Abstract

Background Planning a professional career as an important step of professional self-determination at the stage of entering adulthood can be considered as the projection of a life path by a person in the conditions of the transitivity of modern society.

Objective: to identify the personal factors of building a professional career by students during the period of entering adulthood. Tasks: 1) identifying the types of building a professional career; 2) identifying the features of motivation for professional development depending on the type of professional career; 3) analysis of the relationship between the type of professional career and the status of professional identity; 4) study of the relationship between the time perspective and the type of professional career; 5) study of the connection between life-meaning orientations as an indicator of the meaningfulness of life and the type of professional career.

Design. The sample of the study consisted of 167 students enrolled in universities in Moscow and Penza, aged 17 to 22. We used the author’s methodology of the questionnaire “Life plans – family and professional careers” (FPC); the questionnaire of the time perspective by F. Zimbardo; D. Marcia method of determining the status of identity in the profession (modified by V.R. Orestova and O.A. Karabanova); methodology of life-meaning orientations (D.A. Leontiev).

Results. The following 4 types of professional careers that are different in the nature of their motivation have been identified: “the conscious construction of a professional career in the unity with the individual's life plans”; “focus on a professional career”; “uncertainty of a professional career” and “uncertainty of professional choice”. It is shown that the type of professional career is associated with the status of a person's professional identity. The status of the achieved identity is consistent with the conscious construction of a professional career; the status of a pre-decision is consistent with a focus on a professional career; a moratorium is consistent with uncertainty in professional choice. It was found that high indicators of the meaningfulness of life are characteristic of the conscious building of a professional career and a focus on a career. The time perspective of the respondents who belong to the type of conscious construction of a professional career is distinguished by a more positive perception of the past and an aspiration to the future.

Conclusions. The relationship between the type of professional career and the status of identity is that the status of achieved identity corresponds to a mature type of professional career; pre-decision corresponds to the focus on a professional career, and a moratorium corresponds to uncertainty in professional choice. The type of professional career as a project of a life path determines the way a person reflects on the meaningfulness of life.