Changing Careers to Pursue a Calling: How People Make Career Pivots

Abstract

Management scholarship is rife with accounts of people pivoting from steady jobs and “good” careers into occupations they view as more personally and socially significant. However, existing organizational theory cannot explain how people make these career pivots. Through a longitudinal qualitative study of 69 individuals associated with When to Jump, a global community for people making career “jumps” to pursue their passions, this paper explores how people construct a “career pivot self-narrative”—an account for the unconventional career change to pursue a calling. Drawing on 201 interviews, conducted in three waves over 18-months, as well as archival and observational data gathered over 3.5 years, I found that individuals substantially revised their self-narratives over time, leading them to minimize their initial uncertainty about their callings, and ultimately downplaying the importance of playing with possible selves to find one. This study, which casts light on the real-time evolution of career pivot self-narratives as they are initially developed, subsequently revised, and eventually maintained, has theoretical implications for research on role transitions and callings. It also has practical implications for individuals seeking to change careers, who often look to others’ self-narratives as a source of guidance.