ABSTRACT
We looked in the last chapter at the nature, provenance and outcomes of career changes that are within our control. But many of the changes that we make in our working lives, whether they are changes of career, sector, job or working arrangements, are not always our decision or at time of our choosing. In this chapter we will look at the impact of some of the circumstances that can lead to an unplanned career change. We will begin by examining the impact that job loss can have, and then look more specifically at what the research can tell us about issues such as redundancy, dismissal and parenthood and how they can affect both our emotions and our careers. It may seem surprising to include parenthood in a chapter on unplanned career change – after all, most of us have some degree of control about whether we have children, when we have them and to what extent their existence interferes with our careers. But in practice, things are often not that simple. Although having children can happen to order and may have precisely the impact on the parents’ careers that they were anticipating, for many people the arrival of children can throw life and careers into great confusion, and even if the decision to begin a family is planned, the associated changes often are not.
