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
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.)
Attribute Results
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.
Variety Highest Attribute
Strategic Insights
With variety in your top attributes, you should consider jobs that don’t necessarily look the same from one month to the next, or even from day to day. One option could be project-based jobs. You may also enjoy working on a team where everyone needs to wear multiple hats from time to time (for instance, most startups). Variety comes with unpredictability, which for some is a perk. You get to solve problems, and you’ll often be thrown into situations in which you are not yet an expert. This is a fast track to gaining competency and experience across many different areas.
Variety doesn’t necessarily mean a chaotic or unpredictable workplace (though it can in some fields if that’s what you want). Some jobs, such as K-12 teaching, coaching, and construction, have variety built into them because of the different topics, lessons, projects, and people you interact with every day.
To find a job that’s high on variety, look for positions that have structural reasons for why your work would vary. Does the position entail working for diverse clients on their various needs? From consulting to accounting to home remodeling, working with clients is one way that variety can be built in. Another often overlooked source of variety is working on a small team or in a small company. As part of a smaller firm, relatively few people must address the day-to-day tasks and problems. Everyone has to pitch in for the venture to succeed. This is a good way to avoid boredom.
Interview Questions
- How many clients do we work with at any given time, and how different might the jobs be for various clients?
- What will my day-to-day work look like? (Often, in positions with high variety this will be a hard question for them to answer, which is a good thing in this case)
- How big is the team I will be working on and how do job assignments get handed out?
Job Search Tips
- Look for the words “client” and “project” or “project-based” or “many/multiple/different hats.” These are not the only ways to find jobs with high variety, but they’re a great start.
- Want variety? Go work for a startup. There are job boards that post positions specifically for startups and you will likely end up doing work across all sorts of areas in a fast-paced environment.
Autonomy
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.
Purpose
Strategic Insights
With purpose high in your results, you should look for opportunities to connect your efforts with the employer's mission, or even to a deeper purpose. You will likely find the greatest satisfaction in your work if you are part of a cause or have a clear sense of who you are serving and are not just collecting a paycheck or working up the corporate ladder. Focus on what matters most to you and look to connect with organizations that share your passions. Realize that you can find purpose in many different areas, including in your contribution to clients, your co-workers/team, or the overarching goal/mission of the organization.
The trend over the last decades has been for people to come into the workforce hoping to receive more purpose from their jobs than previous generations did. This is tricky because satisfaction is based on expectations, and high, but unmet, expectations can lead to disillusionment, which is devastating to intrinsic motivation. Your labor and your life are intrinsically valuable, so you want your hours of effort each day to contribute towards making a difference in something you care about. Of course, you can make a difference in your relationships and hobbies outside of work. But if you scored high in purpose, you want to feel that the work you are doing is making a difference in the world.
Making a difference comes down to our humanity. We are social creatures which is one of our greatest strengths. This means that making a difference comes from usefully serving other people, or even things (such as the environment, trees, or stray animals). The more you can draw a connection to how the work you do serves others the happier you will be. There’s not just one way to do this either. Find what works for you. Surprisingly, many accountants feel high levels of meaning in their work. An in-depth study discovered more than 10 different ways that they found that meaning. Some felt meaning in their role as the referee for the financial marketplace, others found great meaning in helping their companies organize their resources, while others loved contributing to their team and coworkers.
It is worth knowing that not everyone is like you. Many people won't feel deeply connected to the mission or will simply consider it just a nice side benefit to the job. Their approach is just fine. Try to avoid being frustrated by those whose passion for their work is not equal to yours.
In the end, there are more ways to find meaning in your work than most realize. However, almost no jobs will feel that way all the time. Doctors spend a lot of time doing paperwork, and firefighters spend a lot of time on false alarms and waiting in the station, so temper your expectations a little bit. In the end, purpose comes from relationships and service. Even in the best jobs you won’t feel it all the time but try to find a position that resonates with the contributions that you want to make.
Finding purpose in your job is more like feeling healthy. It takes work that is sometimes disruptive and unpleasant, and that doesn’t mean you’re spending every second basking in ecstasy and pleasure because of your health. Instead, it will infuse your entire life and upgrade everything a little bit. It will make the hard/sick/unhealthy times a little better. It will also give you moments from time to time that are rich and powerful, where all of the meaning of what you are doing comes rushing in on you. Savor these. But remember, even if you have a very fulfilling job, don’t forsake your life and relationships outside of work; research shows that longer-term purposes and life-satisfaction almost always relies more heavily on how we prioritize the “life” part of the work-life balance.
Interview Questions
- Can you tell me more about the people your organization serves?
- Why did you (the founders) start the company?
- How do you (the interviewer) feel about the mission of the company?
Job Search Tips
- Look at the company mission statement. It will tell you what the company values. Try to find a company that is aligned with your values.
- See if you can find customer testimonials that speak to the impact the company has made.
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.
Excitement
Strategic Insights
First things first, scoring low on excitement doesn't mean you like boring work or that you are boring. There are plenty of very boring wilderness firefighters. What this means is that you don't need your work to provide that excitement for you. This is a great asset because it gives you flexibility where others, who really want to find excitement AT WORK, don't have it.
Because excitement is often the result of some amount of chaos, jobs that focus on making things run smoothly, creating steady growth, and organizing or arranging things can be very fulfilling even if they are less exciting.
Excitement is a whole-body experience, and day-in-day-out, excitement can be rough on a person. People who desire excitement at work often pay for it in other areas, like salary. They may also be more susceptible to dropping the ball in the less adrenaline-filled aspects of their life, such as personal development or their relationships. You can maximize your need for adventure and excitement elsewhere, and let work be work.
Remuneration
Strategic Insights
Having remuneration at the bottom of your results table does not mean that you don't care about money. We all need money. What is suggested by this result is that after meeting your basic needs and personal financial goals, how much money you make takes a backseat to other forms of compensation. You might prefer to be “paid” with more time with family, a friendly work environment, or a prestigious title.
A study from Princeton University found that having a higher income increases happiness only up to about $80,000 per year. Beyond that higher pay doesn’t influence our happiness very much, and other things start to matter more. Most people think that being rich will make them happy. Relatedly, most people making $80,000 a year don’t feel rich, but studies show they are just as likely to be happy as people who are making much more money. With remuneration low on your list, you are free to prioritize other values.
Also, with remuneration low on your list, you may struggle to relate to people who are constantly chasing after more money. You may even be tempted to judge their pursuit of wealth. Try to fight this urge. Like you, they are looking for respect and self-worth, and their paycheck might be their measuring stick.
Training Lowest Attribute
Strategic Insights
With training at the bottom of your results, you are likely comfortable figuring it out as you go. Many companies, particularly startups, do not have formal training and mentorship programs. This lack of structure and process is frustrating for many people and can lead to turnover. But, for someone who can cope or maybe even thrive with a lack of direction, there is an opportunity to provide value and find success. Since you can compromise on training, you will have more options. If you’re happy with your job position, but don’t feel a great need for new training, there’s a good chance you are starting to turn more of your creative attention towards projects and relationships outside of your work. This is very healthy.
Opportunities for training become fewer and fewer as your responsibilities increase and when you work independently. A word of caution, don't run before you can walk. We all need training. Don't be too eager to reject the voice of experience. However, with training low on your list of professional needs, you could be ready to consider more of a senior role.
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