DEV Community: Destiny Timothy

Your Job shouldn't give you meaning, Your meaning should give you a job.

Destiny Timothy — Sat, 11 Apr 2026 17:00:36 +0000

Your Job Is Not Your Meaning, sounds weird right? (it probably didn't, but let's continue)

It’s been a while since I wrote an article here on Dev.to (missed me?)
I’m honestly not a big reader of articles, or books generally... But here I am again — writing. Or at least trying to write.

For the past few weeks, I’ve had this dilemma in my head. I’ve been trying to figure out the age old question, "the meaning of my life" and what exactly I want to do with the rest of my life.

A major reason is because I'm in my final year in school, and In the next few months I’ll be done with university. I’ll be stepping into that stage of life where adulthood really starts — the stage where there are so many options, so many paths, and nothing feels fully planned out anymore.

On top of that, we already know computer science is becoming a VERY saturated workspace generally.

So I kept asking myself:

What job do I want to do?
What do I do for the rest of my life?
What is the meaning of my life?

I’m the kind of person who likes to look at things from the big picture. So naturally, I started thinking about money too (because I need money #bringdeals). So I thought "Am I just choosing a job just because of money?"

Is the entire existence of my life just to work, make money, and then make more money again?

I don’t think so. It has to more than that. (Right?)

I feel like human beings exist for more than that. My existence should be beyond how much I have in my bank account. The definition of happiness and life's purpose should be bigger than money.

So I started thinking deeper.

What do I want to do with my life?
What is that thing I would do If money was never a problem?

And strangely, every time I asked myself that question, I noticed something interesting happening.

Every time I thought about the meaning of my life, I automatically attached it to a job role.

Again and again.

Until I realized something important:

I was looking at everything the wrong way.

Purpose Is Not the Same as Function

"Your purpose is not your function".

Destiny Timothy, 2026

Your job role is not the meaning of your life.

We live in a world where people are identified by their function.

Instead of being identified as a person, you’re called:

Doctor this
Engineer that

Instead of being Samuel, you become Engineer Sam.
Instead of being Sullivan, you become Dr. Sullivan.
(Remember Sullivan from Monsters Inc? It's a good movie, you should check it out. Anyway, back to the story)

Your job role becomes attached to your identity so strongly that some people begin to mistake their job for the meaning of their entire existence.

And I realized I was doing the same thing.

Even though I’m already a product manager and a developer, it still didn’t feel like enough to answer the deeper question:

What is my meaning?

Then something clicked inside my head.

*The job has to match the being — not the being matching the job.
*

Whatever job you choose should express who you are. You shouldn’t reverse-engineer your personality just to fit inside a job role.

Why We Confuse Meaning With Job Titles

The reason many of us attach meaning to job roles is because we’ve been told that what we do professionally is who we are.

But what is meaning?

Meaning is simply the answer to this question:

Why does this matter to me?

That’s it.

A job role is just a delivery mechanism. It’s one way meaning expresses itself in the physical world — but it isn’t the meaning itself.

Meaning lives somewhere deeper.

It lives in what you feel called toward.
In what makes you feel like you.

Meaning is the quality of aliveness you feel while doing something.

When you’re building an app and don't even realise time disappearing.
When you hear positive user feedback and something moves through you.
When you tell a story and someone feels seen — that’s meaning.

The job that pays you to do those things is just the container.

The meaning existed before the job did.

Discovering My Own “Why”

So I started looking at everything I’m interested in.

Apart from being a product manager and developer, I’m also:

a UI/UX designer

a graphic designer

a content creator (you should check out my YouTube channel)

someone who loves art

someone who loves music

someone who plays the piano

And I kept asking myself:

Which one of these is my "purpose"?

Which one is the core essence of my being?

Then I realized something powerful:

"Your job shouldn’t give you meaning. Your meaning should create your job."

Let me say that again.

Your job shouldn’t give you meaning.
Your meaning should create your job.

