What Your Scores Mean
These scores are calculated as a percentage of the possible points you could have scored for each attribute. This can help you understand how strong your leanings are towards a specific trait. As you might guess, a higher score means you identify with an attribute more. This isn't a right-or-wrong type of score- just an extra indicator of your preferences!
What is the Domain Breakdown?
This is a snapshot of what form of compensation matters most to you and the balance between them. The report is intentionally broad and should be used only as a guide as assess your fit with an opportunity. The three domains (Approach, Environment, and Outcomes) are presented as a diagram proportionally divided to correlate with your responses. We find it helps to see the forest before we focus on the trees.
Your Results
Your results have been compiled below! With WorkFit DX, you will see your High-low Report, which includes breakdowns of your top 3 and bottom 3 key indicators, as well as your Mid Report, which shows which attributes fall in the center of your workplace preferences.
Check out our guide on How to Read Your Results.
Domain Breakdown
What's this?The strength of our Domain scores indicates what domain and category of attribution we value most. While not as specific as the individual results that follow, these results help us better understand our priorities and enable more productive conversations with our employers. Consider focusing negotiations and team-building discussions around the Domains that are strongest, even if you need to give a little on the side of the circle that is smallest. (For more tips on developing Domain-based strategies, contact a Career Placement Specialist.)
High Report
The following results represent the Attributes that contribute most to your fit with employment opportunities. With the insights shared below, you should be able to develop a strategy that will effectively support career selection, contract negotiation, employee evaluation, and self-discovery.
Training Highest Attribute
80%
What's this?Strategic Insights
Earlier in our careers, as well as when we are changing industries or job functions, training can be one of the most valuable forms of compensation. Training is an investment. It can be valuable both monetarily and for our long-term progress. Professional training is, on some level, why we go to university and accept apprenticeships or internships. With training high in your results, you might be at a time in your career where gaining access to expertise could be of value to you. Consider a position where you will get quality mentorship and learn the "insiders' tricks" even if this training comes at the cost of a larger starting salary, an impressive title, or other desirable outcomes.
While many focus on the external benefits of their job, you can focus more on the internal. Rather than simply giving you things of value, you want a job that will make you more valuable. This pays great dividends in the future. Studies show that we are constantly seeing ourselves on a path towards our “ideal self.” Though we may not talk about it a lot, we do care about it, and a job that you feel is helping you to move in that direction is a job where you are happier and less likely to leave.
The extrinsic motivations for training are easy to explain. More skills generally equate to greater monetary reward for using those skills. Don’t overlook the internal benefits, however. When you feel you are improving in something, you feel better about yourself, and for good reason! You’re succeeding on your path toward a more ideal self! In a sense, when a job is helping you to develop, there is more to who you are today than there was yesterday. Training may be formal, through workshops, tuition reimbursement, or certifications, or informal, through challenging but (mostly) achievable goals that require you to learn new things to succeed.
Recognize that not all training or mentors are equally valuable to you. You've likely heard that "the advice is only as good as the person giving it." Be selective about who you trust to train you. The mentor-mentee relationship is one of the most powerful in business. Choosing the right mentor can accelerate your career rapidly. Just as selecting the wrong trainer can set you back.
Interview Questions
- Can you tell me about any training programs you have for new hires?
- Are senior members of the company available to advise newer employees?
- If I have a question or want feedback on my performance, to whom should I direct my questions?
Job Search Tips
- Seek out positions with formal mentorship or onboarding programs for new hires.
- Identify the attributes of your ideal mentor and then seek out opportunities to work with individuals who possess these qualities.
Flexibility
73%
What's this?Strategic Insights
With flexibility high in your results, you want to be able to blend your work life with the needs and desires you have for the rest of your life. Well, you're in luck! Research shows that those who value flexibility and free time tend to be the happiest and most satisfied with their lives. Why? Because they avoid the (un)happiness traps of spending too much time focusing on things that don't actually make them happy and might even make them miserable.
Consider looking for a job that is outcome-oriented, perhaps project-based, and where strict, in-person time is not highly prized. More and more employers are making it possible for people to be more flexible with their work. Flexibility can be found in hourly jobs, salaried positions, and production-based work. Management is the single most important factor in determining the flexibility of the company's operations—more significant even than the industry or company.
