The Career Transition Process

Abstract

Today’s society, shaped by demographic changes and a global economy, has created different employment trends and work lives that result in adults’ engaging in postretirement second careers. This phenomenon is a common occurrence in rapidly aging societies like Korea. This qualitative study examined the postretirement career transition process of Korean middle-aged adults. In-depth interviews were held with nine individuals ranging from 48 to 65 years identified as postretirement workers following voluntary retirement from private and public sectors. Data analysis revealed four phases in the career transition process: experiencing disequilibrium in a previous career, reflecting on self and context, making new professional connections and changes, and committing to new careers. The career transition was also a process involving different modes of learning, leading to the conclusion that the career transition process is essentially a learning process in which individuals acquire new perspectives and meaning in a new role.

Keywords

career transition postretirement employment transition process qualitative research adult learning Korea

Background

As modern society has developed its own structure and institutions related to the economy, politics, and culture, particular employment patterns have affected contemporary lifestyles and vice versa. During the 20th century, continuous employment provided security for employees during work and retirement and one’s career path was fairly predictable (Bierema, 1998; Watts, 1999). However, the career development theories of the 20th century seem ill-suited to the 21st-century workforce characterized by a global economy, changing demographics, and a shift from manufacturing to a knowledge society permeated by communication technology. The 21st-century society has created different employment trends and work lives, which in turn require adults to adapt to changes in their careers. This is particularly the case for Korean middle-aged workers.

In South Korea, the “three-legged stool,” composed of a rapidly increasing aging population, a longer life expectancy, and a globalized economy, has constructed employment patterns and subsequent changes in individual workers’ lives. Whereas the portion of the population that was older than 65 years in 2010 was 11%, this percentage is growing rapidly and by 2050, 38.2% of Korea’s population will be 65 and older, making it the most aged country, followed by Japan with 37.8% and the United States with 21.6%, among the 30 member economies of the Organisation for Economic Co- operation and Development (OECD) countries (Korean National Statistical Office, 2011). The average life expectancy in Korea was 76.2 years for men and 82.6 for women, and the combined average was 79.6 in 2010.

With respect to retirement, among workers older than 50 years, nearly half (48%) retire from their primary jobs at 50 to 54 years and 22% at 55 to 59 years, whereas 19% retire at 60 to 64 and 7% at 65 to 69 years (Korean Labor & Income Panel Study, 2010). Although the portion of older workers (55+) employed in large companies that have over 300 employees was only 8.16% in 2011(Korean Ministry of Employment and Labor, 2012), labor force participation of the age-group 55 to 64 has increased from 58.3 % in 2001 to 62.1% in 2011. Thus, the average effective age of retirement (the average age of exit from the labor force) is 70 for Koreans, whereas the official retirement age (the age for receiving a pension) is 60 in Korea (OECD, 2012). The employment rate for people age 65 to 69 was 41% in Korea, whereas the OECD average was 18.5% in 2011. Research also suggests that the employment period after the official retirement is likely to be extended in the future (Park & Shim, 2010). Furthermore, the distinction between voluntary and involuntary retirement of older workers is hard to draw, as retirement in Korea often means “to retire from one’s primary work” rather than “retire entirely from work.” One example includes the “honorary retirement” plan that refers to the mutually agreed termination of an employment relationship before employees reach the mandatory retirement age of 60. Although somewhat controversial, the honorary retirement plan with additional benefits such as several months’ wages often leads to a career transition toward postretirement employment. Postretirement employment after voluntary retirement is a relatively new phenomenon in Korea, and has not yet been adequately studied.

