Purpose: In this paper, the authors investigate and celebrate the contributions that qualitative research has made to Career Development International (CDI) and careers scholarship over the past 25 years. The authors highlight the positive impact of understanding the “lived/emic experiences” of individual career actors using qualitative research designs and identify areas for future research.Design/methodology/approach: The authors employ multiple approaches in their investigation. The authors’ enquiry is part conceptual, part critical analysis and part bibliometric visualisation of qualitative papers published in CDI.Findings: The authors identify the underlying ontological and epistemological assumptions of qualitative research, and the key tenets and contributions of qualitative research published in CDI. Their bibliometric analysis shows the interrelatedness and frequency of topics addressed by qualitative research and published in CDI, revealing areas for further research. While identifying some of the key criteria for rigor in qualitative research, the authors also engage with emerging calls to avoid rigid templates in how qualitative research is designed and implemented. In this regard, authors echo calls for “methodological bricolage” as an approach to qualitative research in the study of careers.Originality/value: This is the first bibliographic and visual analysis of qualitative research published in a single journal. The authors offer this investigation as a way of looking back and as an invitation looking forward, encouraging further qualitative research in anticipation of future theoretical developments in career scholarship.

Purpose: Research into self-initiated expatriation (SIE) has increased exponentially, although the focus of these investigations has been on professional workers, and little has been gender specific. The purpose of this research therefore is to explore the career and personal motivations for SIE through the novel lens of older women. In this exploratory study, SIE and socio-emotional selectivity motivation theories (SSTs) are used, in addition to the Kaleidoscope Career Model (KCM), to understand the reasons these women have taken this path.Design/methodology/approach: The paper employs a qualitative methodology, drawing on in-depth life story interviews with 21 women aged 50 or more who had taken a SIE. A five-step narrative process using a story-telling approach was the method of analysis.Findings: The findings show important contradictions to the extant literature. Career dissatisfaction and escape are key motivations for these women. Further, contrary to SST, these women were seeking novelty–new places and new experiences. These women were also seeking authenticity as suggested by KCM, but also challenge was to the fore–not in the career domain, but in the personal domain. Their motivations for SIE extend beyond the current evidence base and understanding of the phenomena.Originality/value: The contributions include new insights into the motivational drivers for SIE for these older women and the importance of timing as facilitators of SIE. The SIE nomenclature is broadened through the inclusion of older women and beyond professional spheres. An initial framework of a more integrated model is developed from this exploratory study and presented as a basis for beginning to understand the phenomenon of older women undertaking SIE.

The global mobility literature almost exclusively focuses on the traveller, neglecting the experiences of the family. This is particularly the situation with families who stay behind. Using the Job Resources-Demand Model, this study seeks to address this issue. We concentrate on the partners and children of professional sailors, in order to develop insight into how the stay behind family adjusts to the demands created by international travel. The findings enhance knowledge of the demands borne by those who stay behind, and the resources they utilise to manage their ever-evolving situation. The recurring departures and repetitive repatriations of the traveller create the greatest stress. In the absence of organisational support, the partners relied on extended family and empathetic friends. Contemporary digital communication technologies serve to buffer the demands and facilitate the re-integration of the traveller into the family home. The enduring absence of formal organisational support for globally mobile employees and their families has been attributed to a lack of understanding of the ramifications of this mobility, and in this study, respondents provide suggestions of support from the organisations that would assist in work–home balance.

Purpose: Contemporary global mobility and dual careers are two key features of working life today. Little is known, however, about where they intersect, where one partner travels for their career, while the other partner is left behind, caring for the family and attempting to manage their own career. The purpose of this paper is to explore how the partner’s career is impacted by the traveller’s absence, and the strategies employed to enable their continued career development. Design/methodology/approach: The paper employs a qualitative methodology, drawing on semi-structured interviews with the partners of international yachtsmen. Findings: The findings highlight the prioritisation of the traveller’s career, for reasons of finance and their passion for their career. The implications of this could be detrimental to the partner’s career. Personalised, flexible working arrangements are essential in order for the partner to achieve a sustainable career of their own. Research limitations/implications: The gendered nature of the sample provides an opportunity for further research examining the implications of the female being the traveller and the male the stay at home partner. Practical implications: The paper examines a range of alternative strategies for maintaining or developing the career when also faced with additional family responsibilities. Originality/value: This paper gives consideration to the career of the stay at home partner. A new dual-career strategy is identified – the entrepreneurial secondary career strategy, which has the potential to deliver the flexibility required to manage both work and family demands, and allow partners to enact their authentic career.

Purpose: This study explores the boundary management tactics that dual-career couples use to navigate the increasingly blurred lines between work and home life caused by hybrid working arrangements. Design/methodology/approach: We conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 32 individuals (16 dual-career heterosexual couples) to investigate the strategies employed, both individually and jointly, to manage work–home boundaries. This study extends beyond an individual-level analysis to consider boundary management as a couple-level experience. Findings: The study confirmed established boundary management tactics (i.e. temporal, physical, behavioural and communicative tactics) and identified a new category: psychological tactics. The efficacy of these boundary management tactics influences the collective work–nonwork and career outcomes for the couples involved. Research limitations/implications: This study focuses exclusively on dual-career heterosexual couples. Future studies should thus include more diverse couple configurations, cover a broader industry range and incorporate the perspectives of children in the household. Practical implications: We offer actionable recommendations for individuals, couples and employers to support sustainable and egalitarian hybrid working practices. Longitudinal research is also further required to examine how hybrid work affects dual-career couples in the long term. Originality/value: This study extends boundary management research by introducing a couple-level analysis. Conducted in the post-pandemic era, in which hybrid working is expected to continue reshaping the future of work, this study highlights the unique challenges that dual-career couples face in hybrid working contexts. It also extends existing work–nonwork and career literature by deepening our understanding of both general and gendered dynamics in hybrid working couples as they manage dual-career and family demands.