Work Values Assessment
What motivates you? What is important to you? Money? Prestige? Helping people? Living in a rural area? If your career choice is not compatible with your values, chances are likely that you will not feel satisfied with your job.
A value is something that you consider or rate highly. Values are what we think is important. There are no good or bad values. What is important to you is a personal choice and the right one. It may differ from what is important to someone else, but that is ok. It may sound simple to list your values, but often we do not know what we value. Our answers are heavily influenced by what we think is the “right” answer and by what we have been taught by our families and culture.
Directions:
Print the sheet, complete the exercise and then record your reflections in a career exploration/planning notebook. Rank order the following work-related values 1-15. Remember there is no good/bad value. Try not to answer the way that you think you should, but the way you feel is the most important to you.
|
____ |
Affiliation |
Be part of a particular group/organization |
|
____ |
Challenge |
Performing tasks that are new or test your skills |
|
____ |
Competition |
A setting where doing better than your co-workers or your own standards is important |
|
____ |
Contributing to society |
Doing something to make the world/community you live in a better place |
|
____ |
Creativity |
Being able to generate new ideas or approaches to a project, program and organizational structure |
|
____ |
Expertness |
Being seen and recognized as an “expert” in a given area |
|
____ |
Growth |
Be able to learn and advance in your position/career |
|
____ |
Helping others |
Be involved in helping people in a direct way |
|
____ |
Independence |
Being able to structure your day/job without others telling you what to do |
|
____ |
Power |
Having control, authority or influence over others |
|
____ |
Public contact |
Have a lot of day-to-day interaction with the public |
|
____ |
Recognition |
Acknowledged by others for doing something well |
|
____ |
Security |
Be assured of keeping your job |
|
____ |
Variety |
Having many different work tasks and responsibilities |
|
____ |
Wealth |
Making lots of money |
| ____ | Other | |
|
____ |
Other |
Reflection:
In a career exploration/planning notebook record your thoughts in response to the following:
-
Looking at your top 5 choices, what patterns can you see?
- How may these values fit/not fit with certain career choices?
Summary:
In your notebook, make a list of your top 5 values
Next Step:
- Next you may want to continue your self exploration by looking at work environment/conditions.
- If this exercise gave you some career ideas, you might want to do some career research.
Individual Guidance
If you would like additional or individualized assistance to explore your work values or see how they match to careers, please schedule an appointment to meet with a career counselor.
