Meaningful work to me means something that lets me challenge my skills, interact with good people, and do overall more good than harm to the world (human and natural).

My current and previous jobs have been deeply meaningful.

I currently work on autonomous vehicle software. I work with great people, am constantly challenged to deepen and expand my skills and knowledge, and I personally believe this is a place technology will improve and save human lives and decrease our stress on the environment. It is only “overall” improvement, because there will be a generation of displaced workers who will suffer, as there has been with most large economic shifts. We as a society, and I as an engineer, still don’t have an answer for them.

Previously I worked in a “personal robotics” research lab, where the goal was primarily assistive care robots and robotic arms for the people with disabilities. I found that work deeply meaningful on all counts as well.

Earlier jobs were much less meaningful. The companies were uninspiring and sometimes monopolistic, the work quickly became humdrum, and many coworkers would sooner throw you under a bus than help you, or simply did not care about the work they were doing. Like you, I realized I wasn’t satisfied.

I was able to move to more meaningful work because of three things:

• I asked myself what the hardest, more interesting problem I could work on was (my answer was non-military robotics)
• I was able to take a biiiiig pay cut and still feed my son because my wife also works and was very supportive
• Most things with impact are hard, and you’ll find lots of good folks to work with at the intersection of hard and impactful.

I usually can’t speak about my work, but this week I’m giving a talk to a university robotics club about motion planning. Trying to do more talks in general.

This is important for hiring experienced developers from different fields, specialties, and language backgrounds as well. Hire good people and they will learn or can be taught your domain and technology. I just passed a year transitioning from enterprise development to robotics. I absolutely love it, and am providing a lot of value, and it’s all because someone gave me a chance.