I enjoy problem solving. That's essentially what I do for work. The hard and soft skills get a bit more involved than that, but at the end of the day, I get paid to solve problems. In fact, we all do.
My profession goes by many names: Web Developer / Programmer / Software Developer / Software Engineer. Here, I consider myself a Tech Solutions Specialist. There's nothing special about that title that sets me apart from any of the others, I simply feels it describes what I do the clearest. I specialize in providing technical solutions to problems.
We aren't all in engineering though. Teachers solve the problem that none of us are born knowing how to read or count (among other things). QA technicians solve the problem of imperfection. They guarantee a standard and report it when the standard is not met. People who work on an assembly line solve the problem that the thing won't build itself. Even with machinery, things go wrong and there's usually at least a few people who are needed to make sure the machine has what it needs to do its job. Even people who play video games on video for a living solve a problem people are willing to shell out lots of money for: entertainment. It's not just them either. Even the lowest paid professional athletes out there make more money than most of us because they contribute to an industry dedicated to providing entertainment.
Business interests me, and what I have come to learn about successful businesses is that they succeed because they solve problems. The ones that fail often are the ones who set out to rival already successful businesses. They are trying to solve a problem that has already been solved. I think that is the wrong mindset. If I set out to simply compete in a market that already has a great solution, whose problem am I solving? Instead, I think the way to go about is to provide an alternative for specific problems. I like to look at the HEY! email product. On their homepage, their big banner says "We finally fixed email!". They didn't set out to compete with Gmail, Outlook, or Apple, they provided an alternative for people who didn't like those options with solutions to some of the issues people have with those providers like privacy and spam. The tradeoff? It costs to use. But for those who decide that solving those problems is worth a monthly fee, it is worth it.
I look myself as a hireable individual in a similar light. There are a lot of smart people out there who have the same or better hard skills that I do. A common problem within my industry, however, is getting someone with the soft skills. There are a ton of people who can bring your idea to reality, but I hear over and over again of just how difficult and annoying it can be to work with someone's website person or the senior engineer on the team. It's a shame, really, because the issue is, more often than not, communication. In my experience, clients, business owners, product managers, team leads, and coworkers just want to hear it like it is. A problem exists and you need to propose a solution. But that solution often has constraints, risks, unknowns, and tradeoffs. It is important to make that known! TELL THEM! As a hired gun and not a decision-maker, it is important give the decision makers as much information as possible to make the best decisions. Their business depends on it! Your professional relationship and sustained work depends on it! And I'm not only talking about technical issues, I'm talking about issues within your own capabilities. If you are a development expert and a design novice, make sure the decision maker knows how to best use your talents. I could go on, but suffice to say that these soft skills are crucial to fantastic, lasting professional relationships. And those relationships are the difference between landing more clients, being hired quickly after a layoff, or even keeping a job.
There are a lot of problems out there. Solve them.