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The purpose of this paper is explore career management strategies used by information technology (IT) professionals full‐time employed in offshore outsourced IT firms in Sri Lanka; and to evaluate those against hierarchical plateau, job content plateau, firm size, and individual demographic characteristics that may predict the use.

Survey methodology was used and a random sample of 119 IT professionals responded. Multiple regression was used for the data analysis.

Career management strategies used by IT professionals could be broadly categorised into four areas. Hierarchical career plateau and age significantly predict the use of career strategies.

The study provides useful information for both practitioners and academics to better understand career strategies used by IT professionals in managing their own careers and factors that predict the use of career strategies.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of career attitudes (traditional career vs boundaryless career) on perceived employability (internal vs external employability). In addition, the authors examine whether career self-management strategies act as mediators of these relationships. Due to high unemployment rates in the last two decades, it is important to assess the extent to which young graduates’ career attitudes affect perceived internal and external employability, along with the role of career self-management strategies as an employability enhancement tool.

As part of a cross-sectional research design, the authors administered a survey questionnaire to a sample of 131 graduates (i.e. master’s students) with at least one year of work experience. The empirical data were analyzed with partial least squares structural equation modeling, which combines confirmatory factor analysis, multiple linear regression and path analysis.

The results reveal that there is a positive and significant impact (direct effect) of a traditional career attitude (TCA) on internal employability, while there is no significant negative impact of a TCA on external employability. Additionally, the results show that there is a negative impact (direct effect) of a boundaryless career attitude (BCA) on internal employability, while no significant positive impact is found of a BCA on external employability. This study also confirms the mediation effect (full mediation) of career positioning strategies on the BCA-external employability relationship, and a partial mediation of career influence strategies on the TCA-internal employability relationship.

Limitations of this study relate to the sample size and the use of a convenience sampling technique. Hence, some caution is needed regarding results’ generalization. In addition, this research uses a cross-sectional design, thus the authors cannot assess longitudinal causal relationships between variables. Future research should be replicated with different types of respondents and in different cultural contexts.

The results suggest that organizations would benefit more from employees that hold a TCA than those that hold a BCA, especially if they are interested in fostering the internal employability of their workforce. At the individual level, the results identify optimal career self-management strategies (internal vs external employability) for young graduates.

This study offers new empirical evidence of the predictive value of perceived internal vs external employability and the mediating role of career self-management strategies in explaining employability. Young graduates perceive a TCA as more advantageous than a BCA for both internal and external employability. This is an unexpected but interesting finding, since the bulk of the literature on contemporary career attitudes overemphasizes the advantages of a BCA, while disregarding potential disadvantages for both individuals and organizations.

Using instrumentation grounded in the “Big Five” theoretical framework, this paper empirically examines personality as a predictor of career strategy behavior. Results support expectations that some aspects of personality (e.g. being extroverted or sociable) are associated with greater use of strategies involving relationships with others (e.g. seeking mentoring relationships). Other results indicate an association between personality dimensions (e.g. “openness to experience” or “intellectance”) and more self‐directed career strategies (e.g. developing skill/career flexibility). Implications of these results and directions for future study are discussed.

This study addresses recent changes in the career development climate in the USA in which individuals have ultimate responsibility for managing their own careers. We examined empirically the relationship between a relevant set of skills relating to self‐knowledge, interpersonal knowledge, environmental knowledge and effective career management. Data were gathered from 446 students and graduates who had completed a 28‐week, two‐semester managerial skills course within the past five years. The correlation and regression results provide strong support for the hypothesized relationships. The findings reveal that reported acquisition and utilization of skills relating to self‐knowledge, interpersonal knowledge, and environmental knowledge are associated with personal learning, goal setting, career strategies, and career decision making. Implications and directions for future studies are discussed.

This study attempts to examine career management from a contingency perspective while making specific provisions to the Spanish cultural context. The underlying assumption is that the career focus is contingent on both the broader context (corporate business policy) and the human resource policy, namely in its staffing considerations. Although the literature on career management, from an organizational perspective, seems to indicate the existence of different models and contingencies with certain organizational variables, this study failed to support the dominance of the contingency approach in Spanish organizations. Two models of careers were identified and a tendency toward the majority use of one of the career models was found. Respectively, the contingent character of one career model was partially confirmed. All in all, both career models do not seem to be explained through the contextual variables considered in this empirical investigation.

Examines the career goals and career management strategy among information technology (IT) professionals. With regard to career goals, found that IT professionals seek to advance their careers in three ways. The first two involve standard career paths. The third career path, termed technopreneurship, involves IT professionals setting up their own technology‐related business. With regard to career management strategy, the results showed that: career planning is positively related to career strategy; career strategy is positively related to professional enhancement; and professional enhancement is positively related to career satisfaction. One important implication is that it is important for computer professionals to plan and strategize their own career. This would lead to greater career satisfaction.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of organizational-related variables and the moderating role of career strategies on protean career among employees.

Research data are gathered from a sample of 306 employees in 18 electrical and electronics multinational corporations (MNCs) in Malaysia. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) is used to examine the influences of organizational-related factors and the moderating role of career strategies on protean career.

The results demonstrate that organizational-related variables, namely, employability culture and mentoring are viewed as potential predictors of protean career. There are significant moderating effects of career strategies on the relationship between both employability culture and mentoring toward protean career among employees.

This paper provides an empirical framework to explain protean career based on the review of career-related literatures.

The findings provide implications to both organizations and human resource development practitioners on new career trends of protean career. Practical interventions are suggested to assist individuals and organizations toward protean career development.

This paper offers new insight into the predicting factors of protean career and its moderating role on career strategies.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between career adaptability and career resilience. Alongside, the mediating role of career-management fit was also tested on the relationship between career adaptability and career resilience.

Cross-sectional data were collected from the employees of higher-education institutes via an online survey questionnaire. The partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique using the SmartPLS application was employed for the data analyses.

Results showed that career-management fit positively mediates the relationship between career adaptability and career resilience. Further, a direct positive relationship between career adaptability and career resilience was also substantiated.

Theoretical implications, managerial implications, study limitations and future research directions are also discussed.

The authors put forward the field by probing the developmental strategy for career resilience. This is because, in academics, career-resilient individuals can better contribute towards academic growth and can also maintain a good life balance (Mishra and McDonald, 2017). Hence, this study, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, is the first to investigate the career-management fit as a pathway bridging career adaptability and career resilience.

Career development involves how employees manage their career advancement. This study aims to investigate the relevance of Sun Tzu's Art of War to career development of construction professionals with the aim of suggesting strategies that may be adopted for career development.

The data collection technique was in‐depth interviews with 32 subjects who are Singapore‐based construction professionals. The subjects were asked 13 open‐ended questions which were developed based on the Art of War.

The main findings on the effective career development strategies are: outperforming peers by developing deep job experience and delivering excellent performance; adopting a team member posture before moving on to a team leader stance; handling office politics and conflicts effectively; maintaining flexibility and manoeuvrability in one's career; networking; and acquiring foreknowledge.

The study is qualitative in nature, thus, the actual effectiveness of the recommendations for career development is not known. There may also be some more strategies undisclosed by interviewees as sharing them may cause them to lose their competitive advantage.

The effective strategies for career development are found. Construction professionals may adopt some military strategies that may help them in their career development.

The relevance of military strategies to career development in construction firms suggests that career progression is akin to war, where winning is important and strategizing to win is necessary.

In this paper military strategies are mapped onto career development, and relevant career advancement strategies are identified.