What Is Your Career Anchor?
The thing you would not give up, even for a better-paid job
Edgar Schein followed people through their working lives and noticed that each had something they kept returning to when a career decision got serious - mastery of a craft, running things, freedom, security, or a job that fits around life. He called it a career anchor: not what you enjoy, but what you refuse to trade away. This test scores five of the anchors so you can see which ones pull hardest, and which barely register.
Before you start There are no right answers. Pick what is usually true for you, not what sounds best.
Picture real choices - two job offers, a promotion with strings attached, a move to another city - and answer with what you would actually do, not what sounds ambitious.
What it measures
Five of Schein's eight career anchors: technical or functional competence, general management, autonomy, security and lifestyle. It is not the same as career interests, which ask what kind of work you enjoy, or personal values, which cover your whole life: anchors are about what you will not give up inside a career.
Based on: Career anchors (Schein, 1990; Danziger & Valency, 2006)
Possible results
Technical mastery
Becoming really good at a specific field or craft.
Management
Being responsible for results by bringing people and functions together.
Autonomy
Deciding for yourself how, when and where you do your work.
Security
A stable job, a predictable income and a future you can plan.
Lifestyle
A career that fits around your family and personal life.
Common questions
What are the eight career anchors?
Schein's eight are technical or functional competence, general managerial competence, autonomy and independence, security and stability, entrepreneurial creativity, service or dedication to a cause, pure challenge, and lifestyle. This test covers five. The three left out overlap with other Quinthea tests - entrepreneurial creativity and challenge with competitiveness and risk-taking, service with personal values.
How are career anchors different from career interests?
Interest models ask what kind of activity you enjoy - building, helping, analysing, organising. Anchors ask what conditions you refuse to give up, whatever the activity. Two engineers with identical interests can have opposite anchors: one wants to become the leading expert, the other wants freedom to work as a consultant. Quinthea's career interests test covers the first question; this one covers the second.
Can your career anchor change?
Schein thought anchors were fairly stable once formed, but that they only form after several years of real work experience. Later research is less certain, and life events clearly move some anchors - security and lifestyle in particular rise with family responsibilities. Treat your result as a snapshot of what matters now, and compare it with what you have actually chosen in the past.
Sources
- Schein, E. H. (1990). Career Anchors: Discovering Your Real Values. University Associates.
- Danziger, N., & Valency, R. (2006). Career anchors: Distribution and impact on job satisfaction, the Israeli case. Career Development International. doi:10.1108/13620430610672513
- Danziger, N., Rachman-Moore, D., & Valency, R. (2008). The construct validity of Schein's career anchors orientation inventory. Career Development International. doi:10.1108/13620430810849506
- Barclay, W. B., Chapman, J. R., & Brown, B. L. (2013). Underlying factor structure of Schein's career anchor model. Journal of Career Assessment. doi:10.1177/1069072712475179
An honest note The items are Quinthea's own wording adapted from Schein's Career Orientations Inventory, so scores are not comparable to its norms. Only five of the eight anchors are here. The evidence is mixed: one large study found entrepreneurship and creativity worked better as separate anchors, and another found the proposed links between anchors fit the data only weakly. Schein also held that anchors emerge after years of work, so early-career results are provisional.