how to choose a value-driven career/job
a living document on what my ideal job should look like
A while ago, I got to attend Values Mapping Career, an incredibly helpful workshop conducted by a brilliant friend of mine,
. I still think about it almost every day; would love to share with you my personal document on how an ideal value-driven career looks like for me as of the moment!I had used this document as an anchor to decide on which new grad offers to take over a year ago; to my surprise, the document actually still pretty much holds true for me today!
—
What is a litmus test?
A litmus test is essentially a quick and easy way we can find something out. The term comes from a specific test where a special paper turns red or blue to show if it is a liquid or a base.
In everyday life, we use “litmus test“ to mean a simple question or situation that gives a clear answer about something. For example, someone might say that knowing whether a person likes dogs or cats is a “litmus test“ about their personality. This means that one single piece of information or more can say a lot about a larger topic.
So… a career litmus test?
Yes! A career litmus test would be a collection of information that lets us know if a job/company/organization will be the best fit for us. Through this test, we will be able to have a good idea whether or not the organization will support our core values and preferences.
To get started on a career litmus test, it is crucial to ask ourselves:
What values matter to us the most?
It can be any nouns that resonate with us: autonomy, compassion or honesty. We can have as many values as we can, and we will be able to sort them into the order of importance later on for the values mapping document. For instance, at the moment, among the values of mine are stability, compassion and curiosity; so I would put these values very high on my list.
The easiest way to know what our values are to ask ourselves what we like or dislike about our previous jobs, then conceptualize the answers we gave. As an example, in one of my previous internships, I was fortunate to have an incredibly supportive manager and team who ensure I would get the information I need even without captions, and that I would always feel included in our meetings. This concrete and abstract example helps me map to an abstract concept - compassion - which becomes one of the most sought-out values in an ideal job for me.
To add to that, when I was deciding where to go for my first job, since I was an international student, the most important aspect for me would be stability. Stability comes in whether or not the company can support me in my permanent residence (PR) application, so I can stay in the country and continue studying and working. Stability also shows if I can earn a certain amount of salary that can help support myself and my family. I also value adequate career mentorship, which can help accelerate the career growth I would like to have. These values are often found very supported in big companies (10000+ employees), which have factored a great deal into how I made a decision between my job offers back then.
Now that I have been at my first full-time job for over a year, the only values that had seen any differences are stability regarding immigration and interest in product/area that I’m working on. I am no longer needing immigration support and start to value my interest in my work a lot more today. More below!
—
disclaimer: this is a living document and true to me as of now in July 2023; these values may change in the future
Anh’s Career Litmus Test
[template courtesy of Jasmine!]
[p0] must-have
If I don't have these, I will be completely unmotivated to do my job / hate myself.
Stability (Update: the need for immigration no longer applies for me, since I just received a PR :) but the value of stability still hold true! )
- Sponsorship/immigration support: ideally has a dedicated immigration team that actually works and is helpful or HR can help with filling out necessary forms (i.e my current company helps me a ton with applying for PR).
Compassion - Supportive teammates/manager
- Team culture stands heavily for kindness and openness.
- So so important to me; I rely heavily on captions + other accommodations to do my job well and patient and supportive teammates/managers will be a game changer.
Financial independence
- Enough to live my life while having savings: spending time with loved ones and doing side projects; I really would rather not think about money all the time.
- Also to send money back to my family in Vietnam; support my parents; support queer grassroot activist groups in Vietnam + support deaf education/orgs.
Career growth
- I would like to know if there are opportunities to grow in my current role: expand my responsibilities; can try out different things; has a clear path for promotion if any (swe 1 ⇒ swe 2 ⇒ mid-level? ⇒ senior ⇒ ?)
- Good mentorship! Not only makes me a better engineer but also a better person.
—
[p1] very important
These are likely to be major factors shaping my decisions about what role to take.
Work life balance
- Compared to other people I feel less inclined to code/work for more than 40 hours a week
- Want to have time for side projects, learning things, and caring for others
Good PTO, Parental Leave policy
- Not a parent but a company’s parental leave policy says a lot about how they treat their current workers
- Love love love if mental health days are treated just as important as sick days
Culture of intellectual curiosity and openness
- Co-workers are smart and give straightforward & constructive feedbacks
- People genuinely want to understand how team can do it better: are retrospective, self-motivated and inspire others to adopt good engineering practices etc
- Co-workers have passions and intellectual interests outside of work
Ownership/Autonomy
- Can own a project that i design from the ground up (but not without collaboration definitely).
- My work has impact on the organization/product/customers.
—
[p2] nice to have
Not dealbreakers, but stuff to keep in mind — perks.
Interest in product/area I’m working on (update: this has now moved to p1 - very important for me!)
- Very valid / would be ideal if i wake up every day and excited to work on (this project), but I personally think that anything can be ~interesting~ if we are curious enough/ask good questions
- The must-haves above are more important to me at the moment
- I find that I do not have to be passionate about my job
Working with interesting and smart people
- Big proponent of interdisciplinary — if people come from different backgrounds
Hybrid (remote + office)
- Remote is so fricking great because 1. Commute and 2. Meetings will have captions which is really good for my job, but I also love whiteboarding with people and seeing my co-workers/ getting motivated to do work.
Flexible schedule
- Able to block time off for focused work / not too many meetings.
Social impact
- I understand that not every company has to have the most impact on mankind/society + also am not an effective altruist who believes that I should work on the highest impact problems.
- But would be super ideal if I could work on things I am most aligned with, but these companies tend to not have adequate mentorship for junior engineers that i look for in my first job(s) out of graduation.
—-
[-p0] must avoid
Likely dealbreakers for taking a job — red/orange flags.
- Amazon, Meta & other companies whose social impact I do not align with
- Crypto + Web3 related: instability, uncertainty, tend to attract toxic working environments in my opinion (crypto bros)
- Early/mid start-ups: a lot of instability, might not have adequate support for immigration/sponsorship etc; am open to established start-ups but not what i’m actively looking for
- Inaccessible interviews: (refusing captions, expect big take-home project deliverables, absurd number of interviews in the process, etc) big red flags, will say a lot about how they can accommodate me on the job
- Located somewhere I dislike: far from major city or urban hub
- Low pay - lower than my market worth: I do not like being stressed about my financial situation.
Thanks so much for reading! Let me know if you have thoughts!
Thu Anh.
#wotn3
there are so many things that i learnt just from this one letter TA Æ¡i. this came at just the right time, i actually just quit my job days ago and I was feeling frustrated on my career path. When i read your post i immediately just started noting, reflecting, basically just started doing the test as well. Thank u!!
Thank you so muchh for documenting this so clear and detail TA Æ¡i. Just met u yesterday and now I'm finding myself reading all your posts. I love this post so so so much cuz it helps me realize: the more I understand deeply and write down all my needs, the more I have clear vision and action steps to go forward.