Example: Five Whys for Career Dissatisfaction

See how one person used the Five Whys framework to uncover the root cause of job dissatisfaction and make a better career decision.

How one person used Five Whys to discover their job dissatisfaction was actually about misaligned values, not the work itself.

The situation

Sarah, a software engineer at a FAANG company, felt increasingly unhappy at work but couldn't articulate why.

She was well-paid, worked with smart people, and had excellent benefits. On paper, everything was great.

Before deciding to quit, she used Five Whys to dig deeper.

The Five Whys process

Problem: "I'm unhappy at work."
Why #1: "Why are you unhappy?" → "I dread Monday mornings."
Why #2: "Why do you dread Monday?" → "My work feels meaningless."
Why #3: "Why does it feel meaningless?" → "I'm building features no one uses."
Why #4: "Why are you building unused features?" → "Product decisions are driven by metrics, not user problems."
Why #5: "Why are decisions metric-driven?" → "Company culture prioritizes growth metrics over impact."

The insight

Sarah realized the root cause wasn't the job itself—it was a misalignment between her values (user impact) and the company's priorities (growth metrics).

This was a systemic issue she couldn't fix from her position.

The decision

Instead of quitting immediately, Sarah tried two things:

Internal transfer: She explored teams focused on user experience and accessibility—areas more aligned with her values.

Side projects: She started contributing to open source on weekends to get her "impact fix."

After 3 months, the internal transfer didn't pan out (no openings), but side projects helped her realize she wanted to work at a mission-driven company.

She eventually left for a smaller startup building tools for nonprofits—lower pay, but much higher alignment.

Key takeaway

By using Five Whys, Sarah avoided a knee-jerk quit and understood the real problem: values misalignment.

This helped her make a more intentional career move to a place where she could do meaningful work.