The Empirical Analysis of Career Metaphors for Successful Career Development

A career metaphor dominates a person’s thoughts and actions in an ever‐changing work place. According to Lakoff and Johnson(1980), a metaphor is latent in the person’s consciousness. Career development in the era of protean careers can be intensified by analyzing changes in metaphoric expressions of career. The use of a career metaphor can be a useful tool to measure current career situations and provide a guide to career development and management. The main purpose of this study is to formulate a practical classification for successful career development through the empirical analysis of career metaphors. This paper reviews career theories, classifies them into four phases based on conceptual changes of career development, and identifies fourteen career metaphors to reflect career situations. This paper also introduces criteria to categorize the metaphors for practical applications based on the capability of career development. This study used a case study method utilizing both quantitative and qualitative approaches The classification of career metaphors proposed in this paper can be a simple but useful tool in daily life for self‐diagnosis of career development.