“What people don’t understand is that we also have the capacity to bend the job to our will,” says Dan Ariely, a psychology and behavioral economics professor at Duke University. “So if we see somebody being a good fit for their job, it’s not because this was them, this was the job, and there was a magical matching. It was probably a long process in which the person changed a little bit and the job changed a little bit.”
Ariely and other psychologists say it’s more about shaping the job you have so that it means more to you or “job crafting.” Can’t find the perfect job? Easy. Just create it. “People have a view that they need to find their ideal job in the beginning, not realizing that we change over our lives,” he said. “We learn new skills; we adapt; and also the job adapts as well.”