Developmental-Contextual Approach

The field of career development has played an important role in addressing issues of career transitions and career construction. A major concept that has influenced career development for adults is work-to-work transition based on the life span development perspective (Vondracek & Porfeli, 2008). With stable and predictable career mobility typical of employees in organizations in the 20th century, career development for adults could be articulated with Super’s (1957; Super, Savickas, & Super, 1996) core concept of career maturity that determines the ability to make viable career decisions at any point in one’s life. This concept was useful in understanding the social structures that individuals adhered to in the second half of the 20th century, which rewarded employees for their investments in those structures (Watts, 1999). As a result of job proliferation, the social order offered individuals predetermined paths compatible with social norms and occupational careers (Savickas, 2000). Additionally, the rapid increase in the number of older workers and its consequences require a different articulation of career transitions, one that is interwoven with changing contexts. For example, the concept of a “protean” career offers a valid approach to reflect contemporary careers in which an individual manages his or her career in a proactive, self-directed way driven by personal values and the evaluation of career success based on subjective criteria (Hall, 2002). Because of the emphasis on individual agency over organizational structure as a basis for career development, the concept focuses on individual career actors’ emancipation from the constraints of traditional career. This new concept advocated initially individual adaptability and proactivity in changing circumstances (Inkson, 2006).

Despite the importance of understanding the heterogeneity among workers in career transitions shaped by contextual factors, little is known about how individuals experience their career transition processes within the realm of postretirement employment. The career transition research is mainly dependent on quantitative research, and the research participants tend to be young adults (Creed, Fallon, & Hood, 2009; Ferreira, Santos, Fonseca, & Haase, 2007). Few studies have employed qualitative methods to delve more deeply into the career transition process of older workers, particularly in multicultural contexts (Hartung, Porfeli, & Vondracek, 2005; Savickas, 2002, 2005). Research on retirement transitions mainly focuses on individual experiences whether the adaptation has been successful or not. There are several studies that examine retirement in terms of quality of life, satisfaction in postretirement, and adjustment to retirement (Kang, 2008; J. Kim & Song, 2009; N. Kim, Kim, & Jeong, 2007; Yang, 2012). However, none of the studies investigated how middle-aged adults have experienced reemployment after their voluntary retirement. In short, there are few insights into how retirees interpret their career changes and how they construct their careers and identify their future aspirations in conjunction with social changes and contexts, especially among workers in postretirement employment in a non-Western context.

Vondracek, Lerner, and Schulenberg (1986) explored career development and change by addressing the limit of a normative framework for career development in a step-driven approach. The developmental-contextual approach emphasizes the variability of the process at both the individual and contextual levels by determining that “people, by interacting with their changing context, provide a basis of their own development” (p. 77). The literature emphasizes the importance of the interactions that shape or affect people’s career development through factors such as the experiences of one’s parents (Hartung et al., 2005) and through learning from the media (W. Patton & Porfeli, 2007). Porfeli and Vondracek (2009) state that it is no longer considered adequate to correspond retirement to disengagement from work.

In the development-contextual approach, the term contextual affordance describes the manner in which “the environment differentially inhibits or encourages an individual’s capacities to capitalize on personal characteristics and translate them into career futures” (W. Patton & McMahon, 2006, p. 89). The continuous interplay between an individual and the context is a foundation of the development of an individual’s career construction. In addition to dynamic interaction, the important concept of embeddedness emphasizes the multiple levels at which individuals are situated, such as physical, psychological, and social contexts. Another significant aspect of the developmental-contextual approach is to acknowledge the temporal component in which individuals respond to contextual changes (Vondracek et al., 1986; Vondracek & Porfeli, 2008). This understanding provides a compelling integration to address the diverse features of career transitions and construction in a dynamic and rapidly changing world in which adults are interwoven within time, place, and contexts.

