[d_p]

Yeah, I feel you. Like I wrote about, I can feel myself growing toward the middle though I like to feel like I care about my company's raison d'être. On the same token, I regret seeing good candidates get passed up because of some undefinable sine qua non (I swear I don't use so many French sayings, these just happen to work).

Here are a few thoughts I have in response:

- "passion" as a term has sort of been hijacked by Silicon Valley-esque startups, particularly in B2B spaces. This is a cynical take, but how else are you going to convince someone to take crappy pay with poor chance of equity return to work on a risky idea? - passion doesn't always have to mean cause-oriented. Can you be passionate about good engineering? About boring, reliable, predictable success? Maybe there is a value you are "passionate" about but you haven't encountered many companies also passionate about that. I write about this too. It's just useful to be open-minded about defining what it means to you, but you probably do care about how you spend your time away from home - there is also the matter of being passionate about just straight up doing great work. I used to think I wouldn't like contracting or consulting, but I've met some awesome firms in Seattle and they are full of people who like swooping in, solving hard problems and moving on to the next thing

And finally there are lots of industries where "punch in, punch out" is ok. My friends working in healthcare info systems come to mind. Government work (18F and sundry contract companies) is getting more interesting.

I am totally with you about being honest. It's a good way to discover where you don't want to work. I want to recognize though it is a privileged position to being in a position where you can survive not getting or turning down a job.

Thanks for taking time from your day to read and reply!