A question of values

Finding the right career seems simple. Do what you know and what you do best. However, it is important to look a little deeper. If you're not happy in your work perhaps your job is at odds with your personal values.

Twenty years ago a career was a series of jobs you had with just one company until as career guru, Professor Peters put it so beautifully "you reached your level of incompetence".
When you reached this level this was where you stayed because promotion was an unlikely option for you.

How things have changed. A recruiter or human resources manager now seeing that you have stayed with just one company for a lifetime is going to have doubts about your ability to be proactive.

So, a career is not a job or a series of jobs, nor is it working for one organisation, or even having a variety of employers during your working life.

Your career is your life at work, and as you spend more time at work than in any other personal activity, it is going to be up to you to ensure that during your career you can live out your personal values.

That means making a contribution first to yourself then to those you are responsibile to and finally, to get philosophical, a contribution to human kind.

This might sound very high brow, but our values as individuals are all very different - as the good book says "It is not right for man to live by bread alone".

We have different values and these lead each one of us to different types of careers.

If we have one set of values and they are not satisfied in our work then there is a possibility that we can get into emotional and psychological difficulties.

Here are the major values as they apply to our work.


Article with thanks to careerone.com.au