Carrier interruption: behavioural pattern in the structure of personal professional mobility

Abstract

The research paper analyzes the phenomenon of career interruption as an integral part of a personal professional and social mobility. The necessity of changing traditional patterns of career building in a post-industrial (transformational, crisis) society is substantiated. It is shown that the career interruption from an extraordinary event has become a habitual way to build a life path. Changes in career trajectories (even those that occurred involuntarily) in most cases lead to a significant improvement in working conditions and overall satisfaction with life. In this context, interruption is a necessary element of career strategy and personal self-realization.

The processing of biographical interviews (108 subjects with different career paths) allowed us to identify two pronounced behavioural phenomena that determine the path of career development: the interruption pattern and the workplace stability pattern. Each is represented in 12% of the sample. The career interruption pattern is characterized by the following criteria: changing jobs or positions more often than once every 3-4 years; a fundamental change in the type of activity during the professional career; career success is measured by subjective criteria; own values and goals are definitely given more priority over corporate ones.

As a result of content analysis, a classification of the reasons for interrupting a career has been made. In most cases, a set of objective factors and subjective interpretations take place. The leading place among the reasons for dismissal is a feeling of professional success, realizability, usefullness (or lack of it). Of particular interest are the gender aspects of professional mobility: in addition to the obvious reasons for the suspension of professional advancement associated with childbirth, internal motivating factors of career development were found (the social role of the family breadwinner in men and interpersonal aspects of professional relationships in women). The assumption that the development of career crises, among other subjective and objective reasons, is often determined by parental career scenarios is substantiated. In general, a change in employment as a significant life event is assessed positively and has beneficial effects in professional self-realization and career satisfaction. It is proved that the experience of career movements is a condition for the most effective self-realization of the individual in the profession.