It used to be that choosing a field of study would lead you, sometimes unilaterally, into a career, and you simply worked in that job for a while and got promoted as opportunities arose. Traditional career planning was based on a trifecta of your interests, your skills and your abilities.

But now we know different, and when we know different, we can do different. It seems almost intuitive now to say that, despite one’s interest in a particular field, it could turn out that the work environment in even the best place(s) to work in that field might not suit one’s disposition.

When we say that a particular work environment or workplace doesn’t, or didn’t, work for us, the majority of the time the underlying reason has to do with a fundamental mismatch of values — ours versus the work environment’s or culture’s.

In addition to interests, skills and abilities, it becomes part of an active career toolkit to be able to assess one’s work values periodically.

Defining Values
Psychologists typically define a value as a stable construct or life goal that a person identifies as being meaningful, and one that impacts their thoughts, behaviors and actions. So, whether we realize it or not, our values can drive our thoughts and actions.

What Then Is a Work Value?
We can define work values as those qualities that people want or desire in their work, their occupation, or their careers. Values are different from interests, in that interests are the activities through which we achieve the things we value. If I want a job that is highly paid, then good remuneration becomes a value for me, and as such I may choose to stay in a job that others may perceive as stressful, simply because the work is meeting my chosen value of money or compensation. We all want our work to be meaningful and to be well compensated for the work we do — if for nothing other than the fact that we will spend a good majority of our lives in the workplace.

Having said that, it makes sense to take time out at the beginning of a career to ask ourselves what we value and would like to see in an ideal work environment. The ability to tease out one’s values, and to rank them if possible, allows for better decision making regarding the many opportunities that will arise along the way as we grow in our careers.

A good career coach will help you take an inventory of your values so you can create your blueprint for an ideal work environment. When thinking about your values, there are many assessments you can take to identify and rank key work values.

Some questions you may see on a typical work-values inventory or assessment fall into defined clusters that you can rank according to which ones hold the highest priority for you in the season of life you are in.

I emphasize “the season of life,” because work values can change based on circumstances and context. What might happen is a change in ranking, but you would still probably hold the same key values over time.

The following list of 15 clusters is from Donald Super’s Work Values Inventory, or WVI, which I use in my work with clients. The WVI is a set of 45 questions broken down into the 15 clusters below. Each cluster has three questions worth five points each, for a total of 15 points per cluster. Your highest scores would be ranked as your highest-priority values.

1. Creativity: work which permits one to invent new things, design new products, or develop new ideas.
2. Management: work which permits one to plan and lay out work for others.
3. Achievement: work which gives one the feeling of accomplishment in doing a job well.
4. Surroundings: work which is carried out under pleasant conditions — not too hot or too cold, noisy, dirty, etc.
5. Supervisory Relationships: work which is carried out under a supervisor who is fair and with whom one can get along.
6. Way of Life: work that permits one to live the kind of life he/she chooses and to be the type of person he/she wishes to be.
7. Security: work which provides one with the certainty of having a job even in hard times.
8. Associates: work which brings one into contact with fellow workers whom you like.
9. Aesthetic: work which permits one to make beautiful things and to contribute beauty to the world.
10. Prestige: work which gives one standing in the eyes of others and evokes respect.
11. Independence: work which permits one to work in his/her own way, as fast or as slow as he/she wishes.
12. Variety: work which provides an opportunity to do different types of tasks.
13. Economic Return: work which pays well and enables one to have the things he/she wants.
14. Altruism: work which enables one to contribute to the welfare of others.
15. Intellectual Stimulation: work which provides opportunity for independent thinking and for learning how and why things work.

Why is this important? In previous editions, there was a focus on strengths and strengths assessment, using the Gallup Strengths Assessment. If you have taken your Gallup and know what your strengths are, then you want to ensure that you are aligning your strengths as much as possible with your work environment. For example, if one of your top strengths is “Learner,” then you might value work that provides intellectual stimulation much more than a person whose top strength is Woo or Execution.

To sum it up nicely, taking an inventory of work values will always add to a career portfolio rather than subtract from it, as is evident here. In addition, it can be a really handy reflection tool for year-end self-evaluations.