Covid-19 has led to some dramatic changes regarding flexibility and work. A 2021 Harvard study found that of those who switched to working remotely, only 12% wanted to go back to work every day in the office, the rest wanted to either stay fully remote or return to a hybrid situation with some days remote and some in-office every week. Why? The main reason: flexibility. It turns out that feeling like you are constantly under the watchful eyes of your employers and co-workers can dramatically curtail how much flexibility you feel your job has. Remote work has not impacted productivity. Rather, it has allowed people to prioritize other, often more important things, in their lives.
This is a fast-moving situation, but things will not go back to the way they were before because most workers who have tasted flexibility don’t want to give it up. Increasingly, the companies offering the most flexibility will be able to get the best talent. This is good for you. With a little legwork and flexibility on your part, you will have more choices to arrange work the way you want across the different stages of your life.
Interview Questions
- Is there a set time that I am supposed to arrive and leave every day?
- Are there any employees who have taken non-traditional approaches to this position?
- What is the company's sick day/vacation policy?
Job Search Tips
- Don't be sneaky about this. If you're hiding what you really care about now, there are two things you need to realize. First, you're going to keep hiding these things once you're hired, which will not lead to more flexibility. Second, if you're applying for a job where you FEEL you need to hide these things, it’s probably a sign that the company won’t give you the flexibility you're looking for.
- Most jobs that are actually flexible are upfront about it during the interview process because it's attractive. So, speak openly about your priorities. To excel in flexible jobs, you need to earn trust. The better your work is, especially when it's done while utilizing flexible working arrangements, the more trust you will earn, the less your manager will worry about what you're doing, and the more freedom you will have.
Autonomy
70%
What's this?Autonomy is an APPROACH
Satisfaction in our careers depends on how we do a job, not just the nature of the work performed.
Two people can fill a role effectively but approach their work very differently. Their success and happiness depend largely on their ability to work in the most effective way for them.
Strategic Insights
With autonomy high in your results, you value being trusted and appreciate having room to figure out your own way of doing things. The intrinsically motivated respond most positively to autonomy, and when given that autonomy they become more motivated.
Autonomy is the level of discretion you have over your work and how you do it and is deeply intertwined with ownership and trust. The higher the skill level needed for a job, the more autonomy you have. Being an expert at something has many perks, and one of them is higher levels of autonomy. Studies show that workers who have higher levels of autonomy in their job tend to have better job performance, satisfaction, organizational commitment, lower work-related stress, less fatigue, and more intrinsic motivation.
You can approach attaining high levels of autonomy from three different angles. Autonomy is largely decided by what position you’re in within the company, what type of work you do, and who your manager is. Some positions lend themselves to more autonomy, but a micromanaging manager can interfere with your independence.
One secret to finding jobs with high autonomy is to become a manager. Managers, however, are not always known for being particularly good at what they do, which is no wonder, because most of them have never had formal training in management (it’s been proven)! Professional management training is a great way to get a high-autonomy job in virtually any field you’re interested in. Consider an MBA or MPA, for example. People who complete these kinds of programs have very high starting salaries, learn skills that can be applied almost anywhere, and usually find jobs with very high levels of autonomy.
You will have success if you look for jobs where your performance is outcome-based and your work processes don’t rely on high levels of coordination. It’s also worth noting that autonomy doesn’t necessarily mean working alone (though it can). High functioning and close-knit teams can still have high levels of individual, and team, autonomy. You’re looking for a role where your tasks are relatively self-contained, and levels of trust are high.
Interview Questions
- How is success measured in this role?
- Who else do people in this role need to work with to be successful?
- Who else in the company can do this role? (Often roles that cannot be done by others have higher levels of autonomy—whether that’s being the company data-wizard, tax accountant, or courier. If nobody else can/will do it, it’s harder to micromanage you.)
Job Search Tips
- One of your greatest assets here is current employees; they are often far more willing to share how things actually happen than those in charge of the hiring. You can ask the hiring manager if you can talk to a current employee, or, if you’re a little braver, just reach out to them yourself. Tell them you're considering taking a job at their company and that you’d like to ask them a few questions about working there.
