Plenty of people leave jobs they found genuinely interesting. The work was fine; the pay, the manager, or the lack of autonomy was not. That gap is what work values describe: not what you enjoy doing, but what a job has to give you in return.
Here is how our work values card sort works and how to read it honestly.
Work values describe what a person needs from a job in order to find it satisfying, as distinct from what activities they enjoy. This test administers the O*NET Work Importance Locator, a twenty-card sort published by the U.S. Department of Labor, which ranks six work values: Achievement, Independence, Recognition, Relationships, Support, and Working Conditions. Its scores are ipsative — they rank a person's values against each other, not against other people.
The six values
The test administers the O*NET Work Importance Locator, a twenty-card sort published by the U.S. Department of Labor.
- ✦Achievement: using your abilities and seeing results.
- ✦Independence: working on your own initiative and making decisions.
- ✦Recognition: advancement, prestige, and being noticed.
- ✦Relationships: good co-workers and work that serves others.
- ✦Support: a supportive employer and fair, competent management.
- ✦Working Conditions: pay, security, and a good environment.
Why you must put exactly four cards in each column
Ask people how important things are and almost everyone says almost everything is important. Six near-identical high scores tell you nothing about what you would actually trade away. Forcing the distribution is what makes the ranking readable — it is the instrument's design, not a website limitation.
It also means scores are ipsative: they rank your values against each other only. A high Support score means you put it above your own other values, not that you value support more than the average person.
Read the top, not the middle
In the publisher's own study, students who took the sort twice two months apart got the same top value 62% of the time, but the individual scores were much less stable. The User's Guide concludes the tool supports identifying your highest value and should not be used to rank all six. Treat the top of your list as a signal and the middle as noise.
The questionnaire itself was retired by the Department of Labor in June 2024; the occupation-side work-value ratings we match you against are still part of the current O*NET Database.
Values plus interests
Interests tell you what work might hold your attention; values tell you what would make you stay. Pair this with your Holland Code — the site shows where the two occupation rankings overlap, side by side, without blending them into one score.