Creating a fulfilling career goes beyond just landing a high-paying job or achieving a prestigious title. It’s about aligning your work with your core values, which can profoundly influence your satisfaction and work-life balance. Work values are the principles that drive your professional life. They can be intrinsic, like the desire to use creativity or the opportunity for continuous learning, or extrinsic, such as job security and compensation. They may be status-oriented, focussing on hierarchy and authority, or socially oriented, emphasising teamwork and contributing to the greater good.

Your work values determine how many hours you’re willing to work, your preference for remote work, your relationships with colleagues, and the balance you strike between work and leisure. Despite the fact that family, education, and culture can all have an impact on these values, research indicates that they generally hold true throughout your career. Given their lasting nature, it’s crucial to acknowledge and understand them.

Let’s consider these three essential values:

Work centrality

Work centrality refers to how important work is to your overall life satisfaction and personal identity. If someone has high work centrality, work is a significant part of who they are. Even if they won the lottery, they might continue working because stopping would disrupt their identity. Conversely, if work centrality is low, they can more easily separate work from their personal life. What happens at work doesn’t affect them as deeply. For example, imagine an individual who thrives on the challenges and identity their job provides. They might find a sabbatical disorienting, struggling with a sense of purpose without their regular work routine. 

Achievement orientation

Achievement orientation is one’s personal drive to succeed. It determines how hard someone is willing to push, the risks they are willing to take, and the ambitious goals they set. If someone is highly achievement-oriented, they may pursue challenging career goals even if financial necessity isn’t a factor, such as after winning the lottery.  Consider a person who has always dreamed of building a successful tech startup. They continue to put in long hours even after achieving financial security because they want to lead their sector and innovate. In contrast, another person might find satisfaction in a stable, less demanding job that allows them to focus on personal fulfilment and leisure.

Comfort with work-life overlap

Comfort with work-life overlap influences how one balances their career with family and social life. Some people prefer to keep personal matters private at work and maintain separate circles for business and personal relationships. Others enjoy integrating their personal and professional lives, sharing significant events with colleagues, and blending their social circles.

Imagine a marketing executive who thrives on social connections, frequently hosting dinner parties for colleagues and discussing work projects with friends and family. For them, a seamless blend of work and personal life is fulfilling. In contrast, a financial analyst who values clear boundaries might rarely socialise with coworkers outside the office and keep their personal life private, finding solace in the separation of their professional and personal spheres.

The more one understands their career-related values, the more consciously they can navigate career decisions. Early in a career, time and experience might be needed to identify these values. As a career progresses, values may evolve with life circumstances. Recognising and embracing these changes can guide decisions that reflect one’s true self.  By aligning a career with core values, one can create a path that not only meets professional goals but also enriches personal life. 

Embrace your unique values and let them lead you to a career that will allow you to live for a living!  

You can assess your work values for free at www.myJournii.com.

Paula Caligiuri, PhD is a DMSB Distinguished Professor at Northeastern University and the co-author of Live for a Living (with Andy Palmer).  She and Andy Palmer co-founded Skiilify.