- Jobs with high levels of autonomy often come with higher levels of reward (intrinsic or extrinsic), some can also come with higher levels of risk (for instance, pure commission sales). You now know that you care about autonomy, so think about applying that to your job search. Do an honest self-evaluation to determine how much you want social interaction with co-workers, and/or some level of oversight to keep you on task. That can help you narrow down the types of high-autonomy jobs you’re looking for.
Low Report
These Attributes are the least relevant to your finding a professional fit. While not as important for you to recognize as the positively correlated Attributes, we have found that, because no job is perfect, it is helpful to know what you might be able to give in exchange for what you need from an employer.
Clarity
47%
What's this?Strategic Insights
Having clarity in your bottom three means that you are ok with relatively high levels of uncertainty. High tolerance for uncertainty, and even a little chaos, can allow you to thrive where others falter. Still, beware of managers that have unnecessarily vague expectations.
High tolerance for uncertainty is inherently entrepreneurial and makes you well suited for being on the cutting edge of new initiatives. You are a good fit for spearheading the creation of new projects within companies or even creating new companies. Consider looking for jobs in startups. There are job boards exclusively for positions in startups. These jobs often come with high levels of uncertainty, creativity, team comradery, and even a little company ownership, which can sometimes pay off in big ways. You never know, and that’s kind of the point. People who score very high on clarity have a hard time in creative fields, and often burn out. Because you don’t (right now) you can potentially thrive in fields such as the arts and entertainment where outcomes tend to be subjective and success is very hard to define upfront but easier to recognize after the fact.
Sociability
40%
What's this?Strategic Insights
Scoring low on sociability does not mean that you are naturally bad at networking, nor does it mean that you work best alone. It just means that you do not require as much social interaction to be fulfilled at work. With sociability low in your rankings you might not be greatly impacted by relationships with your co-workers. Office politics can have little or no impact on your life unless they make getting the job done more difficult. You can confidently seek employment that is remote, or independent.
Sociability is one of the rarest attributes to find at the bottom, most people need to interact with others to achieve any degree of personal satisfaction. You may need to go out of your way to interact with others and to help them feel welcomed and valued as members of the team. This is particularly true if you are in leadership. Your progress at work will also largely depend on your ability to interact with others. Networking can be critical to advancement.
Status Lowest Attribute
30%
What's this?Strategic Insights
Having status-seeking relatively low in your motivations means that you can more easily find value and meaning in your work without being constantly recognized by others, (though it virtually always feels good to be admired). It can also mean that even in less meaningful/enjoyable job you are getting enough respect and esteem in your life outside of work that you don’t need as much affirmation from your job and co-workers.
Not needing as much external validation opens up good opportunities that others might not enjoy and has the side benefit of helping to keep you away from some of the potential pitfalls and temptations of self-aggrandizement. On the flip side, you might not do a good enough job of self-promotion and might even downplay your accomplishments. You might want to look a little deeper and see if the work you have done is better than you are giving it credit for. Because you don’t get as much satisfaction as others from external affirmation, it might not occur to you how important it is to recognize your own achievements.
Mid Report
These key-indicators, while not as relevant to your personal strategy, should be studied and understood because over the course of your career it is likely that one or more of these results will increase in importance to you. There also might be an insight or question that will be of value to you.
Remuneration
67%
What's this?Strategic Insights
How much money you make impacts practically every aspect of your life. It determines what you can buy, where you live, and when you can retire. With remuneration high on your list, you are aware of the power of money. Your lifestyle, and, to a degree, your self-worth are tied to how much you make. Accordingly, your job needs to be aligned with your life and financial goals. It may feel similarly important to you that your pay accurately reflects your contribution to your employer. If what you are paid and how you value yourself are out of balance, you will likely be dissatisfied at work. You might even come to resent your employer.
Pay transparency can be crucial for those who value remuneration highly. A common source of conflict between individuals with high remuneration in their results and their employers is the differences in pay between employees, particularly if the employee's contribution is viewed as inconsistent with their compensation. These issues are exacerbated when that information is discovered rather than disclosed.
