Career Anchors: The Changing Nature of Careers Facilitator's Guide Set

John Van Maanen and I co-authored this 4th edition of the Career Anchor booklet and self-analysis interview to bring readers up to date on the changing nature of the workplace, the labor market, and contemporary career realities. We have included new exercises to help analyze the nature of work and the potential trade-offs that need to be made between personal development, family, and career development. This self-analysis is especially relevant to mid-career and retirement issues where congruence between one's skills, one's motives, and one's values becomes critical. The booklets contain text on career development theory, a facilitators guide for career workshops and, most important a number of self-administered exercises to help the reader figure out what his or her career anchor is. We have found all of the career anchors in every occupation but how talent is preserved and how careers are developed differs both by occupation and by type of anchor.

I recently attended a career development workshop at MIT with the EMBA class of 2011-2015 and all of the panelists pointed to this book as being the major resource for the new career paths that they chose. I am excited to take this course as I have had the opportunity to be a student of John Van Maanen and enjoy his insights and practical approach. It is rare that one group of diverse leaders recommends one resource but that is what I witnessed.

The advertising on this is not clear. The Facilitator's guide also includes the self-assessment book and the participant workbook so if you purchase this there is no need to buy the other two books. I did and so now have duplicates and wasted my money, very unhappy about this. The resources are good but if you already have the Schein Career Anchors self-assessment and participant workbook then don't bother purchasing the new editions as there is not sufficient additional information within them to make it worth the cost.