Career Anchors - Personality

This Career Anchor is usually subdivided into two categories.  First, there are those people whose careers are anchored in the stability of employment in an organization.  This person becomes strongly identified with the company and seeks the security of a long-term employment relationship, regular wages, and a modest progression through the ranks.  They show loyalty, the willingness to change locations if the company and the job require it, and the acceptance of whatever assignments come along. The second type of security anchor is geographic location.  These individuals are strongly rooted in the region, often have most of their family members in the same area, are active in the community, and may sacrifice promotion and standard of living to avoid moving from one location to another. Success for security anchored people is experienced through having contributed to a company over the long haul, regardless of the level of that contribution.

This anchor applies to people who have an overriding need to do things their own way, in their own time, and independent of others to the greatest extent possible.  Being autonomous should not be confused with being an entrepreneur.  Building a new business and taking risks is not necessarily a component of autonomy.  People who value autonomy and independence may find the typical organizational roles constraining and prefer to pursue organizational career paths that are out of the ordinary.  This independence is characteristic of what many organizations call individual contributors, or internal consultants. The autonomy-anchored person does not feel a strong sense of loyalty or obligation to the organization and would probably refuse a promotion or transfer if it meant giving up his or her independence.  If they work in large organizations, they are attracted to jobs in which independence is possible: research and development, field sales, data processing, financial analysis, etc. Sometimes autonomous individuals reach a high level of education in their striving to be free, independent, and self-reliant.  Many professionals such as university professors, doctors, lawyers, individual corporate contributors, internal corporate consultants, and free-lance consultants have chosen careers that allow them to express their autonomy.