Aligning Your Work With Your Core Values

If you don't know what you want to do for work, or you find yourself constantly dissatisfied with your jobs, it's because you haven't aligned with your Core Values.

RUMI

"What you seek, is seeking you"

Perhaps the most common concern I get from clients and students is “I don’t know what I want to do as a career?” In the past five years, I have heard this concern over and over again from people of all ages, but especially from younger people that fall into the Gen Z and late Gen Y categories. Perhaps it stems from a sense of hopelessness in which the direction of the world is spinning towards automation and AI; or perhaps we’ve been constantly fed the narrative that we can do and be anyone we wish to be ‘when we grow up’ by caregivers, media and society at large. 

None of this is to suggest that the above is exclusive to younger generations. Many people I work with are from older generations and they can also come across this dilemma later into their careers as they find dissatisfaction with their work. Whether you’re younger or older, a career “existential” crisis can come out of nowhere and spark a sense of uncertainty in the future. In both scenarios we need to exercise a reframe of your approach to career hunting. Specifically, you need to discover what your values are and how they align with the things that you want to do. 

Just because you are skilled at something, doesn’t mean you have to do it as work. Without aligning your focus on your Core Values, you will undoubtedly re-experience the same dilemma over and over again; because here you are focused on the externalities of what society has to offer you, as opposed to realizing what you want out of society. Currently, you are guided by your skills and past experiences, hence why you experience the same dissatisfaction over and over again; but your Core Values help guide you to where you truly want to be and where you will most likely find happiness in your vocation.

To uncover what your core values are, you must first understand that anything you discover about yourself is malleable. None of your findings are set in stone and they are all subject to change by nature or by the decisions you choose to make. You must never feel like you are stuck in a circumstance that you can’t exit from. If you maintain a mindset of ‘This is who I am’ or ‘This is who I’ve always been’, then you will once again find yourself in a cycle of absolutes and permanence that keeps you trapped from making meaningful changes. Change, by its nature, must be organic. When restricted to labels and established ideologies, you will never be free to become something or someone else. In order to embrace who you want to be, you must let go of who you are.

What Are Core Values?

Core Values are beliefs that you (currently) hold to be true. They are unshakable beliefs that you will not compromise on, and yet for some reason you have been compromising them for the sake of a job all your life; or if you’re just entering the work force, you have not yet uncovered within yourself. Remember, that all of this is subject to change. You are NOT your Core Values; you simply have Core Values that you are currently holding onto. 

For example: You might hold the belief that you will not kill for a living, and by extension have ruled out working for the armed forces of your country for that reason. That is you exercising a Core Value you hold with your decision to not work in the armed forces.  If the same person was to compromise that Core Value by working in the armed forces, then they would undoubtedly, at some point in their career find dissatisfaction.  The same issue applies to younger people who have not taken the time to uncover their Core Values. Assume that you are just entering the workforce and never took the time to identify what your Core Values are, and you come across an opportunity to work in the armed forces. Then assume that you are deployed somewhere in a conflict zone where you must kill as part of your job; and you do so. You’ve now risked emotional trauma and learned that killing is not something that you want to do. Except you’ve now learned this the hard way, where that risk and trauma could have been avoided all along.  The easiest way to discover the things that you want to do, is through the elimination of the things that you don’t want to do. Using the above example you can list ‘I do not want to kill’. You can now begin listing your Core Values. Below are some examples to guide you, I’ve framed them as opposites, so that they point to a direction you’d want to go towards. 

  1. I do not like group projects -> I prefer individualized work 
  2. I do not like to be cooped up in a cubicle -> I prefer to work in open spaces or outdoors
  3. I don’t want to be micromanaged ->  I like to work with trusting leadership
  4. The natural world is important to me -> I don’t want to work for a product or service that harms nature
  5. I like projects that end -> I don’t like repetitive work
  6. Socialization & meeting new people is important to me -> I need to be in the front of people
  7. I need to work with my hands in order to create -> I can’t be in a non-execution role
  8. I value inclusivity and diversity -> I can’t work in a place that doesn’t exercise that belief
  9. I need processes and systems -> I can’t work in ‘agile’ based environments
  10. Leadership accountability is important to me -> I can’t work in a place owned and operated by a single unit family

The above are just some examples to illustrate what Core Values could look like. When you identify your list, you are less likely to just click “Apply Now” in every job posting you come across. Not only are you doing yourself a favour by saving time and future dissatisfaction by not applying to every company that is offering a job, but you are also allowing more space for people whose Core Values do align with those positions; making the job hunt more breathable for everyone. 

By using your Core Values, you’re looking at jobs beyond the posting. You are asserting yourself and the value you have to offer only worthy to entities that you respect and would want to be a part of. Even if you encounter minor dissatisfactions in your role, you won’t hold anger for the company as a whole, because after all, their Core Values align with yours. Things that appear as ‘quit worthy reasons’ become trivial, because now you may get frustrated at situations, but not the whole system and everyone in it. If you are new to the work force, using your Core Values in your search for a vocation, prevents years of headaches and dissatisfaction with your life and the decisions you make. A cool product or service is not a good enough reason to work for an entity that is not aligned with the values that you hold dear. Those same products and services will become tainted once you see the inner workings of the company as you peek behind the veil. 

How to Identify Core Values

  1. Deep think and list out your core values.
  2. Remind yourself that the list is subject to change over time.
  3. Look for companies / entities that embody your Core Values
    • Focus on working your way into these companies.
      • If they are not hiring, there are other ways to network and get in. Connect with me to learn more on how to do this.
    • If looking at job posts, look into the companies to make sure there’s alignment
    • If your Core Values involve people, look up the people who are involved in the position offered and research them. More often than not, they have expressed themselves and their beliefs publicly somewhere. Don’t sweat small stuff and don’t nitpick.
  4. When applying, highlight the alignment you have with them in your opening statement and cover letter. Connect with me to learn more on how to do this.
  5. Push this narrative equally with your skills in the interview process. It’s not just about your skills, it’s about how you will add to their culture with your shared alignment. 

End The Cycle and do what you love!

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