Stop Chasing 'Purpose' and Start Engineering Your Impact
By Noor — Your career isn't happening to you. You're happening to it. ·
Your Career Isn't Happening to You. You're Happening to It.
Look, I get it. It’s September 2026, the tech market has shifted, and everyone and their mother is having an existential crisis about their 'purpose.' I hear it every single day in my DMs: 'Noor, I’m burnt out. I’m just a cog in the machine. I need to find my true purpose before I can level up.'
Let me be real with you—the search for purpose is often just a fancy way of procrastinating. We treat 'purpose' like it’s a hidden treasure chest buried somewhere in the desert that we just haven't stumbled upon yet. We think if we find it, we’ll wake up at 5:00 AM with a smile and never look at a Jira ticket with dread again.
Spoiler alert: That’s not how it works. Purpose isn't a feeling you find; it’s a result you build.
Back when I was recruiting at Google, I saw thousands of resumes. The ones that stood out weren't from people who were 'on a spiritual journey to find their calling.' They were from people who decided what impact they wanted to have and then ruthlessly engineered their careers to make it happen. You aren't a victim of your current role. You are the architect. Let’s stop romanticizing the search and start building the reality.
Stop Waiting for a Lightning Bolt
Most people wait for a 'calling.' They wait for a moment of clarity where the heavens open and tell them whether they should be a Product Manager, a Data Scientist, or open an artisanal bakery in East Austin.
Here’s the blunt truth: If you’re waiting for a lightning bolt, you’re going to be waiting forever. Purpose is usually just the intersection of what you’re good at, what the market is willing to pay for, and what you don't find soul-crushing on a Tuesday afternoon.
I miss the grit of Detroit sometimes—the way people there just get to work without needing a permission slip from the universe. We need to bring that energy to our careers. Instead of asking 'What is my purpose?', start asking: 'What problems do I actually enjoy solving?'
The Audit: Where Are You Adding Value?
If you want to find purpose, look at your output. What projects have you done in the last two years where you actually lost track of time? Not the ones where you were just grinding to meet a deadline, but the ones where you felt like you were actually moving the needle.
Take a Saturday morning. Grab a coffee (cold brew, obviously—it’s still hot as hell in Austin), and write down your last five major work deliverables. Next to each one, write: 1. Did I enjoy the process? 2. Did I feel like I was getting better at my craft? 3. Did it solve a problem for someone else?
If you have a project that hits all three, that is your current purpose. Your goal isn't to abandon that to go find a 'higher' calling; your goal is to double down on that skill set until you are the go-to person in your industry. Purpose is found through mastery, not through existential navel-gazing.
Engineer Your 'Why' into Your Workflow
Once you’ve identified what you’re actually good at, you have to build your career around it. This is where most people fail. They find what they like, but they keep applying for roles that don't align with it because they’re chasing a title or a slightly higher salary.
I’m not saying you shouldn't get paid—I’m a career coach, I know how to negotiate—but if your 'purpose' is building systems that scale, stop applying for roles that keep you in the weeds of manual data entry. You have to be strategic. If a job doesn't allow you to exercise your 'purpose' muscles, it’s a temporary stop, not a destination. Treat it as a funding mechanism for your next, more aligned move.
The 'Detroit' Mentality in a Tech World
There’s a specific kind of toughness that comes from growing up in the Midwest. It’s the understanding that if you want something to change, you have to be the one to pick up the tools and change it.
In the tech world, we get so caught up in the 'culture' of our companies that we forget we are individual contractors of our own lives. Your employer isn't responsible for your purpose. Your manager isn't responsible for your growth. You are. If you aren't finding meaning in your day-to-day, change the work. Change the company. Change the industry. But stop acting like you don't have the agency to do it.
Purpose isn't a destination. It’s a byproduct of being intentional, getting really good at something, and solving problems that matter to you.
Stop waiting for the universe to give you a roadmap. Build the damn map yourself. You’ve got the skills, you’ve got the capacity, and you’re already in the arena. Now, stop being a passenger in your own life. You’re the one driving.
What’s one thing you’ve been doing lately that actually felt like 'you'? Let’s talk about how to turn that into your next career move. Hit reply or find me on the socials—let’s get to work.