What is a Career Anchor, and how will it guide your job search? Unemployment can be devastating. It can also be an extraordinary journey that can lead you to you to your innermost self. Being unemployed offers the opportunity to discover, and uncover what it is you truly want to do. To do what you are, not what you know how to do, can lead to personal transformation.

When I was in graduate school studying organization development, I was introduced to the work of OD leader, Edgar Schein.

According to his website: “Edgar Schein of MIT has identified eight themes and has shown that people will have prioritized preferences for these. For example a person with a primary theme of Security/Stability will seek secure and stable employment over, say, employment that is challenging and riskier. People tend to stay anchored in one area and their career will echo this in many ways. ” (The link provided annotates Schein’s scholarly work)

What does understanding organization behavior, culture and change have to do with your job search? I contend that when a recruiter’s placements fail, it is in some measure because of a lack of due diligence to match the candidate to the culture. Conversely, job seekers don’t connect the dots to honestly assess whether or not the culture of the company with which they are interviewing is a match with their work style, personality type, values, and personal culture. Culture is the hidden ingredient to a successful transition.

First, you have to know yourself. Find an anchor, and do competitive analysis to determine if the organization is a fit. Too often, job hunters focus on skill sets, faulty job descriptions, vague explanations spoon fed to them by hiring managers and recruiters. (Please don’t cane me fellow recruiters-I know the good ones make efficacious assessments-and make informed decisions based on the available data).

This brings me to my next question, what do you do when the company with whom you are interviewing isn’t giving you a complete picture. Face it, some hiring managers don’t understand the question, “describe your organization culture.”

Now, the ball is in your court. I suggest you read more about Schein’s Career Anchor tool. It’s brilliant, and will provide you with insights you would not otherwise glean from your MBTI or DiSC profile. The Strongs Interest Inventory is too general in many cases. FiroB is not easy to understand without a trained facilitator. SHL’s Occupational Personality Profile is impossible to understand without a thorough WPS work place profiling system’s skill-based job profile.

An excellent career coach can take you through the Career Anchors Inventory, s/he can help deepen your knowledge and understanding of culture.

@HRMargo

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