Are you familiar with the term career alignment? It’s not a term I was always familiar with for sure, but I’m glad I know what it means and I want to make sure that you know about it too.

Career alignment, in the simplest terms is being in a career that aligns with your values. In other words, what you do for a living supports something that is deeply important to you or is something that you feel is valuable and should be valued by others. So, if you’re a vegetarian, you probably won’t be aligned with working in a meat packing plant or any other food service space where meat is produced or sold. It’s not that you couldn’t work in the industry, but it’s likely that you wouldn’t be very happy there for the long term. Remaining there long-term would be hard to reconcile in your mind and heart, even if you were working there because it was the best means of support you could find for your family.

Life circumstances can determine whether you’re in career alignment or not. Sometimes, people go to college and end up majoring in something they’re not that excited about, but it’s family tradition – doctors, lawyers, CPAs and it’s expected. You do the “right thing” and get your degree and you’re miserable in your career from the start. You try to be happy, but after a year or ten, you decide to leave to pursue something that aligns more with what you care about. Same thing can happen if you grow up in a family business situation. The family business is selling appliances, but you’re the happiest when you’re at the coffee shop working on your novel. You’re never going to be happy selling microwave ovens and working 6 or 7 days a week for 8 to 10 hours a day. Not going to happen.

If you’re working in a career or job somewhere and you feel restless, bored and frustrated you are likely out of career alignment. It doesn’t matter if you haven’t yet figured out what you want to do, you clearly know now what you don’t want to do. Especially if you’re struggling with performance, attendance or attitude issues in this environment, it could very well be that at the root of it all is this just isn’t the job or career for you. It’s nobody’s fault, but the longer you stay in this environment, the more likely you are to lose your job aka – get fired. No one really wants that, but it’s sometimes the kick in the pants we need to change course.

If this is you but you’re not certain what it is that you want to do, it’s time to do some exploring. When I work with clients, I recommend testing that can help you determine your strengths and your natural gifts and tendencies. I think that too many of us feel like we need to be or do a certain thing for work and we forget what we naturally gravitate to. Most of us, probably as kids figure out where our strengths lie – math, reading, art, athletic ability, etc., but we start to be influenced by parents, media, friends and get thrown off course. 

Another question to explore is what kind of lifestyle matters to you? What does your work environment look like? Do you like to collaborate? Do you prefer working onsite or are you ok working with others remotely? Do you work better on projects all by yourself? There are a multitude of questions to ask and things to think about in planning for your career. 

Why should you spend the time with all of this self-examination? For clarity. Without clarity, it’s easy to fall into the same thing again. You don’t have a plan – getting away from your current situation is not a plan, it’s an escape. Digging deep to get clarity just isn’t part of typical career counseling at the high school or college level – at least not that I’m aware of, and if it exists, it’s probably not to this extent and depth. 

We’re so fortunate at this time to be able to have more choices in what we do and how we make a living and a life. We can work intellectually or physically or both. We can work from home, work in an office or travel extensively for work (all things being normal…) Our parents or grandparents may not have and any choices at all. Sometimes having choices though can be overwhelming, even debilitating. If anything in this blog resonates with you and you’ve been at this place for a while now, think about working with a career coach or counselor to get things on track. It’s an investment in yourself that you’ll reap the benefit from for years to come. If you’re happier, you’re better off and so are the people around you and the people you love. An added benefit, if you have children, you’re setting a great example for them and what you learn in the process, you can pay forward to them. 

 

J