Career anchors Career Management November 2008

What defines the “career anchors”? While accumulating experience people acquire information about themselves in three basic areas: 1. They discover their true motives and needs 2. They discover the talents and skills they possess 3. They discover their feelings of comfort or discomfort in various work situations

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 The anchor is those elements of the self- image that people would not give up if they are forced to make a choice

Types of career anchors 1. Autonomy / independence People need and want control over work and want to be recognized for achievements; can’t tolerate other people’s rules or procedures; need to do things in their own way; independent consulting and contract work would be a good fit for these people; want to be left alone to do their work; just give them instructions on what you want, when you want it and let them “go to it!” Type of work selected: seek autonomous professions such as free-lance consulting, teaching, independent small- business people, contract or project work, or even temporary work; part or full-time acceptable.

Types of career anchors 2. Security / stability People need long-range stability and security, after that they need to relax For these people: safe, secure, predictable are buzz words; motivated by calmness and consistency of work; don’t like to take chances, and are not risk-takers; stable companies are best bets; strive for predictability, safety, structure, and the knowledge that the task has been completed properly; unused talents may be channeled outside work. Type of Work: stability and predictability are key; emphasis on context of job rather than content or work (in other words, pay, benefits, work environment most important).

Types of career anchors 3. Entrepreneurial 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. Type of Work: strong need to create something new; bored easily; inventions; restless; constantly seeking new creative outlets.

Types of career anchors 4. Pure challenge People discover that what they need is a sense of challenge or surmountable obstacles, or powerful opponents against whom they can compete. Here the strongest desire is overcoming obstacles; conquering, problem-solving; competition; winning; constant self-testing; single- minded individuals. Type of Work: careers where competition is primary.

Types of career anchors 5. 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. People enjoy using core skills; skills don’t have to be technical in nature; can be a human resources worker or a secretary and enjoy using the skills needed for those positions; motivated by learning new skills and expanding current knowledge base. Type of Work: What turns these types on is the exercise of their talent; satisfaction with knowing concepts. If it is not a challenge, technical/functional types feel bored and/or demeaned. Content of actual work more important than the context of the work. In other words, it is the actual work they are concerned with not the organization or the overall mission of their work; teaching and mentoring offers opportunity to demonstrate expertise.

Types of career anchors 6. General 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 People view specialization as limiting; primarily want to manage or supervise people; enjoy motivating, training and directing the work of others; enjoy authority and responsibility, and when someone strips of control it is “demotivator;” thrive in three areas of competence – analytical, interpersonal/intergroup, and emotional. Type of Work: high levels of responsibility, varied, integrative, leadership.

Types of career anchors 7. Service or dedication People define themselves by commitment to some deep value as teaching, environmentalism, human resource management, medicine, defence of the country, etc. People are motivated by core values rather than the work itself; strong desire to make the world a better place. Type of Work: high concentration of service- oriented professions, motivated by pursuit of personal values and causes.

Types of career anchors 8. Lifestyle This anchor is not specifically related to career but to integration of work and family issues – the working career is organized around the career of a spouse or in terms of the geographic area in which they want to live People have a high need to balance work and the rest of life; enjoy work, but realize that work is just one of many parts of life that are important; subscribe to philosophy of “work to live”, rather than “live to work.” Type of Work: careers must be integrated with the rest of life flexibility; desire to work with organizations that accept and promote balance; some individuals unwilling to relocate for reasons of life balance.