What is the career anchor?
The career anchor was developed by Edgar Schein (MIT in Boston) based upon decades of research on people’s career paths. What is it that determines our “inner career”, what are fundamental themes, attitudes and abilities which frequently determine the direction of careers in a concealed way and form the basis for our decisions about career paths? Schein found out that the concealed models of career paths can be attributed to eight basic orientations which he named “career anchors”.
With the concept of the anchor, Schein expresses that the anchor decides where we are drawn, in what direction we develop professionally and ultimately remain. Particularly at crossroads in career development, a conflict with one’s own “anchors” can be particularly beneficial in order to make the decision that is right for that specific individual. In this way, the career anchor is an orientation aid for professional career decisions. Frequently, one focuses too much on the “external career” and overlooks the internal images of one’s career. The career anchor offers the possibility of checking and producing consistency between the planned career path and the internal counterpart.
How does the career anchor work?
The tool offers three opportunities for access to one’s own career models: Via a questionnaire, through a rather long, structured interview with another person about one’s own career development and via a self-assessment. From these three information sources, usually the person who is participating receives a clear image of their professional tendencies.
Opportunities for Use
The career anchor may be used in potential assessment procedures as a supplement to other tools (individual and group assessments). The tool is especially well-suited for career planning, both in internal personnel development processes as well as in the course of coaching and consulting.
