How do you keep motivated in your career?

Thank you for your great question about staying motivated in your career! It's an important part of long-term job satisfaction and success.

For me, two main things keep me motivated: working on products I really believe in, and always trying new things so I don't get bored.

As a software engineer, what drives me most is making software that helps users in their daily lives, even in small ways. When I can see how my work does this, it makes me excited about my job. To keep this view, I often talk to our internal customers or ask our product management team about the bigger goals. Understanding the overall plan, even when it's not needed right away for my coding work, helps me imagine how people use our product and why it matters. I'm lucky that our product managers are always happy to have these talks, which really helps keep me motivated.

The second big motivator comes from my childhood love of trying new things and figuring out how they work. I think this is why I became an engineer in the first place 😄. In my job, I'm always looking for chances to learn and try new things. Sometimes this means changing what I do or taking on new tasks. Working at Nokia, which is a big company with many different projects, gives me lots of opportunities to do this.

By focusing on these two things - making useful products and always learning new things - I find that I stay motivated. This helps me face new challenges with energy and feel that my work has a purpose.