During the Wealth & Power experience at the 2021 ESSENCE Festival of Culture, ESSENCE Senior Money & Careers Editor Kimberly Wilson was joined by Walmart Health Merchandising Vice President Maya Bowie and Walmart Vice President & Divisional Merchandise Manager, Menswear Twilla Brooks for a crucial conversation on getting the most out of your job hunt by making sure you land at a company whose values are in line with your own.
The panel, kicked off the conversation, which was presented by Walmart, by sharing a few tips for how we as job hunters can properly assess a company to ensure that their values align with ours before taking that next step to become a part of their organization. “Early in your career, you may recognize a company’s brand or how they show up in the marketplace but, you may not know what it’s like inside of the company. “[During the Executive Leadership Council], there was a Black CEO who spoke once and talked about how if you’re going to do well at a company, it actually has to be a company that you connect with,” Bowie noted. “You have to be able to be your authentic self and be true. And that has stuck with me for over probably 10-15 years.”
Carrying the discussion forward, the ladies also weighed in with their thoughts on how to manage in situations where you learn that your company’s values don’t align with your own. “Your values will always be the same, but they will grow or evolve over time as you grow,” Brooks said. Later adding, “The reason why I’ve been here [at Walmart] for so long is because the values of who I’ve grown into and the values that I knew that I always had, that my mom and my dad gave me. are so empowered now as the African-American woman I am today. So, everyday that I show up, I show up because my values align. And the day that that stops happening is the day that I retire and I move on and I do something different.”
Check out the video above to hear this insightful conversation in full.