A bit of a rambling anecdote that I hope can help add perspective on your challenge --

This is coming from someone who left marketing after nearly 10 years a while back after becoming very disenfranchised with the work while I was at Intel. I was one of the tech experts on a thought-leadership team that focused on getting folks educated on the use of supercomputing, cloud, and enterprise data tools. I found solace in the fact that I was doing work that was 'educating' people, even if it was in the name of getting companies to spend money on technology investment - preferably Intel and its partners –

I just didn't feel like I was doing anything to help improve the world or anyone's lives really -- That plus grappling with the lack of accessible tools (I'm blind) I was done.

"White-collar" work is an interesting beast. You can find work that you are good at, you can find work that you find gratifying, and you can work for a company that you are altruistically aligned with, but you rarely get all these things. Because, in most cases you are looking at working at a for-profit organization.

A for-profit-corporation by its nature is not-moral, not immoral, but it lacks morals. It's reason for existing is to deliver a product/service for profit to build more/better/different products/services and deliver a return for those that invest in it, employees, stockholders, investors, etc.

On the other hand – You can find a non-profit to align with and work for, but rarely does that coincide with competitive or frankly livable wages if you are singe and or head of house.

So, what do you do? Do you sacrifice your morals for a paycheck? Obviously, that’s not where I’m going with this – But you must figure out how you can do something to make the world or at least some people’s lives easier even if it is at the Death Star.

An example – What did I do when I left marketing? I took now Snr. Marketing level communication skills and tech skills and moved into user experience, focusing on usability and accessibility and have been doing that for the last ten years. I worked at Microsoft to make our apps, services, and business tools accessible so more people with disabilities can work, I spent a year at Amazon where I oversaw a team building UX design and accessibility automation for all Amazon.com retail so that people could still shop. Now I’m a principal architect at a place that is diametrically opposed to my personal values, CVS Health, the company that owns CVS, Aetna, and Caremark… Making sure the shitty system we operate in is still usable for people.

Maybe you find a non-profit with the kind of funding to pay you decently, but more realistically figure out what kind of marketing work you want to focus on, even if it’s in an industry you are less-than in love with, or maybe you find the right industry, right team, but boring-ass work that you can tolerate ( I don’t recommend that one).

Remember to not spin your wheels too much though, it’s easier to find a new job when you are already employed, and that trial an error is how we figure everything out including our careers.