The (not so) new career paradigm

The “new career paradigm” is a popular concept in organisational literature and posits that today’s career has significantly changed in comparison to the last century, with careers being more diverse and people engaging in more downward and lateral job changes and changes of occupation. Canadian researchers now tested these assertions by comparing career mobility patterns across four generations of workers. They observed significant differences in job mobility and organisational mobility across generations, with younger generations being more mobile. However, despite the increased mobility of younger employees, the diversity of career patterns has not undergone a significant shift.

Lyons, S.T., Schweitzer, L., Ng, E.S.W. (2015) "How have careers changed? An investigation of changing career patterns across four generations", Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 30(1), 8–21.

How satisfied are you with your career choice?

Career choices are one of the major life decisions and therefore strongly linked to life satisfaction and well-being. According to a study with Croatian college students, several characteristics are linked to satisfaction with career choice. Generally the tendency towards experiencing regret after having made a decision is not beneficial to career choice satisfaction. Instead, having confidence in the made decision and committing to it is beneficial for immediate satisfaction. In the long term career choice satisfaction is predicted by a greater number of considered alternatives, perceiving the primary choice as appealing, and a sense of immediate satisfaction with the made decision.

Bubic, A. (2014). Decision Making Characteristics and Decision Styles Predict Adolescents’ Career Choice Satisfaction. Current Psychology, 33(4), 515-531,