The evolving nature of contemporary careers has sparked an interest in the sustainability of individual careers, which encompasses the pursuit of careers in a manner that promotes health, productivity, and overall happiness. Although previous studies have provided valuable perspectives on sustainable careers, there remains a notable lack of evidence regarding the interplay between individual and contextual determinants in crafting sustainable careers. Therefore, integrating the framework of sustainable careers with the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, this study proposes a serial indirect effect mechanism that examines the relationship between contextual determinants (i.e., work/family demands and resources) and career sustainability indicators (i.e., work-family balance, employability, work engagement, and work strain) sequentially through career crafting and person-career fit. A two-wave time-lagged survey was conducted with 412 employees from Turkey. Hierarchical regression analyses were performed to test the proposed model, while Process Macro analyses were conducted to examine the serial indirect effects. Results showed that contextual demands and resources were positively associated with career crafting and such career initiatives were related to optimized person-career fit and career sustainability indicators. Notably, contextual determinants were indirectly related to employability and work engagement serially via career crafting and person-career fit. Highlighting the importance of a whole-life perspective in career development, which involves work and family contexts, this study reveals the integral role of career proactivity and its interplay with contextual determinants in building sustainable careers.

BACKGROUND: Covid-19 has introduced many contextual changes into individuals’ work and family lives, affecting their career sustainability. Although previous studies have provided evidence for these changes, little is known about how changing contextual demands (de)motivated them to take proactive initiatives for crafting sustainable careers. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to explore how changing work and family demands of academic parents during Covid-19 affected their career sustainability indicators and career initiatives regarding health, happiness, and productivity. METHODS: Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 21 academic parents during the post-lockdown period of Covid-19 in Turkey. We analyzed the qualitative data by using content analysis via MAXQDA software. RESULTS: Results revealed differing career sustainability experiences and initiatives regarding gender roles, career stage, and work/family demands and resources. Notably, women academics with higher contextual demands and lower contextual resources and early-career academics reported relatively adverse experiences concerning their health, happiness, and productivity. Besides, even though early-career academics faced problems with sustaining their career development, they were relatively more oriented to engage in career initiatives, such as reorganizing developmental needs, improving career skills, and seeking career support and guidance. CONCLUSIONS: This study sheds light on the context, time, and person aspects of sustainable careers during Covid-19. Moreover, the study represents one of the first investigations into the proactive initiatives for crafting sustainable careers during the pandemic and provides a deeper insight into the (de)motivators for career proactivity.

This study aims to validate the Career Crafting Assessment (CCA) and examine its psychometric properties in the Turkish context. A quantitative research design was used to collect two-wave time-lagged survey data from 424 employees. Results confirmed the higher-order four-factor structure of the CCA. Further analyses showed that the CCA had significant positive correlations with the theoretically related constructs (i.e., protean career attitude, organizational career management, and job crafting), confirming convergent validity. Moreover, the CCA was positively related to the theoretically criterion-related constructs (i.e., career satisfaction, work engagement, and work meaningfulness), supporting criterion validity. The CCA was also indirectly related to these criterion-related constructs via person-career fit. The results corroborate previous research and suggest that the CCA is valid and reliable in the Turkish context.