You're looking to advance your career in transportation management, but you don't want to compromise your personal values and ethics. How can you make sure the company you work for or apply to shares your vision and mission? Here are some tips to help you find a good fit and grow professionally.
Before you start looking for opportunities, you need to have a clear idea of what matters to you and what you stand for. Think about your core beliefs, principles, and goals, and how they relate to your work. What kind of impact do you want to have on the industry, the environment, and society? What kind of culture and leadership do you thrive in? What are your non-negotiables and deal-breakers? Write down your answers and use them as a guide for your career decisions.
Prior to assessing a company's values, it's critical that you understand your own values clearly. Think about the values, principles, and priorities that are significant to you on a personal and professional level. Think about your driving power, your ideal workplace, and the issues you fervently believe in. This self-awareness will be the basis for assessing possible employment.
Align your compass before setting sail! First, identify your core values - what drives you and keeps you engaged? Then, research potential employers. Their website, social media, and even online reviews can reveal their cultural DNA. Don't be shy in interviews - ask pointed questions to see if their values translate to daily work life. Remember, it's about fit, not just title. Aligning your values with the company's fuels job satisfaction, propels engagement, and ultimately steers your career towards a fulfilling destination.
Once you have a shortlist of potential employers or positions, you need to do some homework on their values and culture. You can start by checking their website, social media, and annual reports, where they usually state their vision, mission, and values. Look for evidence of how they put those values into practice, such as their policies, initiatives, achievements, and challenges. You can also read reviews from current and former employees, customers, and partners, and see how they rate the company's culture, ethics, and social responsibility.
Examine the company's website, yearly reports, social media accounts, and other accessible resources for information on its goal, vision, and values. Seek declarations or programs that demonstrate the organization's dedication to sustainable business methods, diversity and inclusion, employee welfare, ethical business practices, and other areas that line with your beliefs. Observe the company's communication of its values and whether or not they are reflected in its operations and culture.
If you get an interview or a meeting with a potential employer or manager, you have a chance to dig deeper into their values and expectations. Prepare some questions that will help you understand how they align with yours, and how they support your career development. For example, you can ask them how they define and measure success, what kind of feedback and recognition they provide, how they handle conflicts and ethical dilemmas, and what kind of training and mentoring they offer. Listen carefully to their answers and observe their body language and tone.
During interviews or networking conversations, ask thoughtful questions to gain insight into the company's values and culture. For example: Can you tell me more about the company's mission and values? How are the company's values reflected in its day-to-day operations? Can you provide examples of how the company supports diversity and inclusion in the workplace? How does the company prioritize employee development and well-being? How does the company contribute to the community or address social and environmental issues? Pay attention not only to the responses but also to the tone and level of enthusiasm with which they are provided. Additionally, observe the company's actions and behaviors throughout the interview process.
Whenever you have an interview with a prospective employer/organization, make it a point to ask meaningful & insightful questions related to the prospective employer's/organization's core values as well as their mission. It is absolutely important that your values are in alignment with the prospective employer's/organization's values otherwise you would be a misfit & would face a lot of issues.
After you have gathered enough information, you need to evaluate how well the company's values match yours. You can use a simple scale from 1 to 5, where 1 means no alignment and 5 means perfect alignment, and rate each value that is important to you. Then, add up the scores and divide by the number of values to get an average. You can also weigh some values more than others, depending on your priorities. The higher the average, the better the fit.
Finally, you need to make a decision based on your evaluation and your gut feeling. If the fit is high, you can confidently pursue the opportunity and expect to have a fulfilling and rewarding career with the company. If the fit is low, you might want to reconsider your options and look for other opportunities that are more compatible with your values. Remember that your values are not fixed, and they can change over time as you grow and learn. So, be flexible and open-minded, but don't compromise on what matters to you most.