Career Change: Myth or Reality?

Abstract

There are many compelling social and economic reasons why managers and professionals may decide or be obliged to consider changing careers at mid life. While 30 years ago, only two out of every 100 executives were likely to make a radical career change, during the last decade, this figure has risen to 35 per cent. In reviewing the literature, examines the needs and motives for career change and the individual, organizational and wider societal factors likely to facilitate or impede that change. Reports on a continuing study comparing the experiences and characteristics of successful and unsuccessful mid‐career changers and suggests that personality differences may play an important role in determining outcomes.

Understanding career commitment of IT professionals: Perspectives of push–pull–mooring framework and investment model

“…As life expectancy increases, the length of time which the individual is likely to spend engaged in work is far greater than in the past. Holmes and Cartwright (1993) suggested that this will cause people to doubt or reassess their initial career choices and to consider more potentially appropriate options.…”

“…The "career" can be defined as a sequential, predictable, organized path through which individuals pass at various stages of their working lives (Holmes & Cartwright, 1993). Commitment is defined as a participant's tendency to maintain a relationship (Kelley & Thibaut, 1978) and feel psychologically attached to it (Rusbult, 1983).…”

“…Career commitment is important because of its potential links to work performance. Past research indicates that individuals who are highly committed to their careers have been shown to spend more time in developing skills, and be obliged to consider changing careers (Holmes & Cartwright, 1993).…”

The Occupational Career Revisited

“…The concept of career in the vocational sense has changed as well in the last few decades (Evetts, 1992;Holmes & Cartwright, 1993). In the early 1950s and 1960s, Ginzberg and his associates (1951), Roe (1956Roe ( , 1957, Super (1953), Krumboltz (1964), and Holland (1966) concept of career proposed by these vocational scientists implied a linear upward trajectory of work positions, usually within a particular professional category or work organization.…”

“…This concept of career is captured by Wilensky (1960), who described it as "a succession of related jobs, arranged in a hierarchy of prestige, through which persons move in an ordered, predictable sequence" (p. 554). The concept evolved from static to dynamic and, by the 1970s and 1980s, the concept of career implied a linear but not necessarily upward or orderly trajectory of movement through all of an individuals' occupational roles in a series of transitions (Evetts, 1992;Ginzberg, 1972;Hall, 1996;Holmes & Cartwright, 1993;Louis, 1980aLouis, , 1980bSchein, 1980;Super, 1980). Career can be narrowly or globally defined within the modern conceptualization.…”