Career Anchors: Discovering Your Real Values (Pfeiffer Career Series) Paperback – April 3, 1993

This is truly a "Discovering your real values" tool. I would recommend that one would do the entire process of the workbook, and not try to only get by with part of it. I am a mid-life career changer, and found it very interesting... not what I would have thought. I strongly recommend this workbook.

I love this book and it is full of important information. Definitely recommend this book for anyone who needs a good read.

I have used Edgar Schein's Career Orientations Inventory, that is in this book for readers to complete, with hundreds of individuals. It is a powerful way for someone, as Schein says in the Introduction, "to identify your career anchor and to think about how your values relate to your career choices. When you know your career anchor, you empower yourself to confront career choices and decisions in a manner consistent with what you truly value and how you really see yourself."Once you complete the inventory Schein takes you through a description of what your answers to the inventory mean. He then provides a very clear framework for you to be interviewed by "a partner with whom you feel free to share the events of your career so far." He provides a list of 18 questions for the partner to ask that provide a detailed, personal framework for how your career anchors relate to your own remembrances of your career development.The inventory and partner interview provide information that allows the reader to create a career plan that is based on real, concrete information about what is most important to them in their career moving forward.

Thank you

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.

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)

Have you ever wondered if you're in the right career? Well I am a trainer in a 13,000+ staff company & 10% of them don't really know why they're not satisfied with their job. Well, it's because they're in the wrong job. This book gives you exercises to help you understand more about your values and gives suggestions on how to change that. If you're in career consultant business, this is a classic book to read and adopt to your existing tools.

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.

This book could be good for an experienced profesionnal who want to made the good descision in his career path but do not fit the need of rookies

Great