Career Assessment - What Are Your Core Values?

A while ago we talked about career assessment and some of the things to think about before plunging in the job search. There are a ton of tools out there - some good and some just plain worthless. I guess they are better than nothing if you don't know where to begin. One of the things I suggest in all my career assessment classes is to focus on four areas:
1. Values
2. Interests
3. Personality
4. Skills

Today let's look at your values. Your values are your core beliefs. They are the thoughts, feelings, and attitudes that you bring to the career search. They came about as a result of how you were brought up and your belief system. They certainly make an impact on how you view work and what makes you happy, satisfied and motivated while there.

Before doing anything job search related it’s important to inventory your values and compare them to the type of career you are looking for. There are plenty of work value inventories on the internet and most cover two areas:

a. The Work Environment: Salary/benefits, retirement, savings plan, job security, working conditions, family friendly, good community citizen, diverse employees, telecommuting options, etc.
b. The Job Requirements: Recognition, power, leadership, autonomy, creativity, research, analysis, influence, teamwork are only some of the various values associated with typical jobs that each individual craves.

Once you inventory your personal work values you can move ahead and sort through your career interests, personal work style and skills set. We'll get to those in separate blogs. For now, write down what values you prefer in a position and compare them to the wording you see in various job descriptions. Do they match? This is your starting point.