Lockdown Stories: A Qualitative Assessment and Comprehensive Taxonomy of Career Resources

Career resources are receiving increasing attention in the context of career development. This paper utilizes M. E. Ford’s (1992) ten components of effective functioning to provide a comprehensive typology of factors likely to act as career resources and test this proposition in a context of career shock with a narrative design. In the weeks following the first COVID-19 lockdown, 42 participants were asked to complete a questionnaire about their well-being, perceived employability, and emotional anticipation of their career future, as well as to write three stories about their experience with the lockdown. M. E. Ford’s categories were used to identify and code the resources and obstacles mentioned in the stories. Results show the relevance of such a taxonomy to classify both career resources and obstacles. Additionally, the type of story (general story, positive or negative story) in which career resources and obstacles were mentioned played a significant role in their association with the quantitative measures. Conceptual and practical implications are discussed.