Work and Identity Uncovered: Is Your Job Title Your Identity?

For some people, they have built their entire idea of themselves around their career. We spend more time at work than we do in other parts of our lives such as sleeping, eating, playing or spending time with our families.

Work, for most people, is a defining aspect of life and thus of our identity. When someone asks us ‘what do you do?’, we nearly always reply with our job title. To say “I work for [company]…” or “I am a …” often made most people fill with pride and joy. But without a job, some don’t know who they are or have become.

According to organisational psychologists, people have become ‘enmeshed’ with their jobs and so intertwined that their own identities are blurred. Enmeshment prevents the development of a stable, independent sense of self.

If you can relate to any of this, here are five reasons why you shouldn’t define yourself by your career or job and how to make a career-defined identity work for you while avoiding its downsides.

1. Having a well-known job isn’t your only form of success

Consider reframing your relationship to your career not simply in terms of your company or title, but in terms of your skills that could be used across different contexts. As you gain different skillsets, you become confident in your ability to earn a living and send the right signals to the job market.

One person’s definition of success could look completely different than someone else’s. In the end, you should always aim to be yourself and not replicate what you believe to be considered successful just because of someone else’s journey.

2. Truths and values are the only things that you should be defined by

Imagine everyday conversations where no one gets asked what do they do for a living. Your job and work are two separate entities. For some creative professionals who are waiting for their big break, a temporary job and their passionate work might be two separate things.

If you are struggling to find meaning at your workplace, try understanding your job, function or company vision and how it contributes to the benefit of humanity. When this is aligned with your internal values, you will be able to sustain your career longer.

3. Your job direction may change at any time

At the early stages of your career, you may explore diverse roles to discover real interests independent of your education that may change overtime. In the working world, today you may identify yourself as a hardworking finance manager, but four years from now, after climbing the corporate ladder, you never know what kind of experiences you may go through and how they’ll change you.

Multiply that by a factor of pandemic, and you get a sense of how jobs can change overtime. In what has been dubbed as ‘the great resignation’, your long-term goals and career aspirations may alter the course of your life suddenly.

4. Paycheck = Job success rate?

When high-pressure jobs are paired with a big paycheck, individuals can find themselves launched into a new socioeconomic class. Our identities are increasingly influenced by how we present ourselves to others.

Focusing on wealth, achievement and influence, people often tie themselves to that high-paying career that got them here. Constructing one’s identity closely around a career is a risky move as companies and entire industries struggle or go under sometimes.

Here’s time where you establish and review what’s worth it on the basis of principles and values. Think about what you care about in life, and let those priorities guide you toward what’s next.

5. Working longer hours does not mean raises, prestige and promotions

The work culture in many fast-paced jobs such as the tech and finance industry may reward working longer hours with raises, prestige, and promotions. This may set dangerous precedence of your job becoming central to your identity – as it has displaced other activities and relationships with things you might identify with.

This may require you to find a way to carve up free time and it could mean relying more heavily on your coworkers, hiring a virtual assistant, or advocating for an intern or additional colleague to help with tasks.

It is natural to feel that our work identity is all that is left to us when other activities are forbidden, and we may be compelled to think about it even when we are off the clock. However, it is time people realise that they are more than our jobs, the happier we all may be.

So, is a new job the new route for a new you?

The answer to this is yes and no. Some people have the ability to be adaptable as that is part of their personality and identity – they thrive on change. Others find that changing jobs may result in a changed work identity but not their personality.

In a time where career progression is key to new environments and sectors, it is more important to challenge your sense of self and get a wider perspective to make better decisions. Ask yourself if you need to change your job to build a robust identity or change a job because your skills could be used across different contexts.

Changing a job may be just around the corner as you get your bearings in place and do your research. Get in touch with us to explore the range of experienced roles available or browse our international database of jobs.