Have you ever thought, “I just want to do something that matters”?

In today’s episode of Joy at Work, I respond to a listener who wants to leave a successful commercial career to work in the charity or not-for-profit space. If that sounds familiar—if you’re craving more purpose or impact—I invite you to pause before leaping.

I share what I’ve learned from years of working with midlife professionals who’ve felt the same longing. And I offer questions worth asking before you make a big switch. Because meaning doesn’t always come from where you work—it comes from how your work connects to who you are.

🎧 In this episode:

• Why switching to a not-for-profit role isn’t always the magic solution
• 
  
• How to uncover what’s really missing from your current work
• 
  
• The difference between industry and role misalignment
• 
  
• A practical exercise to get clearer on what you actually want
• 
  
• Why volunteering can offer more insight than job applications
• 
  

📥 Free Worksheet:

Questions Worth Asking (When You're Feeling Career Stuck)

→ Download it here

💬 Join the Free Midlife Unstuck Community

→ Join here

💡 If this episode speaks to you, share it with someone else questioning what’s next.

This is the Joy At Work podcast, and I'm Lucia Knight.

Here's this week's question from a listener.

Hi.

I've spent the last 17 years working in big commercial businesses here in the

UK, but I'm honestly tired of doing work that doesn't feel meaningful anymore.

I've decided it's time for a change.

I wanna work for a charity, an NGO, or a not-for-profit.

Somewhere I can really make a difference.

Where do I start?

Hi there, and thanks so much for this question.

First of all, I know it's deeply frustrating to feel like the work

you're doing just doesn't matter enough.

I spent the last couple of years of my former career knowing that I wanted

something different, and it's often hard to put language around that, but I hear

clients talking about it as a longing for more meaning or purpose or fulfillment.

Sure.

It's natural, especially around the midpoint of our

career to pause and ponder.

How to stop spending our valuable time on this Earth and start

investing our precious moments in the second half of our work life.

And it sounds like our listener is in that very natural phase and has decided to

work for a charity, NGO or not-for-profit.

That decision can be a powerful step towards more meaningful work.

But before I make any suggestions, here's something I've discovered from my research

and my daily work with people in your situation, and it might surprise you.

Moving into a not-for-profit organization won't automatically solve

your feelings of dissatisfaction.

It's definitely not a magic bullet towards joy at work.

In a not-for-profit organization, their mission might indeed be meaningful.

Yeah.

But your daily experience of the work still depends on a lot of other things.

The culture, the leadership, their resources, the talented people on the

ground, and probably most importantly, whether the role itself allows

you to use your unique superpowers in a way that feels energizing,

sustainable, and enjoyable to you.

It's so easy to assume that doing good work guarantees

feeling good about the work.

But if I've learned anything in my work as a psychologist specializing in work

happiness, it's that joy at work doesn't come from where you work as much as how

your work connects with who you are.

Let me say that again.

Your joy at work comes from how your work connects with who you are.

So before you leap into the not-for-profit or charity sectors,

I'd invite you to start thinking more deeply about who you are, where you

are, and where you might want to be.

Start by asking yourself why your current work doesn't feel

meaningful enough right now.

What's missing?

It feels like a lack of purpose as part of this listener's story, but

the full story will be more complex and nuanced and more personal.

It's maybe also a lack of autonomy, creativity, connection, learning,

growth, or something else.

Write a list, then add to that list what is driving you completely around the bend?

What is going on that's just a little bit jarring.

Which elements of your current work do you need to change to feel more fulfilled?

Then maybe rank that list in order of importance to you.

Then ask yourself even more questions.

Could you do exactly the same role in a not-for-profit and feel

like your work is more meaningful?

Would that make enough of a difference?

And if so, that's an easier and tactical move.

Or does your role need to change as well as the industry to become more meaningful?

If so, that's a role and an industry move simultaneously, and that's

a more strategic move that will need a more strategic approach.

Then change perspective, reflect on what kind of impact you'd

love to have, what problems in the world really connect to you.

When I work with one-to-one clients, I extract all of the problems in the world

that in any way resonate with them.

Then we narrow that very long list step by step to get to the top 21.

And then we go more practical to see which fit the lifestyle choices of

the clients, and that takes us to a smaller list of maybe seven, and

then we do something that I've never heard anyone else in the world do.

We narrow it down to the final short list by figuring out which of those

organizations need the superpowers my client possesses, because

otherwise there will be a mismatch.

And the mismatch can sort of work in the beginning because new is

sometimes good enough for a while.

But I've seen it so often where that gorgeous feeling, good feeling

that comes from working for a cause you care about dissipates slowly.

If the individual can't use many or all of their superpowers regularly.

And that can be for all sorts of possible reasons.

For example, budget constraints, a leadership style mismatch, lack of

resources or talent, or an all hands on deck mentality where everyone has

to do all kinds of work, whether it fits with their superpowers or not.

When the mismatch happens, stress can be extraordinarily

high in these organizations.

These mismatches don't take long to erode energy and that initial feel good feeling.

So doing that kind of thinking before any action taking is important.

And after you've done that kind of thinking, my number one recommendation

is that you experiment by volunteering a little bit of your time to a few

charities or not for profit organizations.

Ideally the ones that make it into your final shortlist, but honestly,

offering a little bit of your time to see inside the operations of any of

these organizations will be eye-opening.

It's a way to see how their systems work, how their fundraising works, to

get further insight into the problems they work hard to solve, and to

understand their resource constraints.

And often you get to meet the people behind the scenes.

This is real data gathering gold, the kind that you can't find by

applying to a job advertisement.

This kind of research does require a bit of time and energy investment.

Sure.

But it will inform every big decision you take from here on.

And it will save you from taking a leap of faith with your eyes wide shut.

It takes away the randomness of applying to a role in a new sector.

And frankly, it's the kind of efforts that make you stand out when if

you do apply for a role within an organization, you feel passionate about.

I hope that answers our listeners question, and if someone you care about

is talking about making a big move into the charitable or not-for-profit

sectors, forward them this episode.

I'll also include a link in the show notes to a worksheet called Questions

to Ask If You're Feeling Career Stuck.

It's one of the resources available to all members in the free never too old, never

too late midlife and stuck community.

Ultimately meaning at work isn't about changing industries.

It's about using your unique superpowers daily, finding ways to solve problems

for others that you care about, and then designing your practical

work life so that you can have the resources to live the real life you

want for yourself and your family.

That's where Joy at work lives.