The Personal Values Framework for Career Decisions
Write down what you actually care about, then reject anything that violates it, no matter how shiny.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 3
- Confidence
- 87%
A written, explicit framework of the things you truly value in work, used as a filter against distraction. Because titles, money, and recruiter offers are engineered to be exciting, a pre-committed written framework lets you evaluate any opportunity against your real values rather than being seduced in the moment.
Origin
Thawar developed this after a career lull following his first job, when nothing felt as exciting and he couldn't articulate why. He wrote down what he cared about (learning, smart people, impact) and now publishes the framework; he credits it with changing how he picks jobs.
Core principles
- 01Values you haven't written down can't defend you against a well-crafted distraction.
- 02Title, company prestige, and compensation are the classic confusers; they feel exciting but may not align.
- 03The framework works both as an entry filter (should I take this?) and an exit trigger (is my current role still aligned?).
- 04Learning, working with the smartest people, and having impact are Thawar's core criteria.
How to run it
- 1
Write down the things you actually care about
Produce an explicit, written list of what you value in work. Thawar's includes learning the most, working with the smartest people, and having high impact. This becomes the fixed reference you check every opportunity against.
Pro tip Publish or share it; Thawar tweets his and even sends it to recruiters.
- 2
Run every opportunity through the framework
When a recruiter, title, or comp package appears, don't react to the excitement. Check: does this align with my written framework? If not, decline.
Pro tip Thawar once sent his framework directly to a persistent recruiter and said 'this doesn't align with my framework' to end the back-and-forth quickly.
Watch out Without a written framework it's very hard not to be distracted by an exciting-sounding offer.
- 3
Re-evaluate your current role against it periodically
Use the framework as an ongoing audit of whether what you're doing still matches your values. When Thawar's role at Pivotal drifted into field-CTO consulting, he checked it against the framework and saw it violated every criterion.
Watch out Acting on a violation can mean resigning even without another job lined up; Thawar has done exactly this.
In the wild
After Extreme Labs was acquired by Pivotal, Thawar's role shifted from running the world's biggest pair-programming office to being a 'field CTO' attaching consulting to product. Checking it against his framework, he saw he wasn't working with the smartest people, wasn't learning as much, and wasn't having impact, so he told the team he planned to resign.
→ The resignation led to good outcomes: he became an investor in and connected to new companies that spun out, and it realigned him with what he actually cared about.
Common mistakes
Not writing the framework down
If your values live only in your head, a recruiter's exciting message or a big title/comp offer will distract and confuse you. The written artifact is what makes it hard to be pulled off course.
Letting title, company, or money drive the decision
These are the specific confusers Thawar names. They feel exciting but are not the same as alignment with your actual values, and without the framework you'll optimize for the wrong thing.
Is it for you?
Best for
Professionals facing frequent recruiter approaches or career forks who keep getting distracted by prestige and compensation.
Not ideal for
Someone who hasn't yet accumulated enough work experience to know what they actually value; the framework needs honest self-knowledge as input.
From the transcript
“if you don't have an a written down framework of the things you actually care about it's very hard to be distracted right”
“I actually sent my framework to a recruiter one time and I said hey this thing because they kept going back and forth to me…”
“when I realize that my framework is being violated I will resign like instantly”
From the episode
How Shopify builds a high-intensity culture
Farhan Thawar (VP and Head of Eng)