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A career can be defined as a pattern of work experiences

comprising the entire life span of a person and which is

generally seen with regard to a number of phases or stages

reflecting the transition from one stage of life to the next

(Weinert, 2001) !imilarly, "ollin (1##$) explains that the term

career arises from the interaction of indi%iduals with organisations and society

& cariera poate fi definit' ca un pattern de experiene pe toat' durata %ieii unei persoane nc*mpul muncii +i care, n general este %'ut' ca fiind format' dintr-un num'r de fae sau etape,reflect*ndu-se trecerea de la o etap' la alta a %ieii (Weinert, 2001)

.n acela+i mod, "ollin (1##$) explic' faptul c' termenul de carier' pro%ine din intercaiunile

indi%iilor cu organiaiile +i societatea

/his interaction, as !a%ickas (200#) proposes, is no longer merely ust a seuence of

obs but is now a story that working people build about themsel%es

/he issue, as reenhaus (2003) explains, is that an indi%idual who has, for

example, shifted from teaching to public relations, to real estate sales is still often

thought to ha%e merely pursued a series of obs or perhaps three different careers

While there seems to be ambiguous %iews of what constitutes a career, !a%ickas

(200#) states that the new look of careers is temporary, contingent, casual, contract,

freelance, part-time, external, atypical, self-employed, and external /wo of the

commonalities emerging from these terms are, firstly that the responsibility to

manage a career now falls on the indi%idual !econdly, all these terms describe a

climate of constant change

4all (1##5) postulates that the career of the 21st century will be protean /he

protean career is dri%en by the person, not the organisation, and will be rein%ented

by the person from time to time, as the person and the en%ironment change

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According to 4all (1##5), the term protean is deri%ed from the reek god 6roteus

(who could change shape at will) /here appears to be a growing trend towards a

career of constant change where, as "ascio (2003) points out, indi%iduals in hightechnology

obs are often proud of the fact that they ha%e held two obs in the past

three years as a badge of honour, an indication that they are on the cutting edge of

their fields

"larke (200$) explains that ideally, to succeed in the new career structures, such as

protean or boundary less careers, indi%iduals will either possess a proacti%epersonality or be ableto adopt proacti%e beha%iours to sustain their employability

While pressures for constant change and proacti%e beha%iours beckon, "ollin(1##$) warns that indi%iduals sometimes do not embrace this high pressure lifestyle

7indings from a recent study conducted by 8reis, 4ofmans, 6epermans and

9ypens, (200#) indicated that the maority of employees continue to desire more

traditional career types

/he term :career; can therefore be defined as the seuence of interaction of

indi%iduals with society, education and organisations throughout their lifespan 4err et al, 200?)

4owe%er, !a%ikas (200#) warns that current career de%elopment theories and

techniues face a crisis in that their fundamental assumption of predictability based

on stability and stages is debatable and, more importantly, may no longer be

functional

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@odels of career de%elopment ha%e identified age ranges in which indi%iduals

typically encounter the tasks associated with each stage of career de%elopment

@oreo%er, the models appear to ha%e assumed that indi%iduals pursue a continuous

linear career within one occupation, in perhaps one or two organisations, and

without maor disruptions or redirections

!imilarly, !te%ens (1##0) states that life stages are typically depicted as an orderly

succession of expected e%ents as if they will happen on cue for all of us 4owe%er,

reenhaus (2001) cautions that despite many of the outmoded assumptions of agerelated

theories of de%elopment, it is important not to disregard the effects of age

and psychological life tasks associated with the !te%ens (1##0) states that each

career has a lifecycle which has four discrete stages exploration, ad%ancement,

maintenance and decline