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Nonstandard Career Trajectories and Their Various Forms

2005; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 13; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1177/1069072705277917

1552-4590

Geneviève Fournier, Charles Bujold,

Career Development and Diversity

A sample of 124 participants (62 men, 62 women) was used in this qualitative research study of people having experienced nonstandard work for the last 3 years. Those participants were met for individual semistructured interviews of approximately 2 hours in length. On the basis of a content analysis with the use of the NUD*IST analysis software, 4 trajectories and 14 subtrajectories were identified: ascending (constant progression, final recovery, uncertain outcome), descending (sudden drop, caught in a trap, long descent, noninsertion), interesting maintenance (accepted job insecurity, project continuity, new project), and uninteresting maintenance (bogged down, leitmotif, adapted, and 180 degrees). The descending and uninteresting maintenance trajectories were predominant, comprising more than two thirds of the participants. Differences were found between genders, age groups, and educational levels. The results are discussed with respect to the scientific literature and to the differences that were observed.