What You Like Doing vs What You’re Good At

I was helping a friend, an entrepreneuer with a failed startup, decide what kind of job to take up next.

I remembered a framework I read earlier: differentiate between what you like doing and what you’re good at. These need not be the same: you may be good at something but not enjoy it. Conversely, you may like something, but not be good at it yet.

Usually when you ask people what they like, they mix it up with what they’re good at, but those are two different things.

For example, here’s what I like, in order of priority:

What I Like

1. Engineering
2. UX Design
3. Engineering Management
4. Product Management
5. Research
6. Project Management

What I’m Good At

1. Engineering
2. Engineering Management
3. Project Management
4. Research
5. UX Design
6. Product Management
7. SRE/DevOps

Here’s what we can take away from this:

First, I’m an engineer at heart. At one point in my career, I wondered if I should move into UX full-time, leaving behind engineering. With the benefit of hindsight, I realise that I’m most at home in engineering, and my frustration was not with engineering but with the bureaucratic work environment in the company I worked in at that time.

Second, I like engineering both as an individual contributor [1] and as a manager.

Third, UX design is an area I want to develop in, because I like it, but I’m not good enough at it to get a job today as a full-time designer. That’s perfectly fine to recognise and, in fact, recognising it gives me an avenue for career growth should I choose to take it.

Fourth, and conversely, I’m good at project management, but don’t particularly enjoy it [2]. Again, there’s nothing wong with admitting this. We don’t need to pretend that we like everything.

Fifth, some of these may appear random. Clueless hiring managers may jump to the conclusion that you don’t know what you want. Ignore them. People’s skills don’t conform to a job ladder description written by a bureaucrat. Look for a job where your skills are appreciated rather than looked down upon.

You can apply this framework one level deeper, too, say within engineering, as an individual contributor:

What I Like/Want To Work With

1. No/low-code
2. Frontend (Vue or React)
3. Flutter (or React Native. In either case, hybrid apps)
4. Backend as a service, such as Firebase or AWS Amplify.

What I’m Good At

1. iOS
2. Backend
3. Frontend
4. Android

Notice that three of the things I’m good at I’m not particularly interested in working with. When I recognised this, I felt a loss, but better to acknowledge it, so that I can choose what technologies to work with in my next gig to position myself better for the future.

In summary, identify what you’re good at, and what you enjoy working on. These may be different, so make two lists so that you don’t confuse them. Then figure out what to work on in your next gig.

[1] Corporate-speak for someone who’s not a manager.

[2] … except when it’s coupled with another role like engineering management which I do enjoy.