A Study on the Effect of Career Shock Experienced in the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Level of Subjective Career Success Perception

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to identify the factors of shocking events in the career aspect experienced by Korean workers in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, and to find out whether these career shocks affect individual perceptions of the importance of subjective career success. Design/methodology/approach - In the survey of 146 respondents, the career shock events experienced in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic were largely divided into three categories; ‘work change’, ‘employment anxiety’, and ‘life anxiety’. For the subjective career success, seven dimensions - ‘financial security’, ‘financial achievement’, ‘entrepreneurship’, ‘positive relationship’, ‘positive impact’, ‘learning and development’, ‘work-life balance’ - were used. Findings - As a result, there was no difference in the perception of subjective career success due to the experience of ‘work change’ during the Covid-19 period. However, the respondents who experienced ‘employment anxiety’ came to recognize that ‘financial security’ and ‘financial achievement’ were more increasing in terms of the degree of difference of importance. And respondents who experienced ‘lifetime anxiety’ perceived that the degree of difference of importance was increasing in the six dimensions except for ‘social influence’. Particularly, the increase in the importance of ‘work-life balance’ and ‘positive relationship’ was found to be the greatest among the career success dimensions. Research implications or Originality - Finally, it was concluded that changes in the external environment such as Covid-19 pandemic influence as a career shock and affect the level of importance in subjective career success perception. Based on the results, the theoretical implication on current career study and some practical implications for organizational career management were suggested.