Your values

Your values show what is important to you and have a significant effect on your career choices. Values are shaped by your family, community, work environment and life experiences.

Examples of how values can influence career decisions

• Matome is unhappy with his current administrative job and wants more challenges. He sees a job advert at his company for a sales representative training programme and is interested. If he takes the position, it will mean a lot of travelling. Is he willing to be away from his family for long periods? Is the excitement of travelling for a sales job more important?
• Shamila is good at organising events such as weddings and birthday parties for her family and friends. Does she take the risk and resign from her secure job to make event planning a full-time business?

Activity: My values

Below are some common values (you can add your own if you prefer). Read through the list and take note of the five that are most important to you:

How will your values influence your studies?

Can you link your values to specific occupations? How would your values be supported by the career choice you are making? How would your career choice support your values?

Complete the following sentences to understand how your values influence your studies:

• My life is meaningful when…
• My career is meaningful when…
• My study time at Unisa is meaningful when…

Further resource

O*Net online has a function where you can search for occupations linked to specific values. Click on “Advanced search” on http://www.onetonline.org and then select “Work values” from the drop-down list. Click on the values that match your top values as identified above. You will get a list of occupations related to the values important to you.