Career Planning

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 they way you feel is the most important for 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:

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.

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Career Services Lasell College
1844 Commonwealth Avenue • Newton, MA 02466
Tel: 617.243.2124 ~ Fax: 617.243.2380