What is career anchors?

Answer 1

Your 'career anchor' is what really drives you at work. It is a mixture of your motives, values and how you see your own personal competence. An American academic called Edgar Schein developed the concept. He researched the themes that underpin career choice. Differences in Career Anchors help to explain why some people with similar background, education and professional training make such different career choices. For example, some engineers are intrinsically interested in their profession, enjoying the challenge of resolving complex technical problems; others see their profession as a step towards senior management, happy to leave the technical problems to others. Others quickly set up their own business, anxious to create their own enterprise and to make their distinctive mark on the world. The difference is due to their career anchor: The underlying drive or combination of drives that motivates each person to make one choice rather than another. A career anchor is the one thing that a person would not give up if forced to make a choice.

Answer 2

Your 'career anchor' is what really drives you at work. It is a mixture of your motives, values and how you see your own personal competence. An American academic called Edgar Schein developed the concept. He researched the themes that underpin career choice. Differences in Career Anchors help to explain why some people with similar background, education and professional training make such different career choices. For example, some engineers are intrinsically interested in their profession, enjoying the challenge of resolving complex technical problems; others see their profession as a step towards senior management, happy to leave the technical problems to others. Others quickly set up their own business, anxious to create their own enterprise and to make their distinctive mark on the world. The difference is due to their career anchor: The underlying drive or combination of drives that motivates each person to make one choice rather than another. A career anchor is the one thing that a person would not give up if forced to make a choice.