Arthur C. Brooks says the best jobs have two things: earned success, where your value is recognized based on merit rather than tenure, and service to others, where you see directly how you help people. You want to feel both excited and scared about the role.
How do you decide on a new job? There's a lot of gut that goes into that one. You need a combination of excitement and fear when you're going into something. But once you actually have the right combination of excitement and fear about your new opportunity, what should you be looking for? And the answer is 2 things. 2 things are associated with you getting happier in your new job. One is what we call earned success, and the other is service to others. Earned success is the feeling that you're creating value with your life and value in the lives of other people, and it's being recognized and acknowledged. That's why merit-based systems are king. Everything else is garbage. Tenure-based systems are garbage. Loyalty-based systems are the worst. If you hang around long enough, you get rewarded, or if you kiss up to the boss, those are horrible for morale. Merit-based systems lead to the highest morale. And the way to think about merit is not just hard work and personal responsibility, it's creating value. For whom? That leads to the second criterion: others, people who need you. The essence of dignity in human life is being needed. Being unnecessary is the basis of despair. And people know when they're not needed. It's horrible, it's despairing. That's how work brings joy, by serving other people, because you are actually needed. Look for something where you know who needs you, know who needs what you're actually doing, and you have some exposure, direct exposure to those people. Those will be the most satisfying jobs. And even on the worst day, you'll go home and you'll say, somebody needed me. And that's really what you want. Earn your success and serve other people.