Every social setting arises “at the intersection of one or more actors engaging in one or more activities (behaviors) at a particular time in a specific place” (Lofland, Snow, Anderson, & Lofland, 2006, p. 121). These four components (actors, activities, time, and place) are operationally used in an attempt to understand and analyze Korean adults’ career transition experiences. The first component, actors, is Korean middle-aged workers in postretirement employment engaging in diverse work roles. The second component, activities, includes career construction in postretirement resulting from different career transitions and encounters. The component time indicates those adults’ interpretations of their experiences of careers in a continuum of past, present, and future. The final component, place, is Korea, which constitutes social and cultural practices within which individuals construct their meanings of life and self. Korean adults as individuals have endured rapid economic growth and political democratization during the period of compressed modernization entailing different historical moments in 20th-century Korea. The developmental-contextual approach provides a theoretical framework for examining the career development process in the Korean context. This study aimed to understand (a) the career transition process of Korean middle-aged professionals who have retired from their primary careers and are in their postretirement employment and (b) the role of learning in the transition process.

Method

A qualitative approach to collecting and analyzing data was deemed most appropriate for addressing the study questions. A qualitative study aims to understand “how people interpret their experiences, how they construct their worlds, [and] what meaning they attribute to their experiences” (Merriam & Simpson, 2000, p. 98). Drawing on the constructivist approach of viewing an individual’s way of making sense of the world as valid and worthy, the author paid attention to what analytic sense could be made of participants’ accounts and actions.

Participants

Three female and six male middle-aged workers (age 45-65 years) in postretirement employment were interviewed for this study. The age of the participants corresponds to middle age (45-65 years) in adult development literature (Bjorklund, 2011). The participants were purposefully sampled using a criterion-based selection process (LeCompte & Preissle, 1993; M. Q. Patton, 2002). Nominees were selected for participation based on the following criteria: They were (a) middle-aged workers (age 45-65) working in postretirement employment in professional positions in either private or public organizations after their retirement and (b) voluntary retirees from their primary career. Studying these educated professionals is a great place to investigate the postretirement employment phenomenon characteristic of significant subset of educated retirees who continues to work. To recruit participants, the author found initial informants through her personal networks in Korea. The author then asked those key informants to provide additional referrals. Using the participants’ personal contact information, such as an e-mail address or telephone number, the author provided the outline of the research by phone or e-mail or through face-to-face meetings to inform them about the purpose and procedures of the research. Table 1 summarizes the key characteristics of the nine participants in this study.

Table 1.

Participant Profiles.

Pseudonym	Gender	Age, years	Educational attainment	Primary career	Current career	Years in current career
Seungho	Male	55	PhD	Professor	Advisor to governmental institute	1
Hyunmin	Male	53	Pursuing PhD	High-level civil servant	Director of leadership center	3
Suji	Female	65	MEd	Educational civil servant	Congresswoman	5
Heejin	Female	57	PhD	Cofounder/director of nongovernmental organization	Professor	2
Sunghee	Female	53	BA	Civil servant	Calligraphy teacher	4
Jihoon	Male	48	BA	Fund manger	Restaurateur	5
Jangwoo	Male	54	MA	Engineer	Businessman	4
Dongil	Male	62	BA	CEO/vice governor	Advisor to a largecorporation	2
Jaeyoung	Male	63	PhD	Public relations specialist	Vice director of an opera company	3

Procedure

The design of the study was qualitative, using interviews as the primary method of data collection. The epistemological stance of a researcher shapes the whole process from the design of the study to the data collection and analysis (Crotty, 2003; Merriam, 2009; Roulston, 2010). The author saw interviewing as a process of producing knowledge through the interaction between the interviewer and interviewee, rather than discovering knowledge (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009).

Open-ended interview questions were developed based on the findings of a pilot interview and tailored to the research questions of this study. The participants were guaranteed anonymity and informed that the results would be published at a later date. Each participant signed a statement acknowledging this information. Each interview was conducted by the author for approximately 60 to 100 minutes, with a brief follow-up interview conducted around 2 weeks after the first one. Each interview was transcribed verbatim. The author collected and analyzed the data in Korean and translated those excerpts into English that contained meaningful information and interpretations for the study.

