Prioritise your career wellbeing

By Hannah Woolley, Careers Consultant

This insight is part of our career wellbeing series.

When exploring career options and thinking about what types of jobs you might be good at, it’s also worth factoring in what’s likely to bring you energy and satisfaction too.

After all, who doesn’t want a job that makes them feel happy and healthy, fits in with their values, and allows them to balance work with other aspects of their life? In this blog we explore ways to prioritise your future career wellbeing.

Tune in to your values and motivations

Doing a job or working for an organisation that feels at odds with your values can lead to frustration and become demoralising. By developing a sense of what really matters to you, you’ll be better placed to identify types of work and employers that can offer opportunities that feel meaningful. Of course, what is important to each of us varies, so to pinpoint your own values you could:

• Consider your response to what’s going on in the world around us and our current political, social, environmental and economic context. What issues stand out as most important to you?
• Make a list of the principles that have guided any big decisions you’ve made in the past. What had the biggest impact on your thinking?
• Think about behaviours you most appreciate in others and try to spot themes. Who do you admire, and why?
• Take our online values questionnaire, Profiling for Success, on our website

Think about what you find energising as well as what you perform well

Knowing what you’re good at is obviously helpful when it comes to thinking about what you can offer an employer, but being able to tick off all the essential skills listed on a job description doesn’t necessarily indicate that you’ll find the role fulfilling. You might be able to perform a set of tasks extremely well, yet find them uninspiring and tedious, which is unlikely to provide a positive experience at work.

So, when thinking about your skills, focus on how you feel when you use them and try to identify which ones are most energising and give you a sense of satisfaction. Once you’ve done that, you can then map these across to any potential career options.

Consider how each option might fit in with everything else you have going on

Take some time to think about how each career option you identify is likely to fit in with your day-to-day lifestyle. You might relish the idea of starting a new chapter after graduation and look to reinvent your schedule, or you might prefer to maintain aspects of your existing lifestyle alongside a new job.

Either way, considering how you might achieve a sense of balance can help you to look after your overall wellbeing. For example, if pursuing a particular career meant that you’d be required to study for a professional qualification, would you see this as an exciting opportunity, or as a source of additional pressure that might clash with other commitments?

Research what wellbeing initiatives an employer offers

Once you’ve narrowed things down a little, spend some time investigating how any potential employers support their employees’ wellbeing. To gain insight, attend careers events and speak to an employer’s representatives, or approach people you know that work for organisations you’re interested in. Ask questions like:

• Is there a sense of community?
• Are there any social opportunities?
• Are new starters offered a buddy or mentor?
• How many hours do people tend to work per week?
• Is there a flexible working policy?
• What sort of development opportunities are available?
• How are employees’ efforts recognised and rewarded?
• Are employees encouraged to be healthy and active?

Get expert advice

We can help you to clarify your own career wellbeing priorities. You might find it helpful to book an appointment and speak to a careers adviser, or visit our career wellbeing webpage to discover a range of resources and practical advice.

First published November 2021. Updated October 2025