Professional career as a phenomenon: open questions. Part 1

Abstract

The first article discusses the history, scientific traditions, approaches to the study of professional career in foreign and domestic psychology. Several little-studied and debatable aspects of the problem are defined as open questions. Purpose. The purpose of the study: the study of professional career as a historically evolving phenomenon. Hypotheses: 1. In different conditions of the social environment (historical, geographical, economic, professional and technological, corporate culture of the organization, etc.), the professional career phenomenon manifests itself in different ways in its general, special and individual properties. 2. Representatives of different social groups perceive the professional career phenomenon in different ways. 3. In the subject’s professional picture of the world, professional career can take on different forms and meanings (depending on age, social experience, professional qualifications, etc.). Methods. A historical-theoretical analysis and a subject-categorical analysis were used. Findings. In conclusion of the first article, it is stated that the phenomenon of “professional career” is usually considered outside the aspects of its historical evolution; the few “classical” approaches that have previously developed are historically transitory, but act as prototypes for subsequent concepts; by the middle of the twentieth century. The interval of professional and official promotion of a person has expanded; to the beginning of the XXI century. The forms of professional activity and employment of people and the manifestation of the professional career phenomenon have expanded; social technologies for career management are being developed, aimedat helping representatives of different social groups; the possibility of different “starting positions” and career trajectories for different people is substantiated. The expansion of concepts describing the manifestations of the phenomenon requires critical analysis and methodological “audit”. Binarythinking remains an ideological and methodological barrier, dividing the phenomenon into oppositeparts, the study of a career within the framework of the paradigm of individual rather than joint activity; the role of negative circumstances, life and professional crises remains outside the subject field. It is believed that a constructive methodology will be an appeal to the “systemic triads” approach, suitablefor developing spatial, temporal, and other aspects of the problem; to the resource approach (the topics of “phase transitions”, active interaction of a person with the conditions of the social environment).