Obviously it can be a bit of both. I’m sure a lot of those guys on Wall Street get off on the high stakes, competitive environment along with all of the benefits to being wealthy. On the other hand, some people choose jobs that don’t pay much but give them a high degree of satisfaction. But I surmise that most people, particularly men, are mainly motivated extrinsically in their jobs to provide for their families, to maintain a certain lifestyle, or simply to survive.
I’m a primary school teacher and I love my job. I get great satisfaction from my interactions with the students and seeing them grow as a person.
I’m a software developer of about 8 years, and I do genuinely enjoy software development, but I do not enjoy the “job”. The concept of working on something I don’t really care about to make money for a company I don’t really care about when I hypothetically could be doing literally anything else with my relatively short time on this planet is frequently soul crushing. The pay does keep my family afloat though. I’m hopeful one day to find a field of software development that genuinely interests me or provides some value to my community or the environment. Until then, I struggle.
My partner and I both have jobs that “could” support both of us if one of us lost our job. Personally, my job is fulfilling about 30% of the time and the rest is just getting the paycheck. Thankfully, I really only work about two of my expected eight hours so it’s a pretty good deal lol.
It’s perfectly possible to have both a reasonable salary as well as intrinsic satisfaction.
However, I will say that getting both of those characteristics together is far more likely with a skilled job compared to an unskilled job (i.e. jobs that require specific training and/or degrees).
My most satisfying job was as a math tutor. In my current job I’m a lead with a small team of devs and my days are mostly meetings. At the end of the day I’m so drained I don’t want to do anything at all.
Both required training and skill but the lead position requires a degree and tutoring math won’t pay the bills.
I’m working in gaming, which is pretty interesting, and you meet cool people. It’s not the best paying job in the world, but it’s a good job. Plus since it’s in Tokyo, I get to buy stuff I wouldn’t find where I live, which is a nice bonus.
I only get that satisfaction when I directly help someone, which is pretty rare in my current role. But it pays the best of any job I’ve had.
Mainly I dread work and it stresses me out. I wouldn’t be doing this job at all if I didn’t have people relying on me.
