Choosing a career by your element: where to start

Many people pick a career for the salary, or because a friend does it, and only later find the work drains them every day. Your element offers another angle: which kind of work lets you feel like yourself.

What a personal element is

From your date and time of birth, everyone has one main element out of five: wood, fire, earth, metal and water. One or two further elements "support" you, meaning your energy is more balanced around them.

• Wood is about growth, creation, teaching and nurturing people.
• Fire is about energy, expression, and being seen and heard.
• Earth is about stability, organising, and looking after assets and people.
• Metal is about structure, standards, precision and finance.
• Water is about movement, networks, information and knowledge.

Every industry has a base element too. Education and farming sit in the wood group, restaurants and entertainment in fire, real estate and logistics in earth, finance and manufacturing in metal, IT and travel in water.

How the "suits you" badge works

Once you save your birth details in the career-by-element tool, HappyJob knows which elements support you. It then badges jobs in those industry groups and lists them first in search.

The badge is a first filter, not a verdict. A job without it may still suit you because of the work, the manager or the team, and a badged job still needs the usual checks.

Getting value from it

1. Look at your supporting elements first, then open jobs by element to see every industry in that group. Some may never have crossed your mind.
2. If your current field isn't in a supporting group, you don't have to switch jobs. Look for a role in the same company that sits closer to your element: a wood person at a finance firm may thrive in training or client care.
3. Set a "suits me" job alert. You'll get only new jobs in your supporting groups, once a day.

Every result is information to decide with. Employers on HappyJob never see your birth details and never use these results to screen anyone out.