For over 20 years, I worked at a job that sucked the life from my soul. Sounds pretty dramatic, but unfortunately, it was true. I was paid well and got great benefits. I contributed to the growth of the business and was a good mentor for the employees whom I supervised.
But it just wasn’t the right job for me.
What is the “right” job?
For many of my clients who are in early recovery, this is a daunting question. Whether you’re considering a new career or trying to get re-engaged in your current career, figuring the right move might feel like a tremendous and intimidating challenge.
Here’s the good news:
It can be as simple as asking yourself two questions.
What’s really important to me at work?
When the tasks you do at work align with your values, work actually feels easy.
Three of my top values are collaboration, humor, and integrity, so a light-hearted and supportive workplace is essential to ensuring my work feels right for me.
Right now, in addition to my private coaching practice, I’m lucky to be part of the Valiant Living team. We regularly join forces to create individualized care plans for our clients and this supports my value for collaboration. Integrity runs deeps: I can depend on team members to do what they promise and I always deliver on my commitments. While we are all deeply passionate about our work, I am grateful that we can laugh with one another and not take ourselves too seriously.
Although we work with clients who are struggling with addiction, Valiant’s culture aligns with my values and makes a very demanding job feel do-able!
- What are your top career values?
- Which teams, tasks, and companies might embody them?
- When you picture yourself in that setting, does the work feel do-able for you?
If you’d like a partner in mapping out your values and career vision, my Career Coaching program can help.
You can also complete this Career Values checklist to learn more about yourself, or read more about career values here.
What’s my personality style?
Are you beating yourself up because you think you should be enjoying work more and complaining less? It could be that your personality traits just don’t match your work environment.
Not only does personality type impact job performance, but also job satisfaction.
I am seeing a client (let’s call him Sam) who has been working in his career for 20 years, went to school for many years to learn his craft, and is paid well for the work he does—but recently found himself very burnt out. He was unhappy at work and questioning whether he’s in the right career.
In our work together, Sam came to recognize that while he’s well-respected and loves the technical side of his work, he really doesn’t enjoy the increasing number of meetings and conversations his job requires. These interactions drain him, but customers describe him as being very helpful and friendly, because he shares his knowledge with them so effectively. Sam is great at this part of his job, but it doesn’t match his personality and what truly inspires him.
Sam’s scenario perfectly demonstrates the fact that knowing your personality type is essential in choosing a career path.
So what’s your style?
You can find out more about your personality style with a simple, free, on-line assessment tool at PersonalityLingo.com. With this information you can assess how well your style matches with your current job or a new job that you’re considering.
In Sam’s case, he learned that his natural talents, love of intellectual challenges, research, and analysis suit him to working independently as often as possible. With this new insight, he’s created a plan to ensure that his responsibilities and projects moving forward are structured to include fewer conversations and more time for deep focus.
We often receive “Do what you love!” career advice from well-meaning folks who want us to be happy. The reality is many of us don’t really know what we LIKE to do, let alone LOVE to do, and as a result we don’t end up in the right jobs for us. Tackling the challenge of defining your career future while in early recovery starts with recognizing your career values and identifying the work that gives you life—as well as the work where you don’t show up as your best self.
With this vision, you can ensure that your next job “feels right.”
If you’re in recovery and looking for some guidance in building a career that feels right for you, please contact me today.