Data Analysis

The interviews were analyzed using the constructivist constant comparative method of grounded theory method proposed by Charmaz (2002, 2006, 2008). The constructivist grounded theory method focuses on placing data into “the context of the individual’s life, and the contextual aspects of the study and research problem with the setting, society, and historical moment” (Charmaz, 2002, p. 679). The full interview data were coded in three separate phases: (a) line-by-line coding, (b) focused and axial coding, and (c) theoretical coding. While coding, the author did memo writing as a conversation to promote new ideas and insights on the research. It provided a chance to revisit the data to examine luminal cues and nuanced statements.

Line-by-line coding named each line of the written data from the interviews using gerunds (usually words ending in “ing”). Studying the data through line-by-line coding facilitates looking at the data with new eyes in that the researcher’s preconceived notions on the data could be corrected (Charmaz, 2006). Each code was constantly compared to all other codes to identify similarities, differences, and general patterns. Focused coding involved decisions about which initial codes are most significant to categorize the data. In a similar vein, axial coding required closely examining the properties of categories by answering when, where, why, how, and in what consequences questions about the open and initial codes (Corbin & Strauss, 2008). In particular, by drawing on the ideas of Charmaz’s (2006, p. 62) axial coding, the author looked more closely at these aspects: (a) biographical and contexts of participants career transition, (b) social and experiential conditions affecting the transition, and (c) participants’ stated intentions of career transitions. Theoretical coding was an advanced level of coding used to integrate the codes constructed during the focused and axial coding that lead to conceptualizing how the substantive codes are related. By creating a coding family during the analysis process, the author found temporal and structural ordering and discovered participants’ strategies dealing with issues in their career transitions.

Findings

With regard to the first research question on the career transition process, data analysis revealed a four-stage process. With regard to the second study question, that of the role of learning, data analysis revealed that different modes of learning promoted career transition as individuals constructed a new role identity.

The Career Transition Process

Data analysis yielded a process of career transition that consists of four stages: (a) experiencing disequilibrium in a previous career, (b) reflecting on self and context, (c) making new professional connections and changes, and (d) committing to new careers.

Experiencing disequilibrium in a previous career

The first stage of the career transition process is experiencing disequilibrium in previous careers where individuals encountered unexpected events or situations. Encountering unplanned situations in the work environment facilitated the transitional processes of individuals because the challenges they faced exceeded their levels of tolerance. The participants recalled and told their experience about this disequilibrium derived from the organizational culture, task-related constraints, and relationships with colleagues. For example, Hyunmin who worked in the public sector with limited flexibility in initiating different projects said,

If I didn’t start something new, I didn’t get any inspections whatsoever . . . the inspectors always picked on these insignificant details because they had to leave a mark to prove that they did something. . . . I reached the point where I didn’t take any more risks by not starting anything new.

Under the constantly changing job environment, the individual felt powerless in dealing with the inflexible culture in the organization. Jihoon, a fund manager, endured task-related challenges, “Every day is like living on a rollercoaster for brokers. The continuing ups and downs are repetitive, and it just makes life itself unstable; it’s like living a life that’s almost like gambling.” In the words of another participant, Seungho, the reputation of his organization, the university, was important but he perceived it as slipping: “You know that feeling of the school going backwards and declining all over again that way. . . . I thought that perhaps the university is not worth as much as I would want to stay in it.” Relationships with colleagues were other factors that led to dissatisfaction and disequilibrium in their workplace. One participant, Heejin said,

I did all the work, but there were many seniors who would take credit for it and go public with that, too. I had this supervisor in my junior and senior years on the job. It’s like I built those people up to where they wanted to go, but those people used me and sucked out the juicy parts of my work. They ended up becoming a member of the national assembly, but didn’t really help me develop my career.

In sum, in the earliest stage of the career transition process, the participants indicated the conditions under which they worked, what they valued or did not value about the work, and what motivated them to think about leaving their stable or well-respected jobs. Their situations raised questions that planted the seeds of career transition in conjunction with certain themes to be discussed in the next section.