Valuing remuneration does not mean that you will tolerate a terrible job. One huge study of current employees found that across all income levels, pay is not the top predictor of workplace satisfaction. Instead, it is the culture and values of the organization, followed closely by the quality of senior leadership and career opportunities within the company. These are the hallmarks of good employers. This makes sense. Making a lot of money can help you achieve certain goals in your life, but it does not make a miserable job much less miserable, nor does it make up for relationship casualties that can come from an unbalanced life. There is absolutely nothing wrong with valuing remuneration. Money creates opportunities and can enable a very balanced, fulfilling life. Keeping that balance is up to you. So, within the scope of your financial goals, continue to diligently research the jobs that are available and pick the one that meets your financial needs, but that you will also enjoy as much as possible.
Interview Questions
- What is the starting salary (if not posted)?
- If I perform well, what can I expect to earn five years from now?
- Are there opportunities to earn additional commissions or bonus pay?
Job Search Tips
- With remuneration high on your list, you should consider employers who are transparent about pay. It would also be worthwhile to consider commission-based employment or opportunities with performance-based bonuses.
- Apply for jobs where the pay scale can be determined. Some employers publish their salary information. For other positions, you may need to search for this information elsewhere. Often you will be able to find at least an approximate salary. Without salary insights, you will likely apply to jobs that aren't viable options for you, based on your financial requirements.
Excitement
63%
What's this?Strategic Insights
With excitement high in your results, you're looking for something that provides you a literal physical/psychological reaction, at least from time to time. Excitement and work are not often spoken of together because most jobs, even great ones that people really enjoy, aren't usually exciting. Luckily, there are plenty that are. Nobody wants a monotonous job, but you would probably prefer something beyond just “not monotonous.”
Excitement is mental, but it has effects on the whole body. It is motivating, thrilling, and can enliven your senses. Excitement is also associated with perceived danger, and there are many jobs with a risk of physical danger (firefighter, etc.). These important jobs require people who thrive in dangerous situations. Physical danger, however, is not the only form of perceived danger. Social danger can also be exhilarating. Virtually any type of performance in front of a crowd is exciting, from arts to athletics, to public speaking, sales, or even teaching.
Excitement at work often overlaps with unpredictability. A hallmark of exciting work is solving unexpected problems on the fly. Sometimes these will place you into situations that you weren’t prepared for, and to be honest, are not even fully qualified to handle. But you may be the best or only one available to do it. Done right, this can lead to a lot of growth and personal development. People who can make things happen AND make good decisions on the fly in high-stress situations are diamonds in the rough.
Forging a new path is also exciting. When you can go to bed at night knowing that something new was created today because of the work that you did, that's exciting. While some of the jobs listed above may provide obvious thrills, unpredictability and urgency go hand in hand with excitement and can be found in many positions. Others will often pass up on such jobs because they are unpredictable. It's their loss and your high.
Interview Questions
- What parts of this job do you think will be the most exciting?
- Every job has some boring parts. What do you feel are the most tedious parts of this job?
- Why do you feel most of your employees enjoy working here?
Job Search Tips
- Sometimes excitement is a form of payment all by itself, so the most exciting jobs often don't pay as much as more monotonous jobs. Don't let that deter you! If your financial needs will be met, considering the excitement as part of your pay.
- What's exciting is different for everyone, so you may have a unique opportunity if you are excited by something that others are not. Find dog grooming to be very exciting? Great! Use that!
Predictability
60%
What's this?Strategic Insights
Valuing predictability means that you are likely a planner. You get more done when you know what is expected and probably often exceed those expectations. You are likely frustrated by a lack of structure or when there isn't clear guidance. Recognizing these qualities about yourself will help you make better career decisions.
Knowing in advance how you will be evaluated is crucial to your success at work. Unfortunately, most employers are rarely clear on what they need from their employees. This lack of clarity can lead otherwise talented employees to underperform. As someone who wants to go above and beyond, you may need to help your employer set expectations. Because you value predictability, you will likely see tasks that need to be done before others do. This ability to anticipate needs will make you very valuable to your company as an employee and a leader.
