What Career Next!

Ca r eer Change and Pl acemen t Specia li sts

CAREERS AND YOUR PERSONALITY - WHAT CAN YOU

CHANGE?

There is a school of thought developed by Edgar Schein that people have a single self-
image that grows with them over time. This led Schein and others to develop the idea that
people had single career preferences or needs that they should seek to fill by matching
their job with this self-image. He called this preference their career anchor and proceeded
to research them. He found that there are eight such career anchors that I have listed
below. His research showed that people indeed do seem to have one and only one strong
career anchor. From knowing this anchor, they can better choose their career and job to
satisfy their needs. On this basis, they can be happier and more productive at work. The
eight career anchors are:

1. Technical/functional competence
2. General Managerial competence
3. Autonomy/Independence
4. Security/Stability
5. Entrepreneurial Creativity
6. Service/Dedication to a Cause
7. Pure Challenge
8. Lifestyle

His research showed that even if you have a job change, a change in country or a change
in fortunes your career anchor would not change.

This is because it links directly to your image of yourself. How you see yourself and what
you believe it is important for you to do. This concept grows on you through the twenties
and thirties as you try various roles in life and your idea about yourself and your values
crystallise. His research found this happened to the people that he researched.

He says that if an individual does not know his or her own needs and interests then they
will not be able to manage their career effectively. Therefore, the responsibility for self-
knowledge rests with the employee to find out about themselves. Companies, on the other
hand, can facilitate this process, by either making such tests available internally or
sponsoring them externally.

What about your personality and your career? How do these two aspects relate?

I find that many people do not really understand what is personality. They can confuse it
with many things including their interests, or their values and beliefs, and their
preferences and abilities. So perhaps we can briefly discuss some definitions for everyone
to consider…
Personality = a collection of traits (lasting over time and consistent in the individual such
as optimistic; opposed to states which are temporary conditions of the person such as
anger). This collection is a unique combination that reflects the each individual’s lasting
character. Can be changed only moderately after adulthood by external circumstances;
say by specific traumatic events.

Personality Development = the interaction of innate characteristics (traits) with the

environment, promoting some traits and modifying or inhibiting others. Studies through
childhood and beyond show that the inborn traits and characteristics (like activity level,
attention span, adaptability to changes in the environment, and general mood) are very
persistent over time.

Abilities = accomplished skills, skills already learnt. Learning is also a skill, so that
someone may have a strong (or weaker) learning ability. Abilities can be grouped
together, such as intelligence, or divided into specific sub-groupings like mechanical,
musical, clerical, etc.

Interests = Activities that you find attractive and want to pay attention to or engage in.
Things that you like to do, reflecting your values and preferences.

Values = Internal rules that you use to determine acceptability of actions, situations and
choices. Grows over time and through social (family) learning.

Now that we have all these aspects introduced let’s put them together into a career
matching process. Companies invest a lot of time and resources to ensure that candidates
are eligible for jobs. Eligibility means that the candidate has the required qualifications
and experience to enable them to do the job. This gives no guarantee of how well the
candidate will do the job. Past-experience is only a moderate guide to future
performance. It is incomplete as a candidate screening process.

How well is the candidate going to ‘fit’ with your company and how well do they ‘fit’
with the job itself? These two aspects are called suitability. A candidate’s suitability for a
job can determine up to 90% of their success rate on the job. Suitability covers the
following eight different areas:

1. Task preferences
2. Work Environment preferences
3. Motivation and Stress management
4. Attitudes
5. Interests
6. Personality
7. Interpersonal skills/preferences
8. Decision making skills/preferences

This collection of characteristics predicts on the job performance up to 90% when

properly matched to a researched profile of the job.
Job interviews and a check of the candidate’s background will only give slightly better
than chance results or only 55% percent chance of successful performance on the job.

What Career Next! uses a single tool, the Harrison Inner View to assess these eight
characteristics. The reports produced allow the candidate to be specifically assessed
against the job (or career path) and their ‘fit’ measured and quantified.

So we come back to the start … what can be changed? Can the candidate change their
results on this assessment somehow to improve their match to a particular job? We can
now answer what can and what cannot be readily changed:

CAN BE CHANGED HOW TO CHANGE CANNOT BE EASILY

CHANGED

SKILLS Training and education, PERSONALITY

Practice

ATTITUDES Self analysis, experiences, TASK PREFERENCES

feedback

KNOWLEDGE Training and education, WORK ENVIRONMENT

reading, internet surfing … PREFERENCES

INTERESTS Experience, education and

training

MOTIVATION Self analysis, experiences,

feedback; education and
training, social group
changes

STRESS Education and training,

MANAGEMENT practice, lifestyle changes

Oh, there is one more important thing that CAN be changed: your CAREER. I will cover
this in a future article.

John M. Read
Certified International Job & Career Transition Coach
Managing Consultant
What Career Next!
Registered in Singapore
career@magix.com.sg
Tel: (65) 354 3551