How to make SWE work fulfilling?

It's pretty rare for an engineer to be genuinely excited about the product they are working on. I literally worked on ads at Instagram. Do you think I'm super passionate about making people buy crap they don't actually need on social media? Hell no. But I loved the work, and here's why:

• Great peers - Instagram ads was full of rock stars who were also very helpful and kind. I often felt like the dumbest person in the room. This was very invigorating, motivating me to catch up and get better. Once I got better, I started taking on mentees to reshare that energy (now they're the dumbest person in the room and need to get better 🤣).
• Hard technical challenges - Instagram ads are viewed by over a billion people every month. It is a +$25 billion per year business. At that scale, even the smallest change can require 5+ pages of detailed system design planning. I love striving for perfection and getting every tiny detail correct. This was fun.
• Diverse skill building - When you're as big as FAANG, you will have a bunch of challenges besides the technical part. At Instagram, I was forced to get way, way better at more fundamental skills like communication, leadership, project management, product direction, mentorship, and more. Over time, I could feel Instagram making me a more complete engineer and even a more complete person with a broader skillset and worldview.

So to answer your question, that's how you find SWE work that is genuinely fulfilling - Look for teams that can provide you these. Affinity for the product specifically is a nice-to-have, but many people think it's absolutely necessary and the only way to unlock true passion for your work. That's completely untrue.

In my humble opinion, no job in the entire world can make you fulfilled if you don't have anything outside of work to look forward to (family, friends, SO, a hobby, etc).

I have a very simple rule for generating fulfillment from work and that's to find the next opportunity to learn something new or do something you've never done before. It could be leading a large cross-functional project. It could be mentoring a junior engineer. It could be working with a tech stack you've never worked with before, etc

Nothing kills fulfillment more than being in an environment where you aren't learning anything at all or learning something so niche and specific it doesn't translate into anything fundamental (ex. very specific frameworks, etc)

Why is SWE work not fulfilling for you?

I notice your question is very general, but imo the solution is to find a role where atleast 50% is work u enjoy, 30% dont mind, and 20% dont like

I find earlier stage companies way more fun to work at

I want to comment on your thought that fulfillment is tied to career growth. That's true to an extent; if someone is passionate about their product/service, they are more likely to drive results and make a business impact.

On the other hand, it may be "boring" things that actually cause you to grow and level-up. "Engineering excellence" is a good example: writing documentation, improving on-call experience, finding gaps in processes, reducing tech-debt and so on. Especially at a senior level, you will not achieve growth simply by completing the tasks assigned to you. You need to be pro-active in finding gaps and problems, getting buy-in from the team, and executing on that. These can often be tasks that people find "boring" or "unfulfilling".

Another option to consider is picking up a formal mentee or informally helping your coworkers in a variety of ways.

One low commitment way to do this is help them with ad hoc tech troubleshooting in areas you know well. It works well both ways because they find someone reliable to go to if they get stuck (and pick up new skills along the way) and you get to have a sense of fulfillment (and become a better teacher along the way).

Regardless of whether my projects were mission-oriented or not, one stand out aspect of my long tenure was the fulfillment I got from the mentorship my coworkers got from me!