How to identify and assess your values and recognise their importance in your career choice. What’s important to you? What drives or motivates you? These are your values - your attitude and beliefs about what is important in life. Values are central to our motivation and also influence how satisfied we are in our work. If your values are well aligned to those of your work environment you are likely to feel a sense of pride in what you are doing. If, however, your values are at odds with your work environment and those people around you, you may become de-motivated. People with similar skills may, because of differing values, wish to use them for varying purposes. For example, you could put good social skills to use in advertising, teaching or banking – a variety of career areas which satisfy different values. People want different things from their careers and everyone defines ‘success’ in their own way. You may be looking for a large salary and a senior role, or prioritise stability and security, or be seeking as much autonomy as possible. Excitement and new challenges might be important to your job satisfaction - or the technical or intricate nature of your work. Reflecting on your values - what drives or motivates you - can help you to assess different career options and make decisions. The following exercise will help you to do this. Reflection Toolkit This article was published on 2024-04-02
