Title: Constructing career scripts
Description: Studying career scripts can reveal how individuals make sense of their careers within specific cultural contexts and time periods. For this study, I examine the career scripts of Generation X, a cohort who has weathered considerable job market upheaval. I look at how members of Generation X define their career scripts; how their perceptions of how those scripts map onto the career paths of those in their own and previous generations; and whether they see discrepancies between their own career scripts and those of their generation, or those of prior generations, within their professions. I interviewed ten men and ten women who graduated from college between 1991 and 1996, a job market low point for new graduates. They worked in a variety of industries, including consulting and business services, financial services and insurance, new media, and nonprofit management. They also represented a wide range of functional areas of business, including marketing, human resources, finance, and entrepreneurship.

The career scripts participants described both complement and further existing research regarding Generation X. Starting out, they followed a path of least resistance, taking opportunities where they could find them. They then searched for satisfying work that would allow for growth and autonomy, while still allowing them to maintain the lifestyles they chose outside of work. I did not find gender differences in their scripts: both men and women made career decisions based on what they felt was best for themselves and their young families, and women were as likely as men to be primary breadwinners. In general, they did not see their experiences as unique relative to their peers, either within or outside their professions. They did, however, recognize the changes in the rules and the playing field for conducting one's business career in comparison to prior generations. As such, they did not take occupational setbacks personally, or as a reflection of their worth as business people. This represents a departure from prior generations. They were practicing a unique form of meritocratic individualism. They saw success as based on individual achievement, but as defined by the individual, not by an organization, or by society at large.
Subjects: Career development, Psychological aspects, Success in business, Generation X, Social perception
Places: United States