Subjective Career Success: what is it and how can we get more of it?

Career Success is a good concept for us career practitioners to get our heads around. In particular I guess what's most important is the acknowledgement that what 'success' looks like will vary from one client to another and probably more important, our own conceptualisation will be different from those of our clients.The literature makes a distinction between objective and subjective success which I think is quite useful - objective being measured in terms of pay and promotion, and subjective in terms of your own assessment of your achievements.

Ng and Feldman have conducted a meta-analytic review (ie they've put the data from a large number of little studies through a single analysis) and have come up with some interesting findings about what factors are more likely to lead to subjective career success.

First they quite helpfully define subjective career success (SCS). They point out that it might be based on the same constructs as objective career success (pay and promotion), but the issue here is to what extent an individual believes that they have done well: two people earning the same salary might have quite different levels of SCS. In working out our SCS, we compare our current situation with a number of comparators including our personal aspirations, our past achievements, future goals and expectations and the achievements of others - co-workers, friends or family members. We compare particular aspects of our careers including interpersonal success, financial success hierarchical position and life success.

The meta-analysis found a whole range of factors which can help to contribute to SCS, including dispositional traits (in particular core self-evaluation), motivation (organisational commitment, work engagement), social networks (supervisor support - both general and career specific support) and organisational and job support (promotion organisation). But by a mile, the key factor was shown to be expectations. If an individual reports unmet expectations at work (and these could be in terms of their career overall, or within a particular role) they are significantly less likely to feel that they have done well.

The authors suggest that organisations should make a concerted effort to try and find out what employees want from their careers in order to see whether they can help ensure that expectations are met. Satisfied workers have been shown to work harder, be more productive, demonstrate more organisational commitment and have lower staff turnover, so the benefits are palpable for the organisation as well as the individual.

The paper makes a convincing read for those considering introducing career coaching within the workplace, which is great news.


Ng, T.W.H. and Feldman, D.C. (2014) Subjective Career Success: A meta-analytic review Journal of Vocational Behavior 85 169 - 179