Thinking about careers: reflexivity as bounded by previous, ongoing, and imagined experience

ABSTRACT

Many social scientific studies have shown the positive effects of self-awareness and reflexivity in shaping individuals’ career paths. However, using life- and work-history interviews conducted with salespersons in Toronto, Canada, I find that high levels of self-awareness – as demonstrated by active deliberation over one’s career – has both positive and negative results in terms of career outcomes. Respondents whose careers initially progressed as they expected tended to benefit from reflexively managing their careers. However, the benefits of reflexivity were mixed for respondents whose careers did not begin as planned. This group of respondents sometimes benefited from thinking about alternatives; but also, sometimes, cast themselves outside of careers that they deemed to be ‘normal’. Observing the way that some respondents formed new career plans based on unmet expectations, and began to pursue those emergent plans, I argue that scholarly uses of reflexivity should incorporate its function as a potential career trajectory anchor.

KEYWORDS:

• Reflexivity
• careers
• Margaret Archer
• reflexive modes
• work
• emergence

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Lawrence Williams is a Doctoral Candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto. His research interests lie primarily in sociological theory and the sociology of culture, with a focus on decision-making, identity, and careers. His current research focuses on how individuals working in the field of customer service understand their careers and find meaning at work.

ORCID

Lawrence Williams http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1520-3591

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [grant number 752-2017-1558].