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The field of careers studies is complex and fragmented. The aim of this paper is to detail why it is important to study careers, what we study and how we study key issues in this evolving field.

Key theories, concepts and models are briefly reviewed to lay the groundwork for offering an agenda for future research.

The authors recommend ten key directions for future research and offer specific questions for further study.

This paper contributes to the development of the theoretical underpinning of career studies.

The authors hope that the proposed agenda for future research will help advance the field and encourage more research on understudied, but important, topics.

This paper presents a comprehensive view of research on contemporary careers.

The purpose of this paper is to conceptually articulate the differing needs of graduates and graduate employers, which can be competing or complementary in nature. Drawing from theoretical frameworks of career ecosystems and the new psychological contract, a set of propositions are presented using three themes: career management, development of talent and technological change.

A conceptual design offering a conceptual model through adopting the career ecosystem and new psychological contract as a framework.

These propositions offer a new conceptual model, which provides a practical contribution by articulating sustainability of graduates’ careers through employability at the graduate level and competitive advantage at the employer level.

The paper offers important contributions to theory by connecting career management and vocational career literature through acknowledging shared constructs of life-long learning and sustainable employability for graduates. These two streams are often developed in parallel, thus this paper helps to bridge the gaps in respective research agendas. This paper therefore has the originality of helping to advance the fields of career theory and sustainable human resource management.

The purpose of this study is to discuss the way future workplaces may operate and how careers will be developed under possible extreme scenarios.

We propose a thought-provoking conceptual discussion of the challenges for people’s careers under such scenarios.

We identified four such possible extreme scenarios and elaborated on the theoretical knowledge regarding the essence of each scenario. We discussed their impact on future workplaces in general and on careers in particular. These are (1) highly developed artificial intelligence and other cyber entities; (2) massive immigration due to wars, refugees and other forces; (3) widescale de-globalization; and (4) major global recession.

Employing the career ecosystem and sustainability theories, we identify possible outcomes and implications for theory as well as practice of managing careers under these extreme scenarios. This offers a novel perspective for individuals, organizations and policymakers at national and global levels.

The board independence norm has shaped corporate governance globally, but research on the supply of independent directors (IDs) is limited. “New careers” studies suggest that dynamic non-conventional career paths are evolving, but empirical evidence is mostly limited to Western societies. The authors studied reasons for academics to consider taking on an ID role in firms in China.

Employing a quantitative methodology, data were collected via a survey targeting 1,500 academics, representing a quarter of business-linked academics in China's National Key Universities. The response rate was 55% and, after eliminating irrelevant responses, the sample used comprised 581 academics, 111 of whom have taken on an ID role.

Career orientation and work attitudes play significant roles in decision-making around career success. Becoming an ID can be a rewarding and positive career path for academics who look for additional responsibility, income and impact. This new academic career path manifests in how career actors interact with each other to reach a state of equilibrium in a wider career ecosystem. Appointing academics with relevant knowledge and willingness to create impact can help organisations – both firms and academic institutions.

Becoming an ID can increase future collaborations and success in terms of research and corporate governance, and offer individuals another route to career success.

The results contribute to research on career studies and corporate governance, revealing a new source of talent for firms and a new career path for academics.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how students perceive their future careers and how university has prepared them to enter the global labor market; student perceptions regarding benefits vs associated costs of pursuing higher education (HE) on employability and earnings; and the anticipated barriers and how to overcome these in pursuit of career sustainability within a career ecosystem.

The authors adopted a qualitative method using semi-structured interviews on a small sample of 38 final year students from a UK university who were also participants in an earlier two-wave quantitative survey, which was conducted with 387 penultimate and final year undergraduates from the same UK-based University.

Findings revealed that undergraduates perceive their investment in HE to offer a net financial gain; however, this is narrowing due to increased tuition fees, associated student debt and interest payments eroding earning premiums. As undergraduates progress, they feel more employable from a personal perspective, but less employable from a market perspective due to competition for graduate jobs and the cost/benefit conflict of resources.

The authors provide nine opportunities for enhancing the employability of graduates collaborating with graduate employers, providing a timely contribution to the social, political and economic debate on the funding of HE.

The authors advance career theory via the new perspective of Career Ecosystem Theory by: explaining student career perceptions in terms of how university has prepared them for the global labor market; exploring the perceived costs vs benefits of pursuing HE in relation to employability; suggesting a two-dimensional model of personal and market factors of employability; providing a model of careers advice from employers and universities for supporting students’ careers; and offering policy implications in relation to the future funding of HE and employability of future graduates.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a career-orientation and employability-focused model in the Indian context in order to understand: factors influencing employability of graduates factors influencing expected salary gain.

