Abstract
In this chapter, career and life design concepts were examined through the lens of Savickas' theory and related studies in related literature. In this respect, how career conceptions have gone into transformation and turned into a life design approach were analyzed by using different perspectives in related literature. How these issues were perceived was revealed through analyzing the opinions of young participants between the ages 24-28, whose awareness of career was raised as a result of the seminars and projects they had participated in. A qualitative phenomenological design was used in this study. According to the results of the study, participants required career trainings to explore themselves. The more participants were optimistic about themselves, the more they were motivated in career development. Despite of the problems regarding familial backgrounds and education system, participants could make their own ways by the help of their entrepreneurship skills and social environment.
TopCareer Construction Theory
Organizations managed to establish relatively strong environment for stable employment opportunities, business life and employment relations in the 20th century. Business life of 21st century, on the other hand, prioritized individuals’ concerns and job security problems in the process of career construction. It brought an order of work in which temporary, daily, contract labor, freelance and part-time jobs replaced permanent jobs. Such an order turned many employees into “insecure employees”. Thus, they have encountered a work environment in which they have to change a lot of jobs (Herr, 2001; Savickas, 2012).
In parallel to the changes in the structure of business life and organizations, the need for changing from a paradigm based on matching individuals with professions to a new paradigm in which individuals are the managers of their professional lives arose. Career has become more and more personal and manageable by individuals themselves in knowledge-based post-modern age, and thus the concepts of career planning and career management began to be used (Savickas, 2000).
Savickas (1997) recommended that career maturity be replaced by career adaptability. The author developed the recommendation in five years and formed the bases of his theory. He argued that the concept of personal construct should be used instead of Super’s self-concept (Super, 1990; Betz, 1994) and described career construction theory as an extended version of Super’s theory (Savickas, 2002).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Intervention: All the interventions made in career.
Life Design: Paradigm considering career as a life-long life design and as a process of construction and stating that it can be constructed by individuals through narrating.
Activity: Individuals’ taking an action in relation to their careers.
Adaptability: Individuals’ ability to adapt to new and changing conditions in their careers.
Intentionality: The mental process individuals go through for their decisions about their futures and careers.
Career Construction Theory: The theory considering career as a process of construction in which individuals can adapt into new work conditions and can cope with the conditions and stating that the process is a scenario that can be written through narration and it is a process which can be constructed over and over again.
Narrativity: Individuals’ fictionalizing their careers as a story and sharing it with others.