In my role I provide careers counselling on an almost daily basis. A question many people ask is “what do I want to do with my life?” To help answer this question, many people wish to learn more about their skills and strengths to help find out which jobs are the best “fit” for them.
I like to take a step back before I take a skills approach to look at possible job options, and start by thinking about what matters to the person – in other words, what do you value? What matters to you in the grand scheme of things?
I often find that our skills help us to get a job, but it’s our values that will often determine if we stay in that job long term. In order to stay in a job, our values need to be the right match to that job, otherwise we often lose motivation.
So what are your work values!? Have you asked yourself this question before?
Some examples of common work values include things like the following:
- I value opportunities to develop or progress in my career
- I value work where I can be creative
- I value work that allows me to maintain work/life balance, and won’t impact on my personal time
- I value work that pays well
- I value job security
- I value helping others
- I value the challenge of making a sale
- I value working autonomously
- I value working in a team
Have a think about your values, and how they fit in with your current or previous roles. If you value job security, but work in a target based role, you may find yourself feeling stressed on a day to day basis!! If you value creativity, but work in a heavily bureaucratic role, you may feel a lack of motivation. If you place value on working autonomously, but are in a heavily micromanaged position, you may be unhappy.
In job interviews today, it’s common for employers to ask questions such as “how do your values fit in with the values of the company?” With this in mind, it’s important to know what your values are!!
So ask yourself, what do you ultimately value in your work? Is it money? Career progression? Freedom to live your life on the weekend? Such questions will help you to narrow down your list of possible careers and employers.