When people talk about finding work you love, they often emphasize two main points. First: aligning your work with your personal interests, and second, making sure that your day-to-day tasks are enjoyable.

This makes sense, right? 

If you’re passionate about what you do and enjoy what you’re doing on a daily basis, you are more likely to be satisfied, engaged, and motivated.

That’s not exactly rocket science.

Here’s the thing though: finding a career you genuinely love isn’t just about aligning your work with your personal interests, and making sure that your day-to-day tasks are enjoyable. 

There’s more to the equation. 

While the actual work you do is important, there are other factors that are arguably even more important

Scroll down to read on…! Or, if you prefer to watch, click the video below.

Imagine you have finally figured out what you want to do next. You know what your interests and strengths are, you know what field of work you want to move in, and what type of role you’d like to do.

You then manage to get a job that, on paper, looks like the ideal next step: it’s in an industry or field of work that you’re interested in, and the day-to-day activities are not only exciting, but also aligned to your strengths. 

Win! Right??

Well… what if the actual experience of doing that job turns out to be horrible and totally not what you expected? Your boss is a micromanager, the workload is crazy, and on top of that, you feel undervalued and underpaid.

What I’m trying to say here is this: 

Factors that make up the quality of your work environment are just as – if not more – important to finding work you genuinely love.

Things such as autonomy, workload, recognition, having a supportive work community, fair policies and alignment of values.

It is well known (and backed by research) that a job or work place that lacks these factors is a breeding ground not only for job dissatisfaction, but also for burnout.

Let me walk you through each of these.

Autonomy: 

• Do you have choice and control over your work? 
• Can you make decisions or is your work dictated by others?

Workload: 

• Is your workload realistic and sustainable? 
• How does the company safeguard a healthy work-life balance?

Recognition: 

• Are you appropriately compensated and recognized for your work? 
  This isn’t just about salary but about feeling valued for your contributions.

A Supportive Community: 

• Is the work culture supportive?
• Can you grow and learn without fear of making mistakes? 
• Is there a sense of belonging and camaraderie?

Fair Policies: 

• Are the company’s policies fair and transparent? 
• Is there equality and no favoritism or discrimination?

Alignment of Values: 

• Do your personal values align with the company’s values?
• And how are these values reflected in the business on a day-to-day basis?

When these factors are missing, even if you love the work itself, it’s hard to remain happy and fulfilled.

So, if you want to find a career you genuinely love, you need to look beyond just the work.  Consider both the actual tasks and the overall work environment. Without this holistic view, you might find yourself in a job that sounds great on paper but is disappointing in reality.

So, do yourself a favour, and do your due diligence before jumping into a new job. Find out what the quality of the work environment is at companies that you’d like to work for. If you fail to do this, you’re making a leap of faith at best, and a painful lesson at worst.

Now, how exactly do you find out if you’ll have a certain level of autonomy over your work, if the workload is realistic, if you’ll be appropriately compensated and recognised, if there’s a supportive community, if the company has fair policies, and if your values are aligned with the company’s values?

Here are some ideas…

Analyse job postings

A job posting can say a lot about a company’s culture, so take some time to go through them and spot any potential red flags. You can even use AI to help you with this. 

Here’s a prompt that could help:

“Help me understand the company culture by analyzing the information provided in the following job advertisement. Specifically, identify any attributes that may indicate an unhealthy job environment, such as lack of autonomy, unrealistic or unsustainable workload, lack of recognition and appropriate compensation, absence of a supportive work community, and unclear or unfair company policies.”

Then paste the whole job description of the job that you’re applying for. 

Conduct exit interviews: 

Reach out to people who left the company within the last year or two, and suggest meeting up for a coffee to ask them about their experience of working at this company.

Conduct reverse job interviews.

Interviews are two-way streets, so use them to help you better understand if the company, team, and line manager are a good fit for you! 

I’ve created a downloadable PDF for you with questions to ask in a reverse job interview. You can get it here.

In summary, the often overlooked truth about finding work you genuinely love: it is about more than just aligning work with your interests, and enjoying the day-to-day tasks. It’s about the entire work environment and how it supports your growth, happiness and wellbeing.