Make Your Job a Calling: How the Psychology of Vocation Can Change Your Life at Work

Do you ever feel sick of your job? Do you ever envy those people who seem to positively love what they do? While those people head off to work with a sense of joy and purpose, for the rest of us trudging back to the office on Monday morning or to the factory for the graveyard shift or to the job site on a hundred-degree day can be an exercise in soul crushing desperation. “If only we could change jobs,” we tell ourselves, “that would make it better.” But we don’t have the right education . . . or we don’t have enough experience . . . or the economy isn’t right . . . or we can’t afford the risk right now. So we keep going back to the same old unsatisfying jobs.

The wonderful truth, though, is that almost any kind of occupation can offer any one of us a sense of calling. Regardless of where we are in our careers, we can all find joy and meaning in the work we do, from the construction zone flagger who keeps his crew safe to the corporate executive who believes that her company’s products will change the world. In Make Your Job a Calling authors Bryan J. Dik and Ryan D. Duffy explore this powerful idea and help the reader navigate the many challenges—both internal and external—that may arise along the pathway to a sense of calling at work.

Over the course of four sections, the authors define the idea of calling, review cutting-edge research on the subject, provide practical guidelines for discerning a calling at all stages of work and life, and explore what calling will look like as workplace norms continue to evolve. They also take pains to present a realistic view of the subject by unpacking the perils and challenges of pursuing one’s higher purpose, especially in an uncertain economy.

The lessons presented will resound with anyone in any line of work and will show how the power of calling can beneficially shape individuals, organizations, and society as a whole.

Bryan Dik, PhD, is associate professor of psychology at Colorado State University and cofounder and chief science officer of Career Analytics Network/jobZology. His research is primarily in the area of career development, especially perceptions of work as a calling; meaning, purpose, religion and spirituality in career decision-making and planning; measurement of vocational interests; and career development interventions. He serves on the editorial boards of six research journals, including Journal of Counseling Psychology, Journal of Vocational Behavior, and Journal of Career Assessment. He is recipient of the 2010 Early Career Professional Award from the Society for Vocational Psychology, and is coeditor of two other books: Psychology of Religion and Workplace Spirituality and Purpose and Meaning in the Workplace.

Ryan D. Duffy, PhD, is assistant professor of psychology at the University of Florida. Ryan’s research is primarily in the areas of vocational psychology and positive psychology. Topics he has studied include calling, job satisfaction, well-being, work volition, work values, and the interface of spirituality and work. He serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Career Assessment and Journal of Counseling Psychology.