Reflecting on self and context

Reflection on self and context is the second stage of the transition process described by the participants. The experiences of disequilibrium were accompanied by their reflections on the self and situations before taking some actions to change or redirect their career paths. Every participant took part in a self-assessment and self-reflection process that provided a time to revisit their early dreams/life longings. This reflection on self is a situation-specific appraisal embedded in the workplace, peer group, or societal context. The participants described their appraisal process that had an impact on their second career construction and provided an opportunity to refigure their careers toward different areas.

Hyunmin’s appraisal process, while working on different tasks, reflected his desire for self-development. The job environment in the public sector did not challenge him or allow him to engage in new projects, and he assumed that the diverse challenges in the private sector would satisfy his unfulfilled desires. He said,

I went to the private firm, because I got tired of the public sector. But then I got tired of the private firm, because there was no self-development . . . As a person, I wasn’t growing more mature; rather, I had that feeling that I was letting time just pass by.

Seungho, who was a full professor at G University and currently an advisor of a governmental institute, had a 1-year sabbatical that provided time to reevaluate his career and life and resulted in his decision to leave the university. He said,

I wrote a lot. I think I get recognized anywhere I go. People are mostly surprised and wonder why I would give up at the height of my time . . . but I can say that I quit at my peak. I had a lot of desire and thoughts about living freely since I was young.

Heejin’s long career as cofounder of an nongovernmental organization was interspersed with intermittent new activities in the continuum of social movements that gave her time to reflect on her life. She wanted to move to an arena where she could help other people through women’s education. Heejin explained, “When I look at myself, I enjoy giving someone else the right care, coaching them, rather than setting myself out there . . . I found myself happy whenever I helped people grow and saw them achieve success.”

Making new professional connections and changes

Making new professional connections includes negotiating career options and experiencing alternative careers until the career transition is fully completed. Whereas self-reflection is a hidden process that does not require visible actions, making new professional connections and changes is an external and visible process that functions as an important bridgehead for second careers. However, not every professional connection leads to success or satisfaction. For some, making professional connections and changes provided the opportunity to enhance a sense of accomplishment, and for others, it increased the imperative to make a change to another career. There are three aspects to this stage of the process—moving vertically or laterally within the sector or organization, branching outside the organization but in the same career, and experiencing/participating in an alternative career.

Mobility within organizational dimensions

Three interviewees illustrated that their career transitions were characterized by several trials moving to different positions within the organizations. Hyunmin indicated, “I moved to the position, became a police officer . . . I can’t just let things like people spitting on the streets pass by. In other words, building a just society? Something like that, maybe.” A female interviewee, Suji, said, “I became the first women to be in charge of managing personnel for the Metropolitan Office of Education. Working overtime was the norm, but I was determined to experience everything I hadn’t before.” One participant, Dongil, rarely commented on challenges as the reasons for career changes; instead, he was eager to successfully accomplish difficult assignments, which required professional changes. Despite the differences among the three, their efforts to extend professional connections and roles were key precedents for their career transitions that provided them more chances to experience higher responsibilities.

Branching outside organizations

This subcategory, branching outside organizations, presents the participants’ mobility outside the organization before they reached full career transition. Three participants experienced new tasks by expanding their professional roles while they still maintained their own job titles. The goal of branching outside organizations was to explore alternative work that could promote job satisfaction or intellectual challenges. In the words of Heejin’s, “When I took a break from the women’s rights organization, I established a culture center in our town, taught women there; and it just went with what I liked doing . . . I felt good.” Seungho said,

Since I lived as a professor and did social (nongovernmental organization) work at the same time, I tried to keep things honest in my criticisms . . . I once got involved in progressive newspapers, too, but I just stopped going there altogether.

Yet, immediate satisfaction or disappointment outside their organizations did not cause them to change their jobs. After a certain amount of time, they went back to their primary jobs or the aspirations that they pursued.