Regardless of the work you are doing, clear communication is the key to predictability and you recognize and value that. Some jobs lend themselves to this type of clarity more than others, which you can usually tell from the outset. Just ask yourself, “How easy would it be to know if I have done the job well, even if I never get any feedback?” If the answer is, “very easy,” that’s built-in clarity, which you value, and which allows you to plan for success instead of wading through chaos.
Predictability can also be a management decision, and you can help with this. If your manager has not given you a clear sense of what successful outcomes will look like and how to achieve them, you can and should ask clarifying questions. Just make sure you do it in a way that doesn’t come across as annoyed or accusatory. Say something like, “I have a few questions to help me make sure I give you exactly what you're looking for.”
A great way to ensure predictability is to take a job in the public sector. More than 15% of the entire workforce is working for the government in one way or another. Virtually every job in the private sector is also available in the public sector. Public sector jobs are known for their predictability. The workday ends at the same time each day, overtime is rarely allowed let alone demanded, there are great benefits, and you will know your schedule in advance. Many lawyers from even the best law schools take jobs in the government because the reliability of work hours, vacation days, and promotions makes having an excellent work/life balance and retirement plans essentially built in.
Interview Questions
- Can you tell me what a typical day working here might look like?
- How will I know if I am doing a good job?
- I want to be a great employee. Can you tell me what makes an employee great in your organization?
Job Search Tips
- Seek out job listings in your industry that are detailed, specifically those that describe job tasks, not just required qualifications.
- Look online for employee feedback, particularly of the company's management team. Often, you can glean from past employees' comments if the leadership is good at providing structure.
Collaboration
57%
What's this?Strategic Insights
With collaboration high in your results, you should look for jobs where you get to be part of a team. In the sports world, you’re more basketball than cross-country. You’d rather be part of a band than a solo singer-songwriter. This is a useful thing to value because people who have jobs that people assume are mundane have some of the highest levels of job satisfaction. Why? It’s often because the people in those jobs get to work closely with others as part of a team, and that’s what they end up enjoying the most.
Having collaboration in your top three means that you are motivated by contributing to a team. Get beyond the tasks and figure out what the work is actually like. Is this really a team project, or is the team just a bunch of people doing their own thing with very little interaction? We’re social creatures and we love to achieve things together. So go watch Apollo 13 or Remember the Titans, and get ready to find a job where you achieve something by collaborating with others.
Interview Questions
- Will I work by myself in this position or collaborate with a team?
- What do others who have this position seem to like most about the job? (see if they say anything about “the people they work with.” That’s a very good sign.)
- Could you tell me more about the team I would be working on? How often do team members see each other and work together?
Job Search Tip
- Again, look behind the curtain. Don’t be turned off by jobs that may look boring from the outside. Accountants, for example, tend to have very high levels of job satisfaction, in large part because of their team-based work. People in these roles often love their jobs because they are part of a team and collaborate on projects. You can leverage this to take good positions, often with higher pay, because you value how and with whom you get to work more than a sexy job title.
Leadership
57%
What's this?Strategic Insights
We give a little more detail in this section than usual because sometimes people are concerned about getting a low score on leadership. Having leadership at the bottom of your results does not mean that you would be a poor leader. What it suggests is that you are someone who can succeed even if your supervisor is not the best. You are capable of being your own inspiration and are self-motivated. With your ability to work even without strong leadership, you don't need to edit your job search much based on the quality of the leadership team.
The most important roles management/leadership can fill for people are motivation, culture, training, and coordination. So, look for a situation where you are excited to work with those on your team, where the culture is already pretty good, where you can train yourself, and where you’re intrinsically motivated to do a good job. 80% of employees say they could do their work without a manager. You just know this upfront! If you’re signing up for a position with a leadership deficit, just make sure you can supply those four things for yourself.
A note of caution, you will probably have a manager so don’t resent them because you feel you don’t need them. They didn’t create their position and most managers have never had any formal training in management. Be dependable and they will appreciate not having to worry about you. Once you have proven yourself, if you feel there is more red tape, oversight, or reporting than necessary, feel free to have a conversation with them and see if some of that can be lessened if you maintain the quality of your work.
Finally, you may be capable of self-management but others around you may need more support. Someday you will likely find yourself in a supervisory role. When you do, make sure that you are offering support and direction to your team, even if you feel they should be able to manage tasks without direction.