The researchers adopted a quantitative method using a two-wave survey with a sample of MBA graduates from two prominent business schools in India. The total sample size for Wave I was 250, while for Wave II it was 161. The model was tested via hierarchical regression with MBA contribution as a moderator.

Results indicate the relevance of protean career orientation (PCO) to reaching career outcomes such as employability, with MBA contribution as a moderator.

The study provides a new perspective that would enhance graduates’ employability. This makes it relevant for both individuals and higher education institutions as it will help both individuals and higher education institutions to attain competitiveness at the national level.

The career theory was extended to the diverse socio-cultural and economic context of India, representing the BRICS economy.

The increasing complexity of global labor markets and work environments has made the school-to-work transition more difficult. We explore factors that influence important career outcomes for young adults in China as they transition from their university to the labor market. Specifically, we examine how protean career orientation, self-perceived employability, mother’s and father’s career support and human capital (English language proficiency) may influence career satisfaction and employment status during adulthood.

We collected survey data in two waves, six months apart, and obtained English proficiency ratings from university records.

Father’s and mother’s career support was significantly associated with protean career orientation and protean career orientation was significantly related to self-perceived employability. Self-perceived employability was significantly associated with career satisfaction and employment status. The career support-career satisfaction and career support-employment status relationships were fully mediated by protean career orientation and self-perceived employability. Contrary to expectations, the human capital variable of English language proficiency did not moderate the serial mediation involving either career satisfaction or employment status.

By integrating protean career theory, human capital theory and research on parental support, we offer an interdisciplinary contribution to the school-to-work transition literature. We also advance protean career theory by studying it as a mediating variable and by examining parental support as an antecedent of it.

The purpose of this study is to understand how universities and organizations have responded to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of preparing university students and recent graduates to enter the global labor market, using the accounting, banking and finance sector as a case study. The two research questions are (1) How can university career services and organizations work individually and collaboratively to best develop early career talent following the COVID-19 pandemic? (2) What are the challenges that university career services and organizations face when working individually or collaboratively to develop early career talent following the COVID-19 pandemic?

The data for thematic analysis comes from 36 semi-structured interviews with career advisors (CAs) (n = 19) and graduate recruiters (GRs) (n = 17).

This study offers some of the first findings on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, helping to ensure that organizational behavior and career theory literature reflect the dramatically changing landscape in the university-to-work transition.

Theoretically, our contribution comes from applying a framework of the career construction theory (CTT) within the context of a career ecosystem to understand the views of the intermediary, meso-level actors, which, to date, have lacked representation within career literature. Practically, we provide an insightful bridge between universities and organizations, offering opportunities for greater collaboration, and enhanced outcomes for all stakeholders.

It is still widely accepted that women managers are not catching up on their male peers with regard to seniority of position and pay. To learn more about the problem, a study was conducted into the career development of MBA graduates from one of the leading UK business schools. Of the 344 alumni who took part in the study, 96 were women. The respondents came from the UK and from many nations around the world. The career development of the graduates, their competences and their career aspirations were compared across those variables. Differences in performance based on discrimination due to gender were studied. Variables of career development of the graduates, their competences and career aspirations were compared for women and men. The findings indicate that studying for an MBA has a place as a vehicle to reduce discrimination and increase self‐confidence of the individual. Results also indicate the potential value of having an MBA in dealing with discrimination due to gender in organisations.

Human Resource Management (HRM) is a critical organizational function, which has continued to evolve. We aim to explore how different HRM will be in the workplace of the future and why, from both strategic and practical perspectives. We present and discuss core HRM practices, such as recruitment, selection and training, as well as peripheral activities, such as monitoring health and safety, and diversity management, reflecting on how they may transform in the workplace of the future.

This is a conceptual thought piece, building on the Substitution, Augmentation, Modification and Redefinition (SAMR) model, to offer a futuristic view of HRM in the era of AI.

Discussing the contemporary challenges of Artificial Intelligence, which we predict will lead to what we term Cyborging HRM.

This study can help HR managers and practitioners to be prepared for AI-embedded HRM systems in the future. For academics, it offers an innovative framework to establish future writing on HRM in the AI era.

AI is pushing HRM and the profession will have to undergo a revolutionary rather than evolutionary transformation in order to remain a necessary and valuable function for organizations. Our elaboration of the SAMR model and suggested implications for the future transformation of HRM should be worthwhile to organizations, management and the wider society.