuals are much more motivated by compensation. If this is you, consider this differently than I do!

Summary: ideally, you should find a role where you feel happy with your pay. I encourage you to think about how much compensation you actually need, versus looking at external factors. There will likely always be other jobs that pay more.

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In summary, we are all different and the meaning of 'having it all' is not the same for each human. Taking the time to explore and assess what matters to us is the key to finding professional happiness. Thinking about the four areas above and what you value most in each bucket, can help you get there.

My final words of wisdom -- aim for an average of 80% happiness.

It is healthy to have 20% you question. It pushes you to keep challenging what you do, how you work, who you work with and for. If you find something that makes you 100% happy all of the time, be weary of something that might be too good to be true. You may have blind spots. A job where you are at a steady 80% with upswings to 100% and downswings to 50% is healthier in the long term.

If you made it to the end of this long article, you are awesome!! Feel free to comment or send me a message after you are done. I'd love to hear if there is anything that resonated with you most.

#happiness #people #careers