Experiencing alternative careers

Whereas the category of branching outside the organization means that the participants still maintain their positions while experimenting with different career activities, the category of experiencing alternative careers includes a participant’s leaving an organization completely and taking a new position somewhere else. For example, Jihoon left his brokerage job and tried out brand-new careers, including developing a tool that assists with reading and working as a real estate agent. He explored new careers after leaving the brokerage before he became engaged with his current career. The experimentation, which he experienced in different occupations for 2 years, including being a real estate agent and patent developer, helped him completely lose his affinity with being a broker and lead him to find a new career. Sunghee joined the cultural center to learn calligraphy, which provided the opportunity to realize both her talent and her passion, and changed her career to be a calligraphy teacher. Jangwoo, a former engineer, pursued the possibility to own and run his own company because he experienced a disconnect between his ideal and actual experience coming from enduring a series of disillusioning events. The participants tried out different options and made new professional connections and changes, rather than biding their time for a perfect opportunity before pursuing another career. While constantly testing the fit between their work environment and personal aspirations, the participants explored and made changes in their professional context.

Committing to new careers

After a series of professional experiences, the participants transitioned from their primary careers to their postretirement employment. As mentioned earlier, all interviewees retired voluntarily and launched another career after retirement. The last stage of the transition process, committing to the new career, was not a onetime event. Their career paths consisted of different inputs and reactions to their organizational and individual contexts. It was a process in which they made different decisions, reaffirmations, and interpretations based on their interests, experiences, and lives. The participants shared their experiences of how they committed themselves to their new careers, involving the processes of integrating prior experiences and reaffirming their interests.

Integrating knowledge and experience

Three of the participants, Suji, Jangwoo, and Dongil, committed themselves to their current careers by seeking to integrate their knowledge and experience. In the words of Suji, “As one of the senior members in our society, I want to give back to the society as a guide, a senior, and a companion.” Jangwoo viewed himself as a frontier discovering a new sense of purpose in what he is doing and more personal reason for working towards social development. Dongil indicated, “It’s meaningful when I contribute through my work, using the experience I’ve accumulated in public positions and work in private firms. My ideal kind of work is the work where I can use my knowledge and experience.”

Reaffirming interest

The participants’ commitment to their new careers first comprised an important component of reaffirming interest. The series of professional experimentations were opportunities to confirm or reaffirm what they really wanted to do. In order to commit themselves to new careers, the participants sought to incorporate their professional and personal experiences with the interpretations on those experiences. A previous social activist said,

I’m teaching adults attending college right now. This is both by serendipity and destiny. I teach the normal, young undergraduates as well, but I find myself fonder of the adult students. I enjoy it and want to help because I can see that they are trying to study when their situation makes it hard for them to do so. I think this comes naturally to me. I think I’m just following my heart.

In the words of other participants, Hyunmin said, “I want to bring myself up, and now I have become more interested in helping other people grow as well. This is what I love to do,” and Jaeyoung said, “I’m making at least a part of that dream come true. I have a bigger interest in the music industry these days.” Two participants, Seungho, who became an advisor to a government institute, and Jihoon, a restaurant owner, indicated that their interests in their current positions were related to experiencing independence and autonomy in managing new tasks and to making their work experiences influential. They had a strong desire for independence and autonomy, mentioning the words “own system,” meaning they wanted control over their work life.

The Role of Learning in the Career Transition Process

The career transition process was also a learning process involving formal, nonformal, and informal modes of learning. Learning played a major role in initiating or promoting career transitions that provided the opportunities to test the appropriate ways to move forward or change directions in one’s career development. Hyunmin and Heejin initiated new learning opportunities at higher education institutions that allowed them to reflect on the current situation and prepare for the next career. Hyunmin said,

I studied economics for BA and public administration for master’s degree. After leaving the public service job, I have been studying education and still pursue my doctoral degree. Studying education opened another chapter of thinking about myself, my life, and humanity itself. The ongoing quest on a good life has been answered in some ways while I’m studying.

