Your Results

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.

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.

Strategic Insights

With clarity high in your results, you should prioritize positions that have clearly defined processes, outcomes, and expectations. Many of the most satisfied employees are so happy because they see that they have become very good, even expert, at something. The feeling of mastery, and making progress towards mastery, is one of the greatest gifts work can offer.

This doesn’t mean that you need your hand held to succeed—far from it. It simply means that success is clearly defined. Through hard work, ingenuity, and brilliance you can become more successful in your role every day. Look for jobs where there is little mystery to how success is measured or achieved, then you can spend your time becoming great instead of guessing what you’re supposed to do.

One great way to add some clarity to your role is to seek careers that are marked with formal credentials and certifications. This helps you and others keep track of what you are capable of doing. It is easier to measure your skills in a credentialled field. (This is why credentialing is very difficult for painters and waiters, but much easier for doctors and accountants). Clarity in what you need to know lends itself to clarity in what you need to do, which is something you appreciate, and for good reason.

Remember that, as with predictability, you can help your manager provide you more clarity. Just do it in a humble and non-accusatory way. Say something like, “I have a few questions for you so that I can make sure I give you exactly what you're looking for,” are almost always going to lead to more clarity.

Interview Questions

• What would a typical workday look like?
• What would your dream employee for this position become excellent at?
• How clearly is success is measured in this role?

Job Search Tip

• The interview is a great place to gain insight. Some clarity comes with the type of position you are applying for, but far more often comes from how clearly management lays out their expectations. Ask lots of questions about what is expected and pay attention to how precise or “squishy” the answers are. “Squishy” expectations often lead to high levels of uncertainty, making it harder to know what things to spend time on and undercutting mastery.

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.

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.

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.

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 equally effectively but approach their work entirely differently. Their success and happiness depend largely on their ability to work in the most effective way for them.

Strategic Insights

Scoring low on autonomy doesn’t mean you aren’t self-motivated or independent. The opposite of autonomy is coordination. This indicates that you like being part of a team. You enjoy the interactions and the feeling of being an important part of a multi-faceted team or process. Many high-profile careers are relatively low autonomy (acting, professional sports, politics, etc.) because their outcome and processes are deeply intertwined with the work of others, and that’s great! Don’t look at low autonomy as a negative.

That said, nobody likes to be micromanaged. Even in the most interdependent positions, find out how managers oversee and correct the work of people in positions you are considering. Micro-managing drives everyone crazy and makes it harder to do great work, so ask a current employee if management is respectful of individuals and their work. Also, when you become the manager, remember that giving people as much discretion as you can within the needs of the project has vastly better outcomes than micromanaging. Unnecessarily reducing autonomy can obliterate intrinsic motivation.

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.

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.