Success and satisfaction in a career often stems from our deep understanding of our career goals and motivations. Edgar H. Schein, a famous American career guidance expert and professor at the Sloan School of Business at MIT, proposed the Career Anchors theory through 12 years of research, providing a strong framework for personal career planning. Through a long-term follow-up study of 44 MBA graduates at Sloan Business School, Professor Shi En proposed the career anchor model has become a widely used career assessment tool worldwide, helping individuals and organizations better understand career motivations, decision-making and development paths.
What are Career Anchors?
Career anchor , as the name suggests, refers to the stable self-cognition and professional orientation formed by an individual in his career. It determines our understanding and choice of career goals, roles, and career development direction. Career anchors reflect an individual’s core values and motivations, helping individuals make decisions that are consistent with their own values during their career development.
Professor Shi En believes that career anchors occupy an important position in an individual's career and are usually formed at the early stages of the individual, relatively stable over time. Once an individual recognizes his or her career anchor, he or she can make a career choice that is more satisfying and successful.
Eight types of sirens occupational anchors
Shi En divided career anchors into eight types , each type reflecting different career motivations and preferences. The following is a detailed analysis of each career anchor to help you better understand your career positioning:
Technical/Functional Anchors
This type of people focus on improving their professional knowledge and skills, like to become experts in a certain field, and achieve personal achievements through improving their technical capabilities. They seek satisfaction in their professional work.Managerial Anchors
People with management-oriented career anchors pursue leadership and management positions, enjoy the fun of organizing and guiding others, and achieve their goals by influencing others' work.Autonomy/Independence Anchors
People with independent career anchors value independence and freedom, tend to start a business or engage in freelancing, avoiding any form of restrictions and constraints.Security/Stability Anchors
For those who pursue safety and stability, they prefer positions with stable income and job security, and are usually more inclined to traditional work environments and positions.Creativity/Entrepreneurial Anchors
People with innovative career anchors pursue creation and challenges, like to solve complex problems, develop new ideas and new methods, and are usually adapted to rapidly changing industries or entrepreneurial environments.Career-oriented (Service/Dedication to a Cause Anchors)
People with career-oriented career anchors closely connect their career goals with social values and the welfare of others, and are willing to contribute their own strength to society.Pure Challenge Anchors
This type of person seeks continuous challenges and growth, likes to face difficult tasks, and gain a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction by overcoming challenges.Lifestyle Anchors
People with lifestyle career anchors pay more attention to the balance between work and life and choose careers that can provide time flexibility and good integration of work and life.
Why is it crucial to understand career anchors?
Understanding the type of career anchor you have can help you make career choices better, thereby improving career satisfaction and sense of accomplishment. When an individual’s career anchor does not match the work or organizational environment he or she may feel dissatisfied or lack of motivation. Therefore, the career anchor theory not only has a guiding role in individuals, but also has important significance for talent management of enterprises and organizations.
How to discover your career anchor?
To help you explore your career anchor, Professor Shi En developed Career Anchors Assessment , a simple and effective career assessment tool that helps you understand your preferences and motivations in your career through a series of questions.
The Shien Career Anchor Test contains 40 descriptions of career goals, motivations and career values, and participants answer according to their true ideas. This test is suitable for professionals who already have certain work experience. It is recommended to have work experience of about 1 to 3 years so that the test results are more instructive.
Test calculation method :
After the test is completed, calculate the score of each profession anchor and find the top 3 profession anchors with the highest score based on the score. Through these scores, you will be able to have a clear understanding of your main career anchor and plan your career based on it. It should be noted that certain descriptions may be particularly consistent with your daily thoughts, and you can add points to these descriptions to reflect your particular preference for certain professional anchors.
Career anchor and career planning
Understanding your career anchor is essential to developing career development strategies and choosing the right job. It can help you:
- Identify career directions that suit you : Choose an industry, position, or work environment that matches your career values and motivations based on the type of career anchor.
- Improve career satisfaction : avoid occupational fatigue and dissatisfaction by matching personal interests and work content.
- Set long-term career goals : Set clear career development goals based on the direction provided by the career anchor.
Free participation in career anchor test
Career anchor theory not only helps individuals understand their career motivations and directions, but also provides organizations with a powerful tool to optimize talent management. By understanding career anchors, you will be able to make smarter career decisions and improve your career satisfaction and success rate.
Now you can take the Career Anchor Test for free and explore your career positioning. With simple questions, testing will help you identify the types of anchors that best match your career values and guide your career choices and development. Click the Start Test button below and discover your career anchor!