Heejin indicated,

I was interested in helping those women who did not go to college after they graduated high school . . . I wanted to learn the way of educating the women more systematically . . . Finding the right time to pursue my PhD was tough . . . but now I work for the women attending classes at night and working during the day. I feel so good because it’s very rewarding.

Jaeyoung, Jangwoo, and Sunghee talked about their nonformal learning experiences in and outside their work place. Jaeyoung and Jangwoo both participated in leadership training programs that expanded their perspectives on the work and ultimately on the understanding of their future career. In Sunghee’s case, she participated in learning calligraphy in her community and felt accomplished when she saw her skill improvement as she joined more often. She said, “Joining the calligraphy program changed my life and career as well . . . I won a prize at a calligraphy contest which gave a sense of achievement . . . I feel more alive with the students.”

In addition, participants reflected on their informal learning experiences during the career transition process, although they were not always conscious of it at the time. For example, Jaeyoung had a lifelong interest in music and actually engaged in informal learning related to music activities while working in a couple of organizations:

I’ve met so many different types of people in different types of relationships . . . Wherever I went, I tried to meet and talked with people loving music . . . What I’m doing now, the opera, is music. That’s what I wanted to do ever since I was a child.

His transition from an advisor to a company to a director of an opera company was a byproduct of his interests related to music. A freelance broker, Jihoon, indicated his informal learning experiences coming from his trials and errors in different occupations for two years that led him to find new career. He indicated,

As soon as I left the company, I was crazy about getting a patent for about 3 months. I kept on switching over days with nights as I focused on that, and I did get a patent. Then, I took my family to Youngjong Island, and I worked as a real estate agent. For about 2 years, you can’t forget those times working at the company. But when 3 years passed by, I totally forgot about life as a white-collar worker. I lost my touch and that vision or plans I held for my career . . . I decided not to go back to a workplace like a company.

In sum, learning began with the individual who encountered or initiated a learning experience in his or her social context during the career transition process. The participants integrated their experiences, reflections, thoughts, and actions in a recursive process that is responsive to the situation in which learning takes place. Learning experiences from actions, experimentations, and reflection offered a challenge or promising avenue that helped the participants envision their future career.

On the basis of the findings, the author proposes a contextual model of career transition as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1.

A contextual model of career transition.

Salient contextual and personal factors cause participants to appraise their current career situation. This appraisal leads to an exploratory phase during which participants make new connections or changes, accompanied by ongoing reflection on themselves and their context. This reflection results in committing to a second career.

Discussion and Implications for Practice

The purpose of the study was to identify the process and the learning involved in career transition for Korean middle-aged adults in their postretirement employment. This study only included the perspectives of participants who were white-collar professional and voluntary retirees from their primary careers in South Korea. Given the influence of geographical and cultural difference, the findings likely would have been different if the study had been conducted, for example, in the United States or in Korea with participants of different socioeconomic status. Following is the discussion of the findings and the implication for adults in career transition.

First, this study found that career transition and construction is a process shaped by an array of complex interacting factors. In this study, the career transition process consists of four different phases—(a) experiencing disequilibrium in a previous career, (b) reflecting on self and context, (c) making new professional connections and changes, and (d) committing to new career. None of the phases are linear processes that people follow in a lockstep manner; rather, each is an iterative process that requires disruptions at each step. The findings support the idea that adults construct their careers by continuously interpreting the self and the context within which they are interwoven (Collin & Young, 2000; Savickas, 2005). The participants were active, purposeful agents in dynamic interactions within a constantly changing environment. A developmental-contextual approach postulates the optimistic human potential and the ability of individuals to shape “their own development by selecting and shaping the contexts within which they operate and by making choices that optimizes their chances of living rewarding and successful lives” (Vondracek & Porfeli, 2008, p. 221). This statement does not guarantee that individuals are inherently optimistic and capable of building their careers in the way they design their lives. As shown in this study, there were many contextual factors that interrupt or facilitate their plans and desires, consequences that lead to unexpected changes, and interpretations that presumably function as platforms for adaptation or development.