Location
57%
What's this?Strategic Insights
With location in your bottom results, you can confidently pursue the best opportunities regardless of their location. You are highly adaptable and can adjust to life in the big city, small town, near family, or far from it. This does not mean that you don't have preferences, just that those preferences don't strongly determine your level of satisfaction at work.
Agility can be a very powerful advantage when job hunting but if overindulged can prevent you from developing the deep roots that are often essential for advancement. Stay flexible on location but keep an eye out for aspects of your location that really resonate with you and try to maintain and maximize those going forward. (Note: Location preference is a domain that often changes over the course of a career. It may be in your top three at one stage of your career and in the bottom at another. Don't assume because it’s at the bottom now, which suggests that you can be happy working anywhere, that you will always be geographically versatile).
Specialization
53%
What's this?Strategic Insights
Scholars often delineate between generalists and specialists. Because you care less about being a specialist, that means you can focus all of your efforts on being an excellent generalist. Great generalists are extremely valuable because they can “speak the language” of different areas of expertise and help them work together. The best generalists are excellent at making connections between different specialties because they have some familiarity with all of them. Specialists are generally less equipped to do this and must rely on generalists to work well with different groups. Generalists often become the best managers.
The generalists who thrive are often specialists in organization and social politics. What this means is that they are particularly good at helping teams work together, organizing their efforts, smoothing over social mismatches between various factions, and helping everyone get the most from their work.
Variety
50%
What's this?Strategic Insights
First off, everybody likes a change of pace from time to time. Having variety low in the report says nothing about your personality. What it says is that you want to know what you’re going to do at work so you can prepare well and become good at it. High variety positions often preclude people from becoming particularly good at any one or a few things. More predictable positions allow you to become better at specific things than when you have little idea what you will be doing from day to day.
Predictable jobs are generally less likely to cause you anxiety. Expected outcomes are generally clearer, so you can look forward to what you're going to do at work with some surety, and you’ll have the chance to get quite good at it. There is a multitude of benefits to having stability in your work.
Low variety positions are where experts are forged. Virtually every single Olympian has a very low variety job. Yet it’s thrilling, they are extremely good at what they do, and they are openly admired by others for it. Low variety overlaps well with specialization. Many people are worried that they don’t know what they want to become experts in. Even if you’re not sure upfront, just pick something and move on it. Studies are clear, just the feeling that you are becoming an expert in something is more satisfying and fulfilling than the anxiety-inducing quest to pick a passion out of thin air. Over time you will discover things you enjoy and learn enough to become the expert you want to be.
Purpose
47%
What's this?Strategic Insights
Having purpose at the bottom of your list doesn't mean that your life is without meaning, nor does it mean that you aren't passionate. It means that you don’t cound on your job to satisfy your passions or give your life purpose. Very often it means that you use the resources provided by your job to facilitate the things that do bring you purpose. Despite all the “follow your passion” rhetoric you were taught about your future career growing up, you are using your work to allow you to find purpose elsewhere and facilitate your other passions. This is very healthy, and more likely to lead to a happy and fulfilled life than trying to find your purpose from your job.
As you search for opportunities, consider that people often make compromises to work somewhere purposeful. The good news is that you don't need to do this. You can look for a job that maximizes your other career goals, even if it means you aren't working for an organization with a mission about which you have deeply held feelings. Flexibility and free time are great tradeoffs to bargain for, and studies show they can help you find more meaning in your life than others who seek purpose primarily from their work.
The Job-Hunt Guidebook
A collection of the most important myths and truths found in the last 20 years of academic studies on interviews, resumes, and applications.
The Truth Behind Job Postings
The great mismatch between how hiring managers view job postings and how applicants view job postings, and how that’s derailing applicants.
The Three Things Employers are Looking For in Applications
in Applications and Interviews and the central questions the interviewer is asking themselves about you.
The Four Lies Employers are Worried About in Your Application
- These affect how they view all applicants, even the 100% honest
- How this changes the way you need to present yourself
- Detailed and specific steps you can take to use this knowledge in your application, resume, and interviews to rise to the very top of the stack