Career adaptability.

Abstract

D ue to the dynamics of today's working world, individuals are faced with constantly changing work environments. As a consequence, careers are increasingly self-determined and require self-management, flexibility, and adaptability from individuals. Individuals thus need to develop the necessary skills and resources to successfully adapt to career dynamics and take increased individual responsibility for the development of their careers (Hall et al., 2018;Hirschi, 2018). Alongside these changes, individuals need to make career choices more often across their lifespan, and therefore they also need to successfully manage expected and unexpected career transitions and traumas throughout their life course (Savickas, 2013). This ongoing trend in the fundamental nature of careers has increased scholarly interest in how individuals can actively design their careers and has given rise to career development theories, such as career construction theory (Savickas, 2005) and life design (Savickas, 2012;Savickas & Pouyaud, 2016). According to these theoretical perspectives, career adaptability is important for successfully developing one's career and the ability to implement a vocational self-concept. Career adaptability resources refer to an individual's psychological resources to cope with development tasks, occupational transitions, and work traumas (Savickas, 2013). As such, career adaptability resources are seen as essential contributors in mastering career transitions and personal functioning.In this chapter, we first outline the historical background, development, and different perspectives of the concept of career adaptability. In a second section, we highlight empirical findings from exemplary studies, ranging from early to