What do you want?

What do you need to know about yourself when making career decisions? Here are the factors we think are key - with tools to help you learn more.   

Values   

What’s important to you?  

What drives or motivates you? Your values are your attitudes and beliefs about what you feel is important in life. 

Values are central to our motivation and 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 the people around you, you may lose motivation.  

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 can 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 prioritising stability and security, or seeking as much autonomy as possible. Reflecting on your values – what drives or motivates you – can help you to assess different career options and make decisions. 

We’ve pulled together some resources and tools to help you explore your values: 

The following course takes you through what values are, why they’re important and how to discover yours: 

Discovering your personal values (UoE log in required - If you are experiencing difficulty with logging in please contact careers@ed.ac.uk) 

This article explains the difference between personal and company values. It talks about the importance of reflecting on your personal values when looking for a job: 

Personal values vs company values (UoE log in required - If you are experiencing difficulty with logging in please contact careers@ed.ac.uk)  

Our Understand yourself toolkit is an interactive resource that will help you reflect on your skills, values and strengths, identifying what’s important to you: 

Understand yourself toolkit (UoE log in required - If you are experiencing difficulty with logging in please contact careers@ed.ac.uk)

What’s important to us? 

Our values as a Careers Service inform how we work with you and our stakeholders, both inside and outside the University. Read more on ethics and impartiality in the context of the Careers Service:  

Impartiality and Ethics Statement 

How we support the UN Sustainable Development Goals

Needs   

• You will have certain basic needs that have to be satisfied and which will play a part in your decision making, e.g. a minimum level of financial reward, specific geographical location, a need for job security.  

Personality   

• Consider different aspects of your personality -  are you decisive, cautious, patient, competitive, methodical? Your temperament will influence your enjoyment of,  and your success in, different job areas.   

To learn more about reflecting and developing your self-awareness:   

• Use our collection of career assessments on topics such as Personality Insight, Motivation at Work or Temperament   

       Career Assessments  (UoE login required - If you are experiencing difficulty with logging in please contact careers@ed.ac.uk)

• Read these articles about developing self-awareness:  

        Developing Self-Awareness  (UoE login required - If you are experiencing difficulty with logging in please contact careers@ed.ac.uk)