How Your Career Priorities Evolve: Reflecting on Your Values and Goals

Career experts say it is essential to regularly reassess our career priorities and make sure we are not clinging to a career plan that no longer serves us.

So let me ask you a few questions:

How have your professional goals, priorities and values changed over time?

What do you want more or less of from a job compared with when you first entered the workforce? Or before you had children? Or before the pandemic?

For example, two men I interviewed said that, in their own words, they were less professionally "ambitious" when their children were young than they had been before having kids or once their children were older. They still cared about their jobs, but they were content to do their work and head home, rather than also networking, taking professional development courses and looking for new opportunities. What mattered most was the flexibility to spend time with their families.

A Personal Perspective

For my part, I have learned over time that the people I work with can make a huge difference in my attitude towards work. When I graduated and started looking for jobs, I didn't fully appreciate how much it mattered to have the right colleagues. Today I am lucky to work with a group of talented, motivated people who are also genuinely friendly. They inspire me to give my best every day.

I have also realised, perhaps more recently, how much I value being recognised for my contributions. That doesn't mean I need an award delivered to my door every time I finish a project. It is more that I feel motivated when a client notices that something I did produced the results they were hoping for, or even more.

Recommendations

I encourage everyone to do a little introspection, especially if you have been feeling stuck or lost in your career lately. You would be surprised how much you can help yourself simply by answering these questions honestly.

So take a moment to reflect on your professional journey and the values you hold. You may find that your priorities have shifted and that what you want from a job now is different from what you wanted in the past. Recognising that shift is the first step towards building a career plan that truly fits the person you are today.