Second, this study revealed that individuals imposed meanings on past and present experiences and future aspirations embedded in a transition process (Rossiter, 2009). The career transition from retirement to postretirement employment was not a onetime event that took place around the retirement point. The process obviously included different dynamics between the individual and organization and involved affirmation of their career choices. Based on the findings of the study and the literature, there was no doubt that the career did not simply unfold. It was a complex and dynamic process that individuals needed to adapt, detour from, or construct throughout their journey (Porfeli & Vondracek, 2009; Vondracek & Porfeli, 2008). Disruptions in career, self-reflections, different professional trials, and commitment to present careers were building blocks that comprised individuals’ career transitions and construction. As indicated in the present study, individuals first managed the hindering or facilitating factors by making professional connections and changes. They engaged in trial and error to extend their areas of work while maintaining their primary careers. The participants were then able to interpret their experiences and form future aspirations throughout their career transition process. They simply did not follow the flow of time but linked the thread between the “I” and the context through the iterative process, by placing “a new meaning on the world and events” (Jarvis, 2006, p. 17).

Third, the present study revealed that the transition toward postretirement employment involved the integration of their lifelong career journeys, experiences, and learning. The transition process required the individual to determine whether he or she is moving in, through, or out of the transition in conjunction with engaging in formal, nonformal, or informal learning. Pursuing learning activities such as attending graduate school, joining study programs, or experimenting with different tasks was pivotal in promoting the participants’ career transition. Learning from different experiences took place with attending to and reflection on the activities and, in turn, the reflective process involved a change in one’s perspective and behavior (Merriam, 2005). Taking stock of resources from the different types of learning experiences provided a way to identify potential resources for managing and promoting the transition. The participants learned from their learning experiences to recombine old and new skills, interests, and ways of thinking about oneself, and to create opportunities that corresponded to that evolving self (Ibarra, 2003). The individuals integrated learning experiences in a process reminiscent of Kolb’s learning cycle; that is, their learning involved experiencing, reflecting, thinking, and acting in an iterative process that is closely linked to a career transition (Kolb, Boyatzis, & Mainemelis, 2001). Findings from this study indicate that creating and transforming planned/unplanned events into opportunities for learning was crucial for the career transition process in which individuals make decisions about the future.

The findings suggest that career development practitioners and adult educators need to be familiar with the broader changes that take place in society to provide relevant career guidance for adults (Herr, 2001). Research has revealed that retirees often seek employment such as bridge employment, and want to work after retirement, doing either paid or unpaid work (Gobeski & Beehr, 2009; Schultz, 2003). Retirement is a uniquely modern phenomenon that has a relatively short institutionalized history and has become a natural phenomenon only in the last quarter of the 20th century (Goldberg, 2000). The definition of retirement has extended its boundaries due to workers’ continuous participation in the workforce in postretirement. In a world wherein different retirement features unfold, for this group of participants, contemporary retirement practices do not constitute simply receiving a pension benefit and seeking a part-time job or leisure activities. The findings of the study identified how contemporary retirement could take different forms, such as career transition, while individuals incorporate their experiences into future aspirations. Adult learners engaged in different learning opportunities that constitute several temporary exits from the work role throughout their career transition process. Preretirement workshops and training programs might be helpful to those considering retirement and postretirement careers entailing a number of moments of reflection. Learning was iterative in which they took action and responded to those actions that resulted in both transition and transformation.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

The qualitative data analysis presented here was conducted as part of my doctoral project. I am most grateful to all the participants who agreed to share their experiences. I also would like to thank Dr. Laura Bierema, Dr. Sharan Merriam, and Dr. Kathy Roulston for their kind support and feedback given during this study.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Author Biography

Seon-Joo Kim, PhD, is a senior researcher at the Korean University Evaluation Institute of the Korean Council for University Education in South Korea. Her research interests are career development, adult learning, educational gerontology, and internationalization in higher education.

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