Determining Career Resilience

The concept of resilience is receiving increasing interest in the field of career development. However, there is no consensus on the definition of career resilience, which considerably limits the scope of research on this topic. In this chapter, we start by considering the concept of resilience in the light of the living system framework (LSF; Ford, 1987). This first step allows us to propose an operational definition of career resilience as effective vocational functioning under disabling circumstances. Concrete way to study career resilience are suggested accordingly. Ethical challenges related with attempts to promote career resilience through counseling interventions are emphasized, as well as suggestions to foster career resilience perceived self-efficacy