Career Drivers - MentorEU - Personalised Career Coaching, Career Services and Advice

Identifying Your Career Drivers

Understanding what drives you is a critical step in your journey of finding a career that makes you happy. It’s about understanding how you make decisions, behave and communicate with others.

Below are listed 36 pairs of reasons, often given by people when they are asked about what they need from their career. You have to evaluate the relative importance to you of the statements within each pair and allocate 3 points (no more, no less) between each pair. For instance, in pair 1 you might allocate 2 points to the first statement, and 1 point to the second, making a total of 3 points. Alternatively, you maydecide to give all the points to one statement and none to the other.

The letters given before each choice are for scoring purposes and you don’t need to take any notice of them at this stage. Be honest and spontaneous in your answers.

Questions

1 .
A - I will only be satisfied with an unusually high standard of living
B - I wish to have considerable influence over people :
A
B
2 .
A - I will only be satisfied if the output of my job has real value in itself
B - I want to be an expert in the things I do :
A
B
3 .
A - I want to use my creative abilities in my work
B - It is especially important to me that I work with people I like :
A
B
4 .
A - I would obtain particular satisfaction by being free to choose what I do and when
B - I want to make quite sure that I will be financially secure :
A
B
5 .
A - I enjoy feeling that people look up to me
B - I want to be wealthy :
A
B
6 .
A - I want a substantial leadership role
B - I do what is meaningful to me, even though it may not result in tangible rewards :
A
B
7 .
A - I want to feel I have gained hard won expertise
B - I want to create things which people associate with me alone :
A
B
8 .
A - I seek a deep social relationship with others in my work
B - I would get a lot of satisfaction from deciding how I spent my time :
A
B
9 .
A - I will not be content unless I have ample material possessions
B - I want to demonstrate to my own satisfaction that I really 'know my stuff' :
A
B
10 .
A - My work is part of my search for meaning in my life
B - I want the things I produce to bear my name :
A
B
11 .
A - I seek to be able to afford anything I want
B - A job with long term security really appeals to me :
A
B
12 .
A - I seek a role which gives me substantial influence over others
B - I would enjoy being a specialist in my own field :
A
B
13 .
A - It is important to me that my work makes a positive contribution to the wider community
B - Close relationships with others at work is important to me :
A
B
14 .
A - I want my personal creativity to be extensively used
B - I would prefer to be my own master :
A
B
15 .
A - Close relationships with others at work give me a special satisfaction
B - I want to look ahead in life and feel confident that I will always be OK :
A
B
16 .
A - I want to be able to spend money easily
B - I want to be genuinely innovative in my work :
A
B
17 .
A - I enjoy telling other people what to do
B - For me, being close to others is really important :
A
B
18 .
A - I look on my career as part of a search for greater meaning in life
B - I have found that I want to take full responsibility for my own decisions :
A
B
19 .
A - I would enjoy a reputation as a real specialist
B - I would only feel relaxed if I was in a secure career :
A
B
20 .
A - I want to feel the trappings of wealth
B - I want to get to know new people through my work :
A
B
21 .
A - I enjoy a job which gives me control over how other perform
B - It is important to me that I can choose which tasks I undertake :
A
B
22 .
A - I would devote myself to work if I believed that the output would be worthwhile in itself
B - I would take great comfort in knowing how I will stand on my retirement day :
A
B
23 .
A - Close relationships with people at work would make it difficult for me to move
B - Being recognised as part of the 'establishment' is important to me :
A
B
24 .
A - I would enjoy being in charge of people and resources
B - I want to create things that no-one else has done before :
A
B
25 .
A - At the end of the day, I do what I believe is important, not that which simply promotes my career
B - I seek public recognition :
A
B
26 .
A - I want to do something distinctively different from others
B - I usually take the soft option :
A
B
27 .
A - I want other people to look to me for leadership
B - Social status is an important motivator for me :
A
B
28 .
A - A high standard of living attracts me
B - I want to avoid being tightly controlled by a boss at work :
A
B
29 .
A - I want my products to have my own name on them
B - I seek formal recognition by others of my achievements :
A
B
30 .
A - I prefer to be in charge rather than have someone else in charge
B - I feel concerned when I can not see a long way ahead in my career :
A
B
31 .
A - I would enjoy being a person who had valuable specialist knowledge
B - I would get satisfaction from not having to answer to others far what I do :
A
B
32 .
A - I dislike being a cog in a large wheel
B - It gives me satisfaction to have a high status job :
A
B
33 .
A - I am prepared to do most things for a material reward
B - I see work as a means of enriching my personal development :
A
B
34 .
A - I enjoy a prestigious position in any organisation I work for
B - A secure future attracts me every time :
A
B
35 .
A - When I have congenial social relations at work, nothing else really matters
B - Being able to make an expert contribution would give me particular satisfaction :
A
B
36 .
A - I enjoy the status symbols which come with senior positions
B - I aspire to achieve a high level of specialist competence :
A
B