Not everyone will love their job from day one. Here's how employers can help them find more meaning in the work they do
Finding a job that pays the bills is one thing. Finding work that feels meaningful and enjoyable is another, and the two don't always go hand in hand. People are often told to follow their passions, but that can be difficult advice to act on when they also need a steady income and a career they can build on.
Dr. Jordan Grumet, an Illinois-based hospice physician and author of The Purpose Code, believes the choice isn't as black and white as it might seem. He expected to spend his life practicing medicine, only to discover that he was less passionate about it than he'd imagined.
"We probably can do both," he said. "We just have to be thoughtful about how we actually build and evolve our career."
Over time, Grumet found ways to focus on the parts of his work he enjoyed and build a parallel career in writing. He believes employees can take a similar approach, gradually shaping their jobs around what they do well and what gives them satisfaction, and employers can help them get there.
Skills first, passion over time
Grumet said a first job doesn't need to be a passion job. The early years of a career, he said, are the time to build skills that earn a living.
"I think you should develop, especially in the beginning, something you can make money at," he said. "And once you start doing that, you then have the rest of your career to start building in passion and excitement."
His reasoning is that young workers can't yet know what they'll enjoy, and he pointed to his own career as an example.
"I thought my whole life I was going to be a doctor, and I started doing it and realized that I was a lot less passionate about it than I thought I would be," he said. "But I wouldn't know that until I was out there practicing."
Ideally, that changes over time.
"At the beginning of your career, you may do lots of things you don't love," Grumet said. "But the idea is that that evolves over time. When you get to my age, which is in my 50s, hopefully you're doing mostly what you love."
A career leaves plenty of time to pivot, Grumet said. A 2026 Conference Board survey found 68.9% of U.S. workers were satisfied with their jobs, a 39-year high, while a 2025 YouGov report found 74% loved or liked their jobs.
Helping employees before they love the job
Even if many workers eventually grow to like or love their jobs, that doesn't mean everyone does, particularly early in their careers. Managers and HR can help employees find more satisfaction in their current roles, Grumet said, starting with a simple career inventory.
"Sit down and write all the roles and responsibilities, the things you love, the things you don't love, and list them out," Grumet said. "And then start scratching off everything you don't like. I call this the art of subtraction."
He described a restaurant employee who disliked working at the front counter but enjoyed inventory. After approaching her manager and the owner, she was allowed to handle inventory across several locations three or four days a week, while a colleague who disliked inventory took on more front-counter duties.
The arrangement benefited the restaurant, too, Grumet said, because she excelled at the work and saved the business money.
Employees can also find ways to bring interests from outside work into their existing roles. Grumet also described a friend with a well-paying corporate job she didn't love who spent her evenings and weekends researching and writing about women in corporate America.
She pitched her employer on a lunchtime seminar about women's place in the workplace. About 200 women signed up, and after several popular sessions, her employer proposed cutting her regular hours in half so she could develop similar programs.
"That's a great example of someone who stayed at the same job, worked with the same company, didn't leave what she was doing, but she brought in an outside passion and developed it enough where she was able to incorporate that into her daily job," Grumet said.
These examples show how HR can help employees find more satisfaction in their current roles without assuming they're in the wrong job or need to leave. A head of HR could discuss what employees enjoy, what drains their energy and whether there's room to adjust responsibilities or bring new interests into their work.
That requires managers to invest in their teams, too. HRD America reported that career pathing boosts retention when managers develop their teams. Wiley Workplace Intelligence research found that 76% of employees whose managers are available are excited about their workplace culture, compared with 23% whose managers never have time for their development.
Building skills as AI reshapes entry-level work
One challenge with building skills early in a career is that some of the tasks workers have traditionally learned from are increasingly being handled by AI. In a Talogy survey, 78% of 207 senior HR and talent leaders said they were worried about losing critical leadership skills as AI takes over junior tasks. Some hiring managers are also saying they'd rather invest in AI tools than hire recent graduates for entry-level roles.
Grumet compared AI's impact to the arrival of computers and email, which reduced the need for secretaries. While he acknowledged there is no perfect solution to the changes AI will bring, he suggested that taking over routine tasks could create opportunities for different kinds of work.
"I don't have a perfect solution for that," he said. "I don't think anyone else does, except to realize that that is where growth occurs, is when things change and things get a little uncomfortable."
Workers may find new opportunities in helping customers and colleagues understand AI-generated information, including why a solution works and how it can help them.
"I do believe that's where people derive a lot of joy in the workplace, is those human interactions," he said.
Not loving a job early on doesn't mean someone is destined to feel that way forever. Workers who are 22, 25 or 27 still have decades to discover what they enjoy and find new ways to build it into their careers.
"I think it's very optimistic, but also very likely," he said.
