Values

Values are the things that are important to us and add meaning to our life. They may be our core principles or beliefs that guide the way we live. They are not what we’d like to be or how we think we should be, but rather who we are and what is important to us right now.

They can be deeply held, and living according to these makes us feel fulfilled and satisfied.  Not following them, however, can make us feel compromised, unhappy or demotivated.

Recognising your values and identifying work or employers who match these can therefore lead to happiness and fulfillment in your work and life.

Values can be so ingrained they can be hard to identify and express. To help you identify and understand your values, click on the Values exercise and try to answer some of the questions.

Review

When doing research into different career options, try looking for work or organisations that reflect your priorities and values.  Looking at job descriptions can help you to establish whether the responsibilities and purpose of a job role reflect your own priorities.

Similarly, organisations may post details of their mission statements or corporate social responsibility statements on their websites and this may give you an indication of the organisation’s priorities. You can therefore carefully assess the company’s priorities to see if/how they match your own values.  There will be more information on how to research companies in the next section Find Out More.