ABSTRACT
This chapter explores key transitions in career trajectories, focusing on process, experience and outcomes. It shows how the role of contextual influences, and how individual experiences vary depending on the interplay between personal characteristics and situational factors surrounding the transition, suggest that career transitions are more complex. The chapter deals with the initial entry into the workplace, discussing the transition between education and work. The transition into the workplace can happen at different times. The transition to work can be a relatively straightforward process for some, or more turbulent for others. Making the transition to full-time work means adopting a worker identity, and adopting an identity akin to the profession in which they are entering. Transitions into and out of the workplace, either through starting work, changing jobs, losing a job or retiring, therefore require a process of adjustment, new learning and redefinition of self.
