A Wise Choice of a Vocation: Career Exploration and Identity

Career exploration and identity are core aspects of numerous models about the factors that it takes to successfully direct and manage one�s career. Yet, the research on career exploration and career identity often relies on a number of basic assumptions that still await empirical examination. Among these are assumptions about a planful process underlying exploration and identity creation, the role of self-initiated versus social factors that influence exploration and identity creation, and about the order in which these processes occur. The current symposium brings together researchers from the U.S., Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Belgium to test these and further assumptions with the help of a meta-analysis, three longitudinal and one qualitative study. In total, this contribution intends to add to the literature on careers and career self-directedness by (1) critically testing some of the core assumptions underlying our current thinking on career exploration. In this process, the papers presented (2) integrate insights from different relevant theoretical frameworks (protean career theory, social cognitive career theory, proactivity, social identity theory) and (3) complement and triangulate results via multiple high-quality methods (a meta-analysis, three longitudinal cross-lagged panel studies with students and university graduates, and a qualitative study).