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In the 1960s the Sloan School of Management in the US carried out a longitudinal study of several hundred people in various career stages and discovered 8 major career categories. Everyone is concerned to some degree with each of these but 1 is always the most important of these 8:

1. Technical/Functional Competence
2. General Manager Competence
3. Autonomy/Independence
4. Security/Stability
5. Entrepreneurial Creativity
6. Service/Dedication to a Cause
7. Pure Challenge
8. Lifestyle

Any other words used have always proved to fit within one of these 8 major categories. Power and creativity, for example, seem to be universal needs and are expressed in different ways by each of these categories. The technical/functional person expresses power through superior knowledge and skill; the entrepreneur through building an organization; the general manager through obtaining a position that provides rank, influence, and resources; the service-oriented person through moral persuasion; and so on. Similarly, creativity can be displayed in each of these 8 major categories in different ways. Click here: for more details on these 8 categories.

Whilst many career situations make it possible to fulfill several categories, making a choice unnecessary, everyone has one category which is the one thing that person would not give up if forced to make a choice. As yet, all the evidence is not in as to whether or not the number 1 category changes over time. Too few people have been studied for long enough periods of time to determine how this evolves. However, 15 of the original participants have been followed over 30 years: thus far the weight of evidence is on the side of stability.

This can be expected because, as people clarify their self-images – as they become more aware of what they are good at, want and value- they tend to want to hold on to those self images. The better people know themselves, the more they want to hold on to those insights.

At the same time as people gain insights into their own careers and what they value most, they can use these insights to better match their needs with those of the organizations they work with (even though matching two dynamic processes of this sort is at best difficult). The primary responsibility of each of us is self-insight and using the insights to manage one’s career constructively.

Click here: for questions to help determine
your main career category