Career Anchors Inventory
This questionnaire alone will not reveal your career anchor because it is too easy to bias your answers. However, it will activate your thinking and prepare you for the discussion with your interviewer.
Try to answer the questions as honestly as you can and work quickly. Avoid extreme ratings except in situations in which you clearly have strong feelings in one direction or the other.
How to rate the items
For each of the next forty items, rate how true that item is for you in general by assigning a number from 1 to 6. The higher the number, the more that item is true for you.
1.
I dream of being so good at what I do that my expert advice will be sought continually.
2.
I am most fulfilled in my work when I have been able to integrate and manage the efforts of others.
3.
I dream of having a career that will allow me the freedom to do a job my own wayand on my own schedule.
4.
Security and stability are more important to me than freedom and autonomy.
5.
I am always on the lookout for ideas that would permit me to start my own enterprise.
6.
I will feel successful in my career only if I have a feeling of having made a real contribution to the welfare of society.
7.
I dream of a career in which I can solve problems or win out in situations that are extremely challenging.
8.
I would rather leave my organization than to be put into a job that would
compromise my ability to pursue personal and family concerns.
9.
I will feel successful in my career only if I can develop my technical or functional skills to a very high level of competence.
10.
I dream of being in charge of a complex organization and making decisions that affect many people.
11.
I am most fulfilled in my work when I am completely free to define my own tasks, schedules and procedures.
12.
I would rather leave my organization altogether than accept an assignment that would jeopardize my security in that organization.
13.
Building my own business is more important to me than achieving a high-level managerial position in someone else’s organisation.
14.
I am most fulfilled in my career when I have been able to use my talents in the service of others.
15.
I will feel successful in my career only if I face and overcome very difficult
challenges.
16.
I dream of a career that will permit me to integrate my personal, family and work needs.
17.
Becoming a senior functional manager in my area of expertise is more attractive to me than becoming a general manager.
18.
I will feel successful in my career only if I become a general manager in some organization.
19.
I will feel successful in my career only if I achieve complete autonomy and freedom.
20.
I seek jobs in organizations that will give me a sense of security and stability.
21.
I am most fulfilled in my career when I have been able to build something that is entirely the result of my own ideas and efforts.
22.
Using my skills to make the world a better place to live and work is more
important to me than achieving a high-level managerial position.
23.
I have been most fulfilled in my career when I have solved seemingly unsolvable problems or won out over seemingly impossible odds.
24.
I feel successful in life only if I have been able to balance my personal, family andcareer requirements.
25.
I would rather leave my organisation than accept a rotational assignment thatwould take me out of my area of expertise.
26.
Becoming a general manager is more attractive to me than becoming a senior functional manager in my current area of expertise.
27.
The chance to do a job my own way, free of rules and constraints, is more important to me than security.
28.
I am most fulfilled in my work when I feel that I have complete financial and employment security.
29.
I will feel successful in my career only if I have succeeded in creating or building something that is entirely my own product or idea.
30.
I dream of having a career that makes a real contribution to humanity and
society.
31.
I seek out work opportunities that strongly challenge my problem solving and/orcompetitive skills.
32.
Balancing the demands of personal and professional life is more important to me than achieving a high-level managerial position.
33.
I am most fulfilled in my work when I have been able to use my special skills and talents.
34.
I would rather leave my organization than accept a job that would take me away from the general managerial track.
35.
I would rather leave my organization than accept a job that would reduce my autonomy and freedom.
36.
I dream of having a career that will allow me to feel a sense of security and stability.
37.
I dream of starting up and building my own business.
38.
I would rather leave my organization than accept an assignment that would undermine my ability to be of service to others.
39.
Working on problems that are almost unsolvable is more important to me than achieving a high-level managerial position.
40.
I have always sought out work opportunities that would minimise interferencewith personal or family concerns.
At this point, please look over your answers and locate all of the items that you rated highest. Pick out the THREE (3) items that seem most true for you. List the items below.
Question #
Question #
Question #
Name
Phone
Email
Preferred Method of Contact
Phone
Email
Address
