Contemporary narrative patterns of career construction: Interlinking the existing literature with Brazilian workers’ narratives

Abstract

Career pattern is a useful methodological resource to generate portraits of career constructions. This article has two interconnected objectives. Through a literature review, it first aimed to synthesise the main contemporary career patterns. And second, using a qualitative approach, it sought to build contemporary narrative patterns of career construction of 40 Brazilian workers intentionally selected. Differences and similarities between the two proposed taxonomies were examined. The literature describes five career patterns (traditional/professional, flexible, hybrid, transitional, and social role balancing). The present study built nine narrative patterns of career construction described by their central discourse: Enclosure (professional career and occupational career), Nostalgia (organisational career), Possibility (flexible career, entrepreneurial career, and informal career), Hybrid (hybrid careers), and Instrumentality (transitional career and liminal career). We emphasise the need for diversifying samples and research contexts to contextualise theories and concepts and produce situated practices.