Investigating Young Academicians’ Perception of Career within their Career Progress

Abstract

In this study, the changes of young academicians’ perception about their career during the career progress were aimed to discover. In the study, in-depth interviews with nine academicians, who are in the initial steps of their career, were conducted. Findings state that young academicians ascribe meanings such as happiness, freedom, flexibility, and feelings like handling an important job to their career in the initial steps. However in the progressive steps they ascribe negative meanings to the career such as being imprisoned, being restricted, and being burned out. Therefore the perception of career becomes only a job after sometime. The research was carried as a pilot study. The findings need to be supported by more compherensive empirical studies.