Career Anchors: Discovering Your Real Values and Guide (Pfeiffer Career Series) [Paperback]

Edgar H. Schein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1993 | Series: Pfeiffer Career Series

In many cases, people select a career for all the wrong reasons, and find their responses to the workplace are incompatible with their true values. This situation results in feelings of unrest and discontent and in lost productivity. To help people avoid these problems, the newly-revised Career Anchors is designed to help people uncover their real values and use them to make better career choices. This revised edition includes two new sections, "Major Stages of the Career" and "Career Movement, Progress, or Success." Instructions and other components have been revamped for clarification, the references have been updated, and the contents have been rearranged for more convenient usage in classes and workshops. Career Anchors can help you think through your career options and give you a clear understanding of:
* Your own orientations toward work
* Your motives
* Your values
* Your talents
The Career Anchors Instrument and Trainer's Manual provide a systematic way of exploring how you perceive yourself, based on your own experiences. The instrument is divided into three parts?the orientations inventory, the career anchor interview, and the conceptual material. Career Anchors will help people:
* Define the themes and patterns dominant in your life
* Understand your own approach to work and a career
* Provide reasons for choices
* Take steps to fulfill your own self-image

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

EDGAR H. SCHEIN is professor of management at the Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. One of the founders of the field of organizational development, Schein has authored numerous books and consults with organizations worldwide. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 87 pages
• Publisher: Pfeiffer & Co; Rev Sub edition (March 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0893842109
• ISBN-13: 978-0893842109
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,011,378 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, a ray of light!, September 30, 2004

By 

John M (Montclair, NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Career Anchors, Workbook: Discovering Your Real Values (Paperback)

More than a detailed analysis of the book, this is about my experience with it.

Having taken various aptitude and interest tests, personality type tests, and career counselling, I was still without a clue as to what work would be satisfying for me. I have been told that with my broad range of aptitudes, broad knowledge, and variety of skills, that I "could do anything". I have been told that my abilities are both a "blessing and a curse" because the ones I'm not using will demand expression. So, I've had this tortured search for satisfying work. Meanwhile, I've done a bit of everything: technical writing, designing and building computer hardware and software, systems analysis, I even ran a factory for 5 years! But I've always wondered "where is this all getting me"? "Career Anchors" was recommended to me as a way to answer my question, and I got the book without expecting much.

But to my surprise and delight, I found that the author is the ONLY writer I've found who sees the most important factor in finding one's work is your own internal motivators. His point is that you do best what you have the most motivation to do. In my own words: when you get up in the morning, what is it that you look forward to? What gets you up and going? (He's not so informal.)

I found that my motivation is Pure Challenge!! Did anyone ever identify that anywhere else?! Now I understand why my "career" has been all over the map - everything I've tackled has been deemed by others as impossible - and I've enjoyed tackling and overcoming these challenges. That's been the thread and my motivator. Knowing this makes it much easier to evaluate opportunities and decide whether or not to tackle them.



This is not a difficult book - you can read it in two hours - but what is explained in it is so clear and easy to understand that I'm sure there is value to everyone. And nobody else that I know of is looking at careers this way. It is truly refreshing.

The worksheet exercises are comprehensive, and if you do them carefully, could take 4 to 6 hours. But the value and the benefit will be a permanent help in your job search.

Don't expect this book to solve everything, but DO expect to gain valuable insight about yourself not offered by other writers.

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Discover Your Career Anchor, Now what?, March 20, 2000

By 

Christopher Rodriguez "Organizational Develop... (Houston, TX - USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Career Anchors: Discovering Your Real Values and Guide (Pfeiffer Career Series) (Paperback)

After reading this book and taking its quizzes, I found that it provided a good start for insight into one's career anchor. Unfortunately, the journey ends at "discovery". It failed to address how to maximize one's "career anchor" or how to further develop oneself within the anchor. This book will help you determine what your career anchor is (what motivates and stimulates you) and then it will end there. You are left in the dark with how to develop your career around your anchor. The book, however, is true to its subtitle "Discovering your real values"-- but doesn't delve into what to do after this discovery.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful Personal Assessment., February 15, 2009

By 

Diane M. Pfadenhauer "Human Resources Lawyer" (New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Career Anchors, Workbook: Discovering Your Real Values (Paperback)

This is the earlier version (2000) of Career Anchors which was updated a few years ago. For the lay person, probably not a big difference between the two. You will likely find the materials and self-awareness that results from using this tool similar. The newer version is also available here on Amazon and, again, highly recommended: Career Anchors: Participant Workbook (Pfeiffer Essential Resources for Training and HR Professionals)