3 Identifying your career drivers and values
One way of helping you to think about the next step in your career or your planned return to work is to try and understand what really motivates you. The lifeline activity should have helped you to see what activities have been rewarding for you in the past and what activities haven’t. In this next activity you will reflect on which factors are most valuable to you in a job.
Activity 2 What do I value about work?
Listed below are a number of factors that will help you to recognise, in more depth, which values are most important in driving your choice of job or working environment. These values cut across all types of job roles so are just as relevant whichever areas of STEM you are seeking to work in. So, for example, if ‘Making friendly contacts with others’ is important to you, it suggests that you value a ‘Social’ element in your work.
You might be surprised by the range of possible factors that you find valuable. This is one of the advantages of taking a course like this: it opens up your thinking and suggests options and ideas you might not have considered before.
Identify how important each factor is to you by using the following scale:
- 3 = Very important
- 2 = Important
- 1 = Fairly important
- 0 = Not important
Read each factor in Column 1 and rate them all using the scale above. Try to use the full scale. Fill in the boxes in Table 1 below, or alternatively copy Table 1 into a notebook and fill it in.
| Factors | Value | Rating (0–3) |
|---|---|---|
| Making decisions and working independently | Autonomy | |
| Change or variety in tasks, people, places | Variety | |
| Scope to learn, study, think, analyse | Intellectual | |
| Making friendly contacts with others | Social | |
| Large income, expensive possessions | Economic | |
| Expressing ethical code or religious beliefs | Spiritual | |
| Using talents, developing skills | Using abilities | |
| Being part of an important organisation | Commitment | |
| Having lots of stimulus, excitement, thrills | Excitement | |
| Having influence or power over others | Authority | |
| Enjoying or making beautiful designs or things | Aesthetic | |
| Getting promotions, career progression | Advancement | |
| Helping or caring for others | Altruism | |
| Concern for surroundings or location | Comfort | |
| Being original, developing new ideas | Creativity | |
| Activity, keeping moving, handling things | Physical | |
| Taking risks; business and trading | Commercial |
Make a note of which were the most important values for you. Did any of them surprise you? You may want to come back to these when you start to develop your action plan towards the end of the course.