Career Values Test
The Career Values test is based on a concept originally put forward by Edgar Schein and later refined by psychometric researchers Bert Goos and Andre Tjoa. Put simply, Career Values are the things you need your work to provide (aside from, you know, enough money to live). You have needs and "allergies" in your work life and this test make those visible, defined, and easy to explain.
Career Values are relatively stable over time, they might shift a bit based on experience and your phase of life, but they are not something that change from year to year. No, these needs and allergies are deep and fundamental and shift, if at all, over decades. When you understand what you need a job to provide (or definitely not provide), you can make better decisions about your career and which positions you pursue.
The original research conducted by Edgar Schein and other psychometric researchers have tried to identify the most important career values, some researchers identified as few a 8 and some as many as 17. If you actually read through some of those papers, they are often making big claims based on an extremely small sample size. Bert Goos and Andre Tjoa started off with a maximalist list of 17 career values and then tested over ten thousand candidates on multiple psychometric instruments to identify which career values were relevant and measurable in a reliable way. They paired down those 17 career values to the list of 10 you will find in this test.
10 Career Values
You will *need* your career to supply some of these, will *need* your career to avoid some of these, and some will feel neutral or unimportant to you. The 10 career values are:
- Autonomy: Reflects the need for freedom and self-determination in how work gets done — control over method, pace, and priorities, with minimal obligation to account for one's approach to others.
- Creativity: Reflects the drive to generate original ideas, explore new approaches, and contribute to new developments, products, or ways of working.
- Entrepreneurship: Reflects the drive to build something of one's own, take on risk in pursuit of reward, and operate independently of an established organisational structure.
- Competition: Reflects the drive to outperform others, win, and be recognised as the best, with a preference for situations that allow direct comparison against peers.
- Management: Reflects the drive to guide, lead, and take responsibility for the performance of other people, and to influence outcomes at an organisational level.
- Security: Reflects the need for stability, predictability, and guarantees of continued employment and income, and a preference for minimising uncertainty about the future.
- Expertise: Reflects the drive to master a specific, well-defined area of competence and be recognised as a specialist, deriving satisfaction and identity from depth of knowledge.
- Service and Commitment: Reflects the drive to contribute to a cause or purpose beyond oneself, and to derive satisfaction from helping others or benefiting society through one's work.
- Collegiality: Reflects the value placed on close, supportive relationships with colleagues and a warm team atmosphere, as distinct from the work itself.
- Lifestyle Integration: Reflects the value placed on balancing career demands with personal and family life, and a willingness to trade career advancement for greater flexibility or fulfilment outside work.