| Summary: | A multiple case study approach was used to investigate the pattern of
experience in a career transition. The participants were five men
and five women who had completed a career change. The
participants were selected to represent a variety of occupations. The
study produced ten rich, detailed narrative accounts of career
transition. Each one is told from the perspective of the individual
who went through the experience. The accounts were based on in depth
descriptions of the experience, and a charting of the transition
using terms drawn from relevant transition models. Each account
was reviewed and validated by the case study participant, who was
the subject of the narrative, and by an independent reviewer.
A comparison of the individual accounts revealed a pattern of
experience that was common to all ten cases of career transition. It
can be best represented as a three phase process, with each phase
involving a distinctive character and each subsequent phase building
on the preceding one. Furthermore, in each case the career
transition reflected a process that was cyclical rather than linear in
nature.
Several theoretical implications arise from this study. First, it
supports those models that describe career transition as a three stage
process. The common pattern bears a remarkable resemblance to the rites of passage process described by Van Gennep (1908/1960).
Second, the accounts suggest that the meaning of one’s work can
change over the course of one’s life and that a career change be
considered a change in a person’s life path. Third, the accounts
support rejecting the notion of career transition having to be a crisis
or traumatic event. From a practical standpoint, the pattern of
transition can serve as a guide for those who are going through a
career transition and for those who counsel them. === Education, Faculty of === Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of === Graduate
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