How to find a job you'll love If you want to be satisfied at work, what should you look for? Prestige, money, something you're passionate about , a corner office? Books on careers guidance often start by asking you to consider your values and desired lifestyle, and then to find a job that matches them. But why expect this approach to work? Research has shown that the only thing that's consistently present in satisfying jobs is that the work itself is mentally challenging (1)(2), suggesting that finding challenging work should be the starting point for a satisfying career. What makes for mental challenging work is broken down into five qualities (4): Independence -- how much are you able to individually decide how to go about the work? Sense of Completion -- how much does the job involve completing a whole piece of work, so that your contribution to the end product is easily visible, rather than a small part of a much larger product? Variety -- how much does the job require you to perform a range of different activities, using different skills and talents? Feedback from the job -- how much does the work itself provide clues about how well you are doing? Contribution -- how much does your work affect the wellbeing of other people? A large meta-analysis of survey results (2) showed that each correlates with job satisfaction (mean r=0.41), as well as with motivation, productivity and commitment to your employer. Job complexity and the degree of