Identifying Your Career Values (with PDF Workbook)

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Are you feeling stuck or unfulfilled at work? It might be time to explore your career values. These are the core principles that shape what matters most to you in your job.

Read: Understanding the Hidden Job Market

Related: Mapping Your Professional Network (with PDF Worksheet)

Understanding your career values can help you make better career choices, avoid burnout, and find work that feels worthwhile. When you take the time to identify your values, you’ll gain clarity and confidence.

Here’s what you need to know.

Introduction

Career values are the core principles and priorities that guide what you need from your work to feel fulfilled. They reflect what matters most to you – such as creativity, flexibility, purpose, recognition, or stability – and influence the decisions you make about your job, career path, and work environment.

Understanding your career values is important because it helps you:

• Make better career decisions that align with your needs and goals.

• Recognize why certain jobs feel energizing while others feel draining.

• Communicate more clearly about what you want in your professional life.

• Avoid burnout and dissatisfaction by identifying and steering away from value conflicts.

Why Career Values Matter

We spend a significant part of our lives at work. Yet, many people never pause to ask themselves what they truly want from that time. Instead, we chase job titles, salaries, or expectations that look good on paper (but leave us feeling empty inside).

Understanding your own career values is the key to making different decisions. It helps you:

• Choose the right career path or role that fits who you are (not who you’re expected to be).

• Spot red flags early in job offers or company cultures that don’t support what you care about.

• Make confident decisions in your career journey (even during periods of uncertainty).

• Improve your current situation by finding ways to better align your job with your values.

Career Values Identification Workbook

To help you discover what truly drives and fulfills you, I’ve created a free, step-by-step workbook that walks you through the process of identifying, refining, and prioritizing your top career values.

This is not a quick “check-the-box” quiz. It’s a personal deep dive designed to create lasting clarity. Whether you’re considering a career change, navigating a promotion, or simply trying to feel better about your work, this workbook will help you build a foundation rooted in what really matters to you.

Inside, you’ll find:

• Reflective exercises to explore your past experience (the good, the bad, and everything in between).

• Guided brainstorming prompts to uncover what’s most important to you in your work-life.

• Tools for organizing and prioritizing your values so you can clearly see what matters most.

• Insightful wrap-up questions to help you apply what you’ve learned in a practical way.

In Conclusion

In conclusion, I hope you find this workbook to be a helpful exercise. I commend you for taking a step back and investing energy into reflecting on the things that matter most to you.

Download the ‘Career Values Identification Workbook’ (in Fillable PDF)