What Is a Good Job? Redefining Success Through Values, Safety, and Authenticity

In a world that often measures career success by salary, title, or prestige, many of us are starting to ask a more meaningful question: What is a good job, really? The answer isn’t one-size-fits-all.

A truly good job goes far beyond a paycheck. It aligns with your values, nurtures your mental and emotional well-being, provides psychological safety, and gives you the freedom to be yourself while still contributing to a shared culture.

Here’s a deeper dive into what makes a job truly good, and how you can intentionally find or shape one that fits.

Alignment with Your Core Values

At the heart of job satisfaction is value alignment. Your values are the deeply held beliefs that guide your decisions, shape your behavior, and influence your sense of purpose. When your job aligns with these values, work feels more meaningful and energizing. Simply, if your values are fulfilled in your job, you will feel fulfilled.

How to Identify and Align With Your Values:

• Reflect on peak moments. Think about times in your life when you felt happy, fulfilled or proud. What were you doing? Being creative? Working on a service project?  Learning something new? Exercising? Spending time in nature? Note each thing you were doing and then consider what value associates with that activity.

• Do a values assessment.  Ask yourself, “What gives me energy” and “What drains my energy?” Then translate your thoughts into values. Consider using values cards to help you come up with your values. Remember, values are what is important to you.  Then define those values because each value may mean something different to each person (e.g. Flexibility to me may mean I want to be able to attend my kids’ basketball games. Flexibility to you may mean working remotely). You can find details on how to do a comprehensive values assessment in Wanted → A New Career and Wanted → My First Career

• Look beyond the mission statement. Once you’ve identified and defined your values, evaluate if the day-to-day actions of your company or the company you want to work for reflect the values it promotes and aligns with your identified values.

• Ask values-based questions in interviews. For example: “Can you tell me about a time your team had to make a hard decision? What guided the choice?” or “Tell me about a time you developed someone on your team?” If development is important to you and the manager can’t come up with an answer easily or stumbles, you will know that development may be lacking and your value of development may not be fulfilled if you take the job.

  
  

A job that contradicts your values will slowly drain you, even if it pays well or appears prestigious. But when you feel that your work aligns with your values (or as many values as possible), you’re more likely to stay motivated and engaged.

Psychological Safety: Non-negotiable

Coined by Harvard professor Amy Edmondson, psychological safety is the belief that you won’t be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes. It’s the foundation of a strong, inclusive, and innovative team.

Why It Matters:

• Encourages risk-taking and creativity

• Reduces stress and burnout

• Fosters collaboration and trust

Signs of Psychological Safety:

• You feel comfortable asking for help or admitting you don’t know something

• Diverse opinions are invited and respected

• Mistakes are seen as learning opportunities, not liabilities

• Leadership practices humility and vulnerability

Do you feel this way in your current job? If you are applying for a new job, before accepting a role, look for clues in how the team communicates. During panel interviews, do people interrupt one another or build on ideas? I remember interviewing for a job with a panel of HR leaders and I saw one roll her eyes as another leader spoke! I also saw one reading her phone only when one other leaders spoke. This behavior was telling! Don’t ignore what is right in front of you!

Besides observing behavior, ask powerful questions to understand how leaders think about failure and mistakes. Ask questions like, “Tell me about a time someone on your team failed or made a big mistake? How did you manage it?” Does the answer include the lessons learned or just the failure and the manager cleaning up the mess?  What the manager says and how the manager answers the question will provide great insight!

The Freedom to Be Yourself (Within Culture)

Authenticity at work doesn't mean you ignore norms or company culture. Rather, it means you don’t have to hide core parts of who you are to succeed. A good job allows for self-expression and individuality, while encouraging a shared vision.

Balancing Authenticity and Fit:

• Know your non-negotiables. What parts of your identity, communication style, or work rhythm are you proud of and are essential to who you are?

• Understand the culture. Is it formal or relaxed? Data-driven or intuition-led? Fast-paced or methodical?

• Adapt without erasing. A good fit lets you flex where needed without forcing you to wear a mask every day.

Inclusion isn't just about being invited to the table; it’s about being allowed to speak in your own voice once you’re there.

Growth, Autonomy, and Impact

Beyond safety and values, a good job should stretch and nourish you. It should help you grow, not just up the ladder, but outward in skills, confidence, and impact.

Look for roles that offer:

• Learning opportunities. Are there mentorship programs, stretch projects, or training funds?

• Autonomy. Are you trusted to make decisions in your role? Can you own your work or does your manager want to approve every aspect of your communication and output?

• Clear impact. Can you connect your work to the broader goals of the team or organization?

  
  

When people feel they are making progress, have a sense of ownership, and know their work matters, job satisfaction rises significantly.

Work-Life Integration and Respect

A good job respects that you're a whole person with a life outside of work. It allows for dialogue around flexibility, respects your boundaries, and encourages you to speak up without retribution when behavior doesn’t align with your values. 

Ask yourself:

• Does the company support boundaries around time off and availability?

• Is flexibility baked into the role (location, hours, work style)?

• Do leaders model healthy work habits or is working yourself into burnout glorified?

  
  

In Summary: Your Definition of a Good Job is Personal—But it Should Include These Pillars

• Alignment with your values

• A sense of psychological safety

• Freedom to be authentic within the culture

• Growth, autonomy, and a sense of impact

• Respect for your whole self, both inside and outside the workplace

A good job doesn’t mean every day is easy. But it does mean that even on hard days, you feel respected, valued, and fulfilled in a way that fuels your long-term wellbeing and purpose.

Ready to evaluate your job or next opportunity through this lens? Make a checklist of these five pillars and assess how each one is showing up in your current role, or in the role you’re aiming for. You deserve a career that not only pays the bills but also honors the person you are and the person you're becoming.

The journey is yours…