This book is about how people construct career stories: the stories we use to make sense of our work life. Mark Scillio explores the idea of security in the current turbulent employment climate, investigating employment experiences in developed, wealthy countries like Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdomwhere careers have become fragmented, complex, and uncertain. Using Anthony Giddens notion of ontological security, Scillio develops a concept of career security that goes beyond economic and financial concerns and encompasses the personal and social meaning of work. The ramifications of succeeding (or failing) to forge a good career narrative are explored through a series of detailed case studies.
1. Introduction: Situating the Study
2. Conceptualizing Career Security
Part I. Being in Organizations
3. Entangled Work Motivations
4. How Routines Shape Career Stories
5. Organizations as Places of Learning and Self-Development
6. Narrative Crises
Part II. Going it Alone
7. Developing an Entrepreneurial Story
8. Creating your own Structures: Implications for the Self
9. Personalizing Social Problems
10. The Audience as a Social Context and Form of Grounding
Part III. In-Between Places
11. Possible Selves and Career Stories
12. Structure and Coherence in Career Stories
13. Conclusion: Cal“.