Career

Career Definition

The career is defined as the sequence(s) of professional or occupational positions an individual moves through during their life course. While often associated with a specific occupation, in sociology, the term is used more broadly to encompass any pattern or progression of social status and roles over time. This progression can be structured into ordered sequences related by hierarchy, such as increasing income and prestige, or it can lack clear structure.

Structure and Types

Occupational careers are generally divided into two main forms: structured and unstructured. Structured careers typically follow a predictable sequence, often arranged as a hierarchy of increasing status and income, exemplified by academic progression (e.g., tutor to professor). Conversely, manual workers often experience unstructured careers marked by seemingly haphazard job movements. While skilled workers exhibit more structured patterns, peak earnings are frequently reached in the early thirties and may subsequently decline, offering limited advancement through simple income or social prestige hierarchies. Gender differences influence access to these career paths, a topic of contemporary sociological study.

Theoretical Foundations

The concept of career has been developed through the lens of symbolic interactionism and applied to areas beyond mere occupation. Key theoretical contributions include: Howard Becker’s work, which applied the concept to sequences of deviant behaviour, such as the stages involved in becoming a marijuana user (learning the technique, perceiving effects, enjoying sensations). Similarly, Erving Goffman used the notion of a ‘moral career’ to examine the experience of mental patients, distinguishing between the objective institutional processing and the subjective personal experience. Both studies are classic examples of labelling theory.

Objective and Subjective Dimensions

Sociological inquiry into careers contrasts an objective career line—where adjustment problems along a specific path can be predicted (e.g., becoming a doctor)—with the subjective career, which involves the interpretive acts taken by individuals during change. Goffman highlighted this duality, noting that the concept’s value lies in its two-sidedness: one side relates to internal matters like self-image and felt identity, while the other concerns public institutional relations and style of life.

Contemporary Relevance and Critique

Historically, the progression through a career was often viewed positively, but it can also be negatively evaluated; for instance, Erving Goffman studied the stigmatising ‘moral career’ experienced by mentally ill patients. In criminology, a ‘criminal career’ is noted as a sequence of stages leading to full-time criminal activity. However, contemporary sociologists are examining how post-Fordist developments and neoliberalism affect the concept of a life-long career. As work becomes more fragmented through outsourcing and company downsizing, the possibility of a stable career is diminishing. Richard Sennett argued that this decline in traditional career structures corresponds to an erosion of character in the modern economy.