Career anchors

What is the career anchor?

Career anchor is the evolving self-image,
including self-perceptions of motives, skills
and values
The more life and work experience, the
stronger the sense of who we are and the
stronger the anchor

Types of career anchors

1. managerial competence
2. Security / stability
3. creativity
4. Technical / functional competence
5. Autonomy / independence
6. Service or dedication

Types of career anchors

1. managerial competence
People want to manage other people, to integrate
functions and to be responsible for an entire unit
or an organization. They measure their progress
by climbing up the managerial ladder, showing
analytical skills, interpersonal and group skills,
emotional capacity to deal with high level of
responsibility

2. Security / stability
People need long-range stability and security, after
that they need to relax
safe, secure, predictable are buzz words;
motivated by calmness and consistency of work;
dont like to take chances, and are not risktakers; stable companies are best bets; strive for
predictability, safety, structure, and the
knowledge that the task has been completed
properly.

3. creativity
People need to be personally creative in building something
larger than themselves. They measure themselves by the
success of this enterprise.
People like the challenge of starting new projects or
businesses, have lots of interests and energy, and often
have multiple projects going at once; different from
autonomy in that the emphasis is on creating new business;
often pursuing dreams at early age.

4. Technical / functional competence

People define themselves by their competence in a
certain knowledge base, skill or a craft. They are
the best engineers, mechanics, surgeons,
salespersons and may fail when they are pulled
into managerial jobs.

5. Autonomy / independence
People need and want control over work and want
to be recognized for achievements; cant tolerate
other peoples rules or procedures; need to do
things in their own way;

6. Service or dedication
People define themselves by commitment to some
deep value as teaching, environmentalism, human
resource management, medicine, defence of the
country, etc.