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The demise of the traditional career is widely heralded as is its replacement by more fluid and individual career choices. This paper reports on an exploratory investigation of the transition of ex‐NHS managers from managerial careers to portfolio careers. Drawing inductively on interviews with 25 managers, the paper indicates that individuals draw on a number of permeating themes to make sense of their career given the transition they have made: the “real career”; “no going back”; “values and integrity”; “development”; and “consolidation”. The paper argues that more such research is needed to explore the diverse sense making schemes drawn on by individuals experiencing career change.

The paper aims to explore “Portfolio work”, an emerging form of flexible self‐employment, which has been identified as significant but under‐researched. This paper also seeks to explore the challenges and benefits of portfolio work from the perspective of individuals' experiences.

The argument draws from a qualitative study involving 31 individuals practising portfolio work in two different occupational groups: nurses and adult educators. Participants were interviewed in semi‐structured in‐depth conversational interviews to explore their everyday experience and work history in portfolio work.

Two dimensions of portfolio work, work design and client‐relations, are found to generate experiences of both deep satisfaction and deep anxiety and stress. The paper argues that portfolio careers simultaneously embed both liberating and exploitative at dimensions for workers, which are at least partly related to their own conflicting desires for both contingency and stability. Further, portfolio work embeds labour that often remains unrecognized, even by the self‐employed individuals assuming responsibility for it.

Portfolio workers need to recognise and document their unpaid but necessary labour in work design and client relations that sustains their careers; portfolio workers may need to educate clients about the nature of portfolio work; and employers who contract to portfolio workers must take more responsibility for negotiating fair contracts that are sensitive to overwork and unfair time pressures, and that anticipate and compensate contractors.

These findings challenge existing conceptions of portfolio work as either exploitative or liberating, and expose contradictions embedded in both the conditions of the work and individuals' expectations and attitudes towards it.

In this exploratory article we argue that changes in society, the nature of work and of the employment relationship have changed the nature of careers and consequently require a re‐conceptualization of the nature of career development. The traditional functional models of human resource management are hopelessly inadequate in addressing the changed reality of competitive advantage in business organizations of today. We propose new models of career development in the context of the era of the portfolio career reality, draw implications for human resource management practice and suggest fruitful avenues for future research.

To apply and develop Stephen Barley's model of career structuration to offer insights into the transition into portfolio working.

A qualitative case study methodology is used. Interviews were conducted with managers who had left the National Health Service to develop portfolio careers.

The adoption of the Barley model of career structuration as a sensitising device has made it possible to show how individuals have drawn from existing scripts embedded in institutional forms but have also contributed to developing new career scripts, such as portfolio working. Their enactment of career scripts is a dynamic process whereby they impact back on those scripts in both intentional and unintentional ways. Thus the transformative capacity of individual career actions is asserted but, critically, alongside awareness of constraints as bound up in structures which have salience for individuals and for collectives.

This is a study based in one large public sector organisation. Further exploration of the potential role of career as a way of understanding socially embedded action and its capacity for change is required, which takes account of different occupational settings.

The study outlines some of the frustrations experienced by portfolio workers and has practical implications for the ways in which they should be managed.

The paper contributes to the debate concerning structure and agency in career theory.

In this study, the concept of career, which is one of the most significant functions of human resources, is examined. Toward the end of the twentieth century, restricted models, in which individuals work in a workplace in a classical manner, have been replaced by more flexible models. Due to certain reasons such as changing environmental conditions, increasing education levels, and the impact of employee’s values on his/her work life, individuals’ work life have been dramatically changed. Therefore, some career approaches oriented for these changing conditions and current requirements have been proposed by both academicians and professionals. These approaches mostly include removing workplace limits, offering the opportunity to work from anywhere, using various skills at different departments without any limitations. Basing on the aforementioned changes in theory and practice, this study investigates up-to-date career approaches in a holistic manner. In this context, the background and practicability of these theoretically framed approaches are also discussed in the present study

Accelerating technology and market changes are creating many new employment opportunities and career challenges. With such changes, viable career development strategies are needed. Through a review of the goal setting and need assessment process, and numerous executive development practices, presents a model for management and career development known as the Total Career and Life Portfolio (TCLP). Developed by the authors for use in career counselling, managerial consulting, training and development, and strategic planning, the TCLP has been found to be a helpful planning process for executives.

Accelerating technology and market changes are creating many new employment opportunities and career challenges. With such changes, viable career development strategies are needed. Through a review of the goal setting and need assessment process, and numerous executive development practices, presents a model for management and career development known as the total career and life portfolio (TCLP). Developed by the authors for use in career counselling, managerial consulting, training and development, and strategic planning, the TCLP has been found to be a helpful planning process for executives.

The board independence norm has shaped corporate governance globally, but research on the supply of independent directors (IDs) is limited. “New careers” studies suggest that dynamic non-conventional career paths are evolving, but empirical evidence is mostly limited to Western societies. The authors studied reasons for academics to consider taking on an ID role in firms in China.

Employing a quantitative methodology, data were collected via a survey targeting 1,500 academics, representing a quarter of business-linked academics in China's National Key Universities. The response rate was 55% and, after eliminating irrelevant responses, the sample used comprised 581 academics, 111 of whom have taken on an ID role.

Career orientation and work attitudes play significant roles in decision-making around career success. Becoming an ID can be a rewarding and positive career path for academics who look for additional responsibility, income and impact. This new academic career path manifests in how career actors interact with each other to reach a state of equilibrium in a wider career ecosystem. Appointing academics with relevant knowledge and willingness to create impact can help organisations – both firms and academic institutions.

Becoming an ID can increase future collaborations and success in terms of research and corporate governance, and offer individuals another route to career success.

The results contribute to research on career studies and corporate governance, revealing a new source of talent for firms and a new career path for academics.

Responding to the relatively poor employment outcomes of university graduates, Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia has embarked on a strategy of investment in career development for all students. One part of this strategy is to implement a career development subject as an elective for all students. The subject was developed in the School of Management with significant input from staff in the Student Career Development Unit. It is designed to extend job search skills, self‐awareness, and strategies for the achievement of employment goals. Students evaluated the subject in June and in October of 2002 – the first year of its delivery. The results showed that students perceived the subject to be extremely valuable to their career prospects.

New forms of organising and new forms of individuals private and professional life concepts have affected organisations as well as careers. The resulting new forms of careers are characterised by two major elements: organisations are no longer the primary arena for professional careers and the diversity of careers and career paths is sharply increasing. At the level of global careers similar developments can be observed. In addition, two specifics can be mentioned: a number of additional forms of working internationally supplement expatriation in its classic sense and there seems to be an increasing pressure on the speed and diversity of international assignments. There is comparatively little theoretical insight into these developments. Departing from a sociological perspective and using the theoretical framework of late French Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, this paper takes a career field and habitus perspective of careers. Based on that, it tries to identify areas of contribution for the global career discussion that can emerge from such an approach.