The meaning of your life — your purpose — is simply your why.

Not "why this..."
Not "why that..."
Just:

Why?

That’s it.

For me, I found my answer in creativity.

I love to create.
I love to build things.
I love to express myself.

There’s a part of me that the world needs to see — and the world only sees that part through creativity.

Creativity, for me, is a way of letting a part of yourself out into the world.

Meaning Is Resonance

Meaning is resonance.

Between who you are and what you’re doing.
Between what you value and how you spend your hours.

And I realized something else too:

There is no single objective meaning of life.

Meaning is subjective.

The meaning of life is something you create for yourself — because you live your life for yourself first.

So how do you discover your own meaning?

You first discover your why.

The Job Is the Vehicle, Not the Destination

Your job is not your meaning.

_Your job is a delivery mechanism for your meaning.
_
And it’s okay for delivery mechanisms to change.

Think about it like public transport.

If you’re moving from one location to another, especially here in Nigeria, you might:

enter a bus → enter a taxi → enter a motorcycle

Different vehicles.

Same destination.

That destination is your purpose.

Changing vehicles doesn’t mean you’re lost.

It just means you’re still moving.

The destination is fixed.
The vehicle is flexible.

The soul doesn’t care whether it arrives through a keyboard, a camera, an app, a website, a design tool, or a conversation like this one.

It just wants to arrive feeling like itself.

Final Thoughts

So here’s what I want all of us to learn from this.

Don’t just find a job because it pays money and then spend your entire life trying to match that role.

Start from inside yourself first.

Take away the job.
Take away the money.
Take away the title.

Then ask yourself:

Who are you?

You don't have to be a developer

Destiny Timothy — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 10:14:45 +0000

I don’t know if this is just me or the people around me, but for the majority of people, the moment they show any interest in technology or anything IT/computer-related — the first thing they’re told to learn is web development.

“Learn to code.”
“Learn to build websites”
“Learn this.”
“Learn that.”

(In my opinion, we already have too many websites on the internet)

I remember when I was in SS2, SS3 or Grade 11, Grade 12.

Back then, I loved building stuff (not coding yet, we are getting to that part).

I loved playing with electronics. I always had a battery in my bag — a 9-volt battery — and I always had light bulbs (small LED's not the one in your house). As crazy as this sounds, I even had a small solar panel in my backpack that I would carry to school and use to power the bulbs during lunchtime.

So while everyone was playing or probably talking to their potential wives, I was the nerd sitting at the back, playing with my solar panel and trying to power (it was more fun that you think, trust me).

But here’s the interesting part.

Whenever I expressed my love for tech and programming, the first thing everyone recommended to me was:

“Learn to code.”

Everybody had an opinion on what I should learn.

But one thing I later realized?

Nobody told me to research.

And I feel like that’s one of the reasons I had a lot of "discoveries" in my past few years in tech. It’s been a unique journey, but I strongly believe this applies to a majority of people.

Research First — Not Code First

The moment you realize you have an interest in tech, the first thing you should do is research.

Tech is a very vast field — and every single day, it’s getting even broader.

It’s so wide that you can’t realistically list all the roles that exist in tech.

It wasn’t until a few years ago that I even discovered what product management was. That alone shows how deep this field goes.

And the truth is:

You can’t just pick the most popular path and run with it.

There are very niche tech roles and career paths that pay extremely well, such as:

DevRel (Developer Relations)

DevOps Engineering

Site Reliability Engineering (SRE)

Solutions Architecture

Technical Product Management

Security Engineering

Machine Learning Engineering

…and many more.

There’s a Tech Role for Every Personality

One thing I strongly believe is this:

There is a tech role for every personality.

Based on who you naturally are, there is likely a place for you in tech.

If you’re someone who overthinks — there’s a role for you.

If you deal with anxiety — there’s a role for you.

If you have OCD and love overplanning — there’s a role for you.

If you like things fast and hate wasting time — there’s a role for you.

If you simply love money (let’s be honest, don't we all) — there’s a role for you too.

The key is this:

👉 Research based on what you love
👉 Research based on your personality
👉 Research based on what you’re capable of doing

Notice I didn’t just say what you like doing.

Because sometimes, what you like doing may not make you money — but what you’re capable of doing might.

Final Thoughts

Okay… I think that’s enough wisdom I’ve dropped for one day 😌

Thank you very much for reading.

I’m open to feedback — let me know what you think.

And yeah… I feel like I’m low-key getting better at this writing thing.

Have an amazing day (or night, wherever you’re reading from)

From Developer to Product Manager (But I Still Love to Code)

Destiny Timothy — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 09:54:11 +0000

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been interested in web development. It’s something I’ve been really passionate about — the fact that you can combine lines of code, mixing JavaScript with HTML and CSS.

The way people do that always felt like a mystery to me, and I was always intrigued.

As life went on, I started falling deeper in love with coding. I moved from making static websites to building low-key full-stack applications. (Low-key because I don’t usually build the backend myself — I typically use Firebase or something similar.)

Some of the most interesting projects I’ve worked on include:

AnonAnon — an anonymous messaging platform I built.

Smash or Pass — basically a platform where you create an account and vote to smash or pass on other people. If you and another person smash on each other… well, you know (very crazy, I know — but I enjoyed building it).

I’ve also made multiple AI chatbots — basically ChatGPT wrappers, if I’m being honest. I’m not even going to lie.

But yeah, I just love building. I love creating.

I’ve also worked with businesses, creating websites and all that good stuff. But at some point in my life, I had to make a decision. I had to choose the path I wanted to permanently go down.

I was also a UI/UX designer. I’ve designed a lot of interfaces, and I genuinely love designing too.

And apart from that, I’m also a people person.

I love being around people.
I love meeting new people.
I love when we talk and build things together.

And low-key… I also liked the corporate life.

Don’t get me wrong — shout out to freelancers everywhere, I love y’all. But something about the structure in a 9 to 5 just appeals to me.

So at that point in my life, I was confused.

Should I be:

A developer?

A UI/UX designer?

Quit everything and chase software roles full-time?

Focus on graphic design instead?

I was genuinely stuck.

Discovering Product Management

Everything changed when I learned about the role of a Product Manager (what felt was magical at the time).

For the first time, I properly researched what product management was. I learned what's involved in the role and everything in between — and I fell in love with it.

It felt like a role made for me.

Not only was I good at the documentation, organization, and the so-called “secretarial” side of things, but I was also a developer. So I wasn’t coming in as a product manager who knew nothing about development.

I could:

Converse with developers

Communicate with designers

Understand the product lifecycle

Because I had lived those experiences.

I’ve been a developer.
I’ve been a designer.
I’ve built platforms.

I understand that people wear multiple hats — but at this point, it became my job to make sure each hat fits the person wearing it.

Where I Am Now

I haven’t been a product manager for the longest time, but I’m very optimistic about what the future holds for me — not just as a product manager, but in tech generally.

Because honestly… tomorrow I might feel like doing something else. Who knows?

But for now, I’m a product manager, and I genuinely love what I’m doing.

One of the biggest reasons I chose product management is this:

I no longer have to be part of only the development process when building a product.

As a product manager, I’m involved from the ground up:

From ideation

To development

To design

To stakeholder meetings

To backlog management

All the way to launch and go-to-market strategy

Being a product manager feels more whole to me.

Feels I’m part of the entire product journey.

And since I love products and I love people… product management just fits.

Final Thoughts

So yeah — that’s it, had to keep this short for your attention span (and not because I'm lazy or anything).

This is my first article on Dev.to. I hope you like it. If you don’t… you might need to work on your taste, because I believe this is amazing 😌

But hey — every creator is a little narcissistic in their own way.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I really hope you enjoyed it.

I’m open to feedback — let me know what you think.

Hope you have an amazing day (or night, wherever you’re reading from).