The Career Values Card Sort

Career success and satisfaction is closely linked to doing work that is consistent with your career values. Knowing what your career values are, makes it easier to:

  • Assess your current work situation
  • Plan for the future
  • Find the right job opportunities
  • Decide what direction to take your career in

The Career Values Card Sort is a simple, free and fun self-reflection tool for anyone to use and apply to their own careers at any time. It can also be used in great conversations with friends, managers, colleagues, family or your career coach.

The Card Sort has been developed by Carole Brown and Louisa Scagliotti, two of Australia's most experienced career coaches.

Instructions

Allow 10-15 minutes to complete the card sort.

Step 1 – Sort each value

Drag and drop each one of the 24 career values from the left hand list to one of the five columns, according to how important each value is for you.

There is no limit on how many cards you can place in any one column. However we recommend that you try to place some values in each column – this will help you to decide what really is most and least important to you.

We understand that it can sometimes be difficult to decide exactly where to place each card and suggest you place it in the 'best fit' column. You can change their order and column as many times as you like.

Step 2 – Review and prioritise your values

Once you have completed the sort, check to see that you have placed each value in priority order from top to bottom in each column.

Step 3 – Click next to view and print results

Once you click next you will see your results displayed. Click on the BACK button if they don't seem right and you want to change them around. You will also see a series of questions designed to help you make further sense of your career values.



 
Least Important
Not Important
Neutral
Important
Very Important
  • HELPING OTHERS
  • ACHIEVING OUTCOMES
  • TAKING RISKS
  • SOLVING PROBLEMS
  • TEAM WORK
  • TAKING RESPONSIBILITY
  • WORK AUTONOMY
  • FINANCIAL REWARD
  • COMMUNICATING WITH OTHERS
  • CAREER PROGRESSION
  • LOGICAL THINKING
  • BEING VALUED
  • BEING INNOVATIVE
  • DETAILED WORK
  • WORKING WITH DATA
  • FLEXIBILITY
  • LEADING OTHERS
  • EFFICIENCY
  • CHALLENGING WORK
  • LEARNING
  • INTEGRITY
  • PREDICTABILITY
  • CHANGE AND VARIETY
  • ANALYTICAL THINKING

            Your Career Values Summary

            Least Important

            Not Important

            Neutral

            Important

            Very Important

                      Making sense of your results

                      What does your summary tell you?

                      The following questions are designed to help you think about:

                      • What your most important career values are
                      • Why they are so important to you; and
                      • How to use them to improve your career.

                      You might do this part of the activity with a friend and take turns to discuss answers, or bring your responses to a career discussion with your manager or coach.

                      1. Each person can assign different meanings to their values:
                        What do your top 3-5 career values actually mean to you? Why?
                      2. Looking at the important and very important columns, often people can detect patterns in their values, such as a preference for innovation and creativity or doing work that is structured and predictable:
                        Are there any patterns you can detect in your results?
                      3. When your job is consistent with your career values, you usually enjoy greater job satisfaction:
                        In what ways and to what extent are your most important values reflected in your current work? Could this be improved? If so, how?
                      4. Career and life values often change over time:
                        Do you think your career values have changed over the past five to ten years? If so, in what ways? Can you predict how they may change in the future?
                      5. Thinking about what matters most to you provides the foundation for successful career planning and change:
                        How can you use your most important values to guide your next career change?

                      Contact us

                      For further information or advice about